Inside Look: Apex Wood Floors Team  Member Visits Pennsylvania Mill

Matt Bechtel, sales/design consultant with Apex Wood Floors whose comments on Rift & Quartered Character White Oak you will read in just a moment, reflected on his recent visit to a Pennsylvania mill.

“It’s remarkable to see the process of lumber going from a standing tree to a piece of finished product. Every piece of the tree is used along this process to eliminate waste. For example, saw dust is used to fire up kilns instead of using other chemicals. Apex is proud to be associated with such responsible professionals.”

For questions about our green milling process, please contact any one of our knowledgeable sales associates for further information at 630-963-9322.

Rift & Quartered Character White Oak Wide-Plank Flooring

There’s a reason why the world’s finest wine and scotch distilleries use white oak for their barrels. White oak is naturally harder than red oak and thus more stable, and it reacts to moisture less severely than red oak does. Visually, the quarter-sawn figure in white oak is very powerful.

According to Matt Bechtel, sales/design consultant with Apex Wood Floors for 11 years, the “flecking” or “flash” as it’s referred to, is much more visible in quarter-sawn white oak wood.

“This type of wood is what’s traditionally been used for arts & crafts-style and mission-style furniture,” said Bechtel. “Furniture designers usually find that quarter-sawn white oak’s aesthetic appearance is more attractive than red oak, which is why it’s a popular choice for the artisans who are creating furniture to last a lifetime.”

Bechtel’s role at Apex Wood Floors has him in constant communication with homeowners who want to make a statement with their flooring.

“When I first sit down and listen to what homeowners want in their wide-plank flooring, almost everyone says beauty and stability,” continued Bechtel. “A Rift & Quartered Character White Oak floor by Apex has exactly those two qualities, and so much more.”

Bechtel outlines several reasons that make Rift & Quartered Character White Oak flooring the best choice for many Chicago-area homeowners:

Stability: A quarter-sawn floor is harder than a plain-sawn floor, which means the homeowner is getting the most stable floor out of the oak species. This type of flooring can handle dents and busy traffic better than most other types.

A Rift & Quartered Character White Oak wide-plank floor will expand and contract in a more vertical orientation rather than in a horizontal orientation. This is especially important in installations where moisture or radiant heat may be issues.

“Wide boards want to move; it’s part of their characteristics. With a Rift & Quartered White Oak floor, gapping is very minimal, making it one of the top reasons people choose this type of white oak,” said Bechtel.

“Because Rift & Quartered Character White Oak flooring reacts less severely to moisture than a plain-sawn floor does, this becomes a critical advantage. As a result, gapping between the boards is far less of a concern,” he said.

For example, all boards will shrink in the winter and expand in the summer. With a Rift & Quartered Character White Oak floor, you don’t have to worry about any boards shifting position. Why? Because these boards will not expand their widths, but rather will get thicker, meaning that they will grow in height instead of width. No gaps will develop; the board will get taller and shorter instead of wider and narrower as the seasons change. This type of expansion and contraction is virtually unnoticeable.

Design Style: Wide-plank – or “big board flooring” as it’s sometimes referred to – can go anywhere in the home since it looks great with contemporary or traditional architecture and furnishings. If your taste is eclectic, this floor is for you.

Rift & Quartered Character White Oak flooring is great for family rooms, great rooms or large kitchens. It’s ideal for spacious areas. When people think of “French Country”, this is the type of wood to which they are referring. It’s the various cuts of the white oak that make it so appealing.

Color: Rift & Quartered Character White Oak flooring presents an expansive color range that is highly customizable with a great degree of control of color. It can be made to look antique or modern, depending on the style of your home. This type of floor is almost always stained on-site to ensure the color is perfect and complementary to every homeowners’ interior space.

Generally speaking, white oak is cooler in color versus red oak. When white oak is stained darker, the quarter-sawn figure becomes extremely pronounced -- similar to what you would see in mission-style and arts & crafts-style furniture (think early 20th century).

Character Grade: What makes each Rift & Quartered Character White Oak floor unique begins with the method in which it is cut. The grain is vertical instead of horizontal, which is a result of a milling technique that’s used on a 90-degree difference in orientation. For example, the floor will have knots, but the knots are not oriented like most people are used to seeing them. Instead, it’s as though you’re viewing a knot from a side view, so it doesn’t look like a hole, but rather is more similar to elongated figuring. Just with any Apex floor, the client has the choice to fill or not fill the knots. This floor can be hand-crafted or machine-sanded.

Size: The average size board width starts at 4” wide and is available up to 8” wide in standard milling. The average size board length starts at 6’ and goes up to 12' - 13’, though they are available in standard lengths of approximately 1’ - 8’.

Origin: Every Rift & Quartered Character White Oak floor by Apex (as well as our other floors) is procured through properly managed forestry. They are Northern-grown, superior trees, which speak to their outstanding strength (i.e.: they have to survive harsh winters).

Pricing: Rift & Quartered Character White Oak flooring by Apex Wood Floors is affordable. Please contact our showroom to discuss its capabilities and pricing.

To find out more about Apex Wood Floors, please visit our Web site: www.apexwoodfloors.com or call 630-963-9322.

Best wishes,

John Lessick
President
Apex Wood Floors

About Apex Wood Floors

Based in Downers Grove, IL, the award-winning team at Apex Wood Floors has been providing customized hardwood floors to clients in the Midwest and across America since 1982. Apex uses its own highly trained craftsmen to provide unparalleled excellence to flooring projects that include wide plank, handcrafted floors, exotic species, patterns and design work. The company custom fabricates its own handcrafted and distressed plank flooring in several finishes and styles spanning the interior design spectrum.

Apex works with designers, architects and their clients to provide a floor that will satisfy even the most discriminating clients. Every project provides longevity of beauty and character to any setting as they continually mature. In addition to an extensive selection of premium domestic and exotic wood species, Apex offers three destination flooring styles: Renaissance wide plank, Designer patterns and inlays and Select premium and exotic hardwoods.

Apex provides complete design and installation services, including the removal of existing flooring, disposal of waste, and layout and finishing of new wood floors.