Hardwood Floors June/July 2019

AT THE SITE

All About Stain Reactive Flooring

Hardwood flooring industry trends of late continue to reveal that more and more designers and homeowners are looking for new, creative, and eco-friendly ways to incorporate the natural beauty of wood flooring into their design concepts and homes. Fortunately, recent developments in manufacturing technology are meeting this demand with new, advanced coloration technology of stain reactive (also known as chemical reactive) wood floors. This rapidly growing niche of prefinished engineered hardwood flooring offers the stunning aesthetics of “OldWorld,” aged, and antique-looking wood through a process more efficient and eco-friendly than the traditional industry methods that have been used to achieve this end. The result? Flooring that’s visually dynamic, affordable, and built to last a lifetime.

To understand how chemical reactive technology is changing the way consumers think about hardwood floors, an understanding of the organic process by which wood creates its widely popular antique look would be a prudent place to start.

THE ORGANIC AGING PROCESS OF WOOD

All living things eventually age, and trees are no exception. While we humans may attribute how quickly one grows old to things like genetics, lifestyle, and life stressors, the primary culprit behind what makes wood age is a naturally occurring substance found in most trees called tannic acid. Tannic acid is a complex chemical substance that plays a pivotal role in the overall health of the tree. Not to get too scientific here, but tannins are classified as phenolic compounds. They can be found in many different plants across the globe. In trees specifically, the primary objective of tannin is to provide protection from bacteria, fungi infections, and insects. Effectively, they are large molecules that bind

Photos courtesy of Lee Hurst.

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