For years, hardwood has been the defining element in floor decoration.  At Arcade Floors Carpet One in Towson MD, we offer the full range of species including oak, maple, hickory, pine, Brazilian cherry, pecan, and bamboo, just to name a few. Our showroom is minutes off the Baltimore Maryland Beltway so make sure to stop by to browse our selection.  

Styles are no longer limited to the 2 ¼” strip flooring of the ‘40’s, ‘50’s, and ‘60’s.  Today they are unlimited.  Planks are 3”, 5”, 7” and even up to 8” wide.  There are smooth traditional looks, distressed looks, and handscraped looks that offer a warm old feel about them.  Gone, too is the same look that everyone else has.  Today’s stains are unlimited and even available in custom colors.

With today’s finishes, the need to sand and refinish is almost a chore of the past.  Prefinished Hardwood floors will have between 3 and 10 coats of urethane finish that will be UV dried between each coat to provide incredible hardness.  Aluminum oxide is added to the urethane to make our finishes highly resistant to scratching.  Properly maintained, today’s hardwood floors only need an occasional screening with a nylon pad and top coated. 

In recent years, Engineered Hardwood Flooring has become the choice of many households.  In fact, it is only here in the Northeast United States that solid hardwood is still dominant but losing share to Engineered every year.  Engineered Hardwood consists of 3 to 7 layers of hardwood.  Each layer runs perpendicular to the layer above and below it.  This layering process gives the product great strength and excellent dimensional stability.  Consequently, Engineered Hardwood can be installed where solid cannot…on or even below grade level.  

We need to take the environment seriously.  Arcade Floors Carpet One offers a full contingent of earth friendly hardwood products.  Lyptus is grown in South America in special forests designed to produce quickly renewable wood for hardwood floors.   Bamboo is no longer just available in the natural vertical or horizontal cuts, but is now in a large variety of stains.  And…it’s no longer your father’s cork.  Today’s cork has looks never imagined and all the colors to go along with them.

Invincible™ Hardwood flooring is manufactured by Armstrong exclusively for Carpet One. You can count on the highest levels of Quality, Better Wear, and Unbeatable Performance at and Outstanding Everyday Value. PlankPerfect™ guarantees perfect floors every time. Invincible™ Hardwood features state-of-the-art precision production which guarantees uniformly straight and sanded planks. Tru-Grain™ provides a whole new level of visual clarity. Our exclusive customized Tru-Grain™ sealant visually enhances the actual color, detailing, and grain of the natural wood.

Invincible's Intensity SurfaceShield™…Simply put, it is the most durable finish in the industry offering the strongest resistance to scratches, scuffs, and wear!

Invincible™ Hardwood is produced by American Craftsmen

The Titanium Series offers the ultimate level of performance and protection.

Rustic River Hardwood is Carpet One's collection of high character hardwood floors. This inspired collection boasts the richness and warmth of seasoned hardwood. Featuring bold textures, traditional colors, and intriguing styling, each carefully crafted plank expresses a personality of its own. It is the perfect companion to our high performance collection… Invincible Hardwood.

Rustic River floors are available in Engineered styles and Solids. Both collections feature Gold and Platinum warranted products. There is a broad assortment of species such as Oak, Maple, Hickory, Ash, and Walnut. The variety of texturing and widths in this collection is expansive.

Over the years, Carpet One has striven to make the purchase of floor covering easier for our customers. And so they have done one again with Rustic River. To our knowledge, Rustic River is the only hardwood collection with a style Rating System. Each sample has a three part rating to help with your selection:

• Shade Variation - a low-high rating that defines the overall color consistency in the product. The variation may occur from one board to another or within a single board.
• Scrape Level - describes the amount and depth of the texture and scraping shown in a particular style.
• Total Character Rating - a rating from 1-10 that combines the scrape level and the shade variation ratings to measure the overall character of each style.

Keep in mind that Rustic River styles are "Hand-Scraped" so that each an every plank has its own distinctive look. Machine scraped hardwoods tend to lose that unique look because of repeating textures. Rustic River styles are made in the U.S.A. by American Craftsmen so their purchase supports our economy.

You can have confidence in Rustic River too!. Since all products are Gold or Platinum warranted, they have up to 30 years of protection on finish, wear, manufacturing defects, structural
integrity.

American Expressions is another exclusive collection made for Carpet One.  It features Handcrafted Beauty, Rich Tones, and Superior Finishes.  Expertly milled by American Craftsmen, the American Expressions Collection has stunning Classic Styling.  Once again, keeping Mother Earth in mind, it is harvested from domestic managed forests.

You don’t have to be a Vanderbilt to live like one!  Anderson Hardwood Floors, one of America’s premier hardwood floor manufacturers, manufactures Carpet One’s Exclusive Biltmore Collection. These are floors that are inspired by the beautiful woods used in the prestigious Biltmore Mansion in Asheville, North Carolina.

Quality to be enjoyed.  Classic Styling and Expertly Crafted. 
Enduring Value at Beautiful Prices.

Arcade Floors Carpet One’s commitment to Green Products is shown by the U.S. Floors display right in the middle of our hardwood department.  U.S. Floors is a manufacturer of Unique and Sustainable Floors.  Bamboo Floors from traditional styles and natural colors to unique offerings in a wide variety of stains.  Cork floors direct from the 1940’s to unusual styles and colors you have never seen before.  Many of these products are snap together, ready to install right out of the box.

Lyptus Hardwood flooring is an excellent choice for beauty, performance, and taking care of the earth.  Eucalyptus trees are planted on plantations in South America and carefully managed so the trees grow straight and tall.  They can be harvested in 14-16 years after planting.  100% of the tree is put to good use.  Lyptus Hardwood is available in both solid and engineered.  Solids are come 2 ¼”, 3” and 4”.  Engineered, 3 ¼” and 5”.  Lyptus Hardwood is manufactured by Weyerhaeuser, a 100-year old American company.

Hardwood Construction

Hardwood Floors are available in two constructions…  Solid and Engineered.  Usually solid hardwood flooring comes in ¾” thickness but there is some in 9/16”, ½”, and 3/8”.  The standard width is 2 ¼”.  which is called strip.  Boards 3” to 7” wide are called plank.  Because of its thickness, solid hardwood also adds some structural strength.  Solid has its limitations.   It must be installed above grade level.  It must be installed perpendicular to the floor joists so direction is not a choice.

Engineered Hardwood consists of 3 or more layers of hardwood that are glued together.  Each layer runs the opposite direction of the layers above and below it. The top layer is the species of the product. The other layers may be oak or poplar.  The advantages of Engineered Hardwood are many.  The layering gives great dimensional stability meaning less movement from expansion and contraction.  It can be installed on all grade levels, even in basements.  It can be installed as a floating floor, stapled, or glued.  It can be installed in the direction most pleasing to the homeowner.

What is a “floating floor”?

In the beginning, the term “floating floor” referred to laminate floors that were imported from Europe in the early 1990’s.  Today, many types of flooring can be floated…laminate, hardwood, bamboo, cork, linoleum.  What it means is that the flooring product is not attached by nails, staples, or glue to the subfloor. Instead, the flooring product floats on a layer of cushion about 1/8” off the subfloor.  The flooring product boards, planks, or panels are connected to one another either by a snap and lock fit or glue, creating a monolithic floor.

Since the floor is monolithic, it expands and contracts as a unit.  It does not possess the space between the boards, planks, or panels to absorb the expansion so it is critical that adequate space is left around the perimeter of the floor to allow for this expansion.  This space is hidden by the use of shoe molding.  It is important that no nails are driven through a floating floor and that nothing restricts its ability to move.

Properly installed, a floating floor will give years and years of trouble free service.  Its only disadvantage is that it can be noisier to walk on than floors that a secured to the subfloor.  This noise can be greatly minimized by the use of a good quality sound reducing cushion.

Protecting your investment

With a little care, your hardwood floor can give you years of enjoyment.  Following this list of “Do’s” and “Don’t’s” will go a long way to insuring that.

DO:

• Vacuum or Sweep daily to remove surface soil that can cause scratching when you walk on it.
• Remove spills quickly using a soft cloth
• Use Floor Protectors with felt pads on your chairs and tables.  Change pads frequently because they collect grit and act like sandpaper to your hardwood floor.
• Use plywood or masonite sheets to move appliances and heavy items over a hardwood floor.
• Remove spiked or stiletto high heels before walking on hardwood floors.  The pressure per square inch is so great from these, they can indent steel.
• Protect your floor from direct sunlight.  UV ray accelerate oxidation and aging of hardwood floors.
• Use walk off mats at outside doors to collect soil and grit
• Clean and protect your hardwood floors regularly with the appropriate Resista Floor Care Products

DON’T:

• Use water on a hardwood floor
• Use a Swifter Wet Jet, steamers, or sponge mops on your hardwood floor.
• Lean back on a chair.  It greatly increases the pressure and may result in an indentation
• Use any of the following items on your hardwood floor…
      Oil Soap
      Paste Wax
      Cleaners that contain:
              Lemon Oil
              Tung Oil
              Ammonia
              Detergents
              Bleach
              Abrasives
              Acids such as vinegar

These can dull the finish and permanently damage your floor.

Carpet One Hardwood Warranties

120 day beautiful guarantee 30 year wear warranty Life of the floor installation warranty	90 day beautiful guarantee 25 year wear warranty Life of the floor installation warranty
60 day beautiful guarantee 20 year wear warranty Life of the floor installation warranty	30 day customer satisfaction warranty (materials replacement) 15 year wear warranty Life of the floor installation warranty
15 day customer satisfaction warranty -- (materials replacement) 10 year wear warranty Life of the floor installation warranty