Flooring Basics: What’s Under Your Feet!

Wood floors are a beautiful addition to any home. Although it may be easy to think that the actual wood material is the only part of the floor, there are a number of other parts that allow your floors to provide you with the support you need. CMA Flooring in Carrollton, TX presents a brief guide to the layers of a hardwood floor, from bottom to top, and the important roles they play:

Subfloor

Beneath any kind of flooring is a structural subfloor. This is a layer that serves as the structural foundation for a floor. In places like basements, the subfloor is often concrete. In higher stories and homes with crawl spaces, the subfloor is most often plywood. Subfloors create the ability to bear weight on the floor. Because most flooring types fit together like a puzzle, they are often not in a configuration where they can hold heavy items like pianos or sofas without an under-structure.

Underlayment

Beneath a floor there is usually some form of underlayment layer. This can serve several different functions. For concrete floors or moist areas, it can be a vapor barrier that prevents water from wicking up into the wood. It can be an insulating layer to help make the home more energy efficient, or it can have a noise-muffling component, particularly in apartments. It can also have heating cools to provide radiant floor heating. There are several combination underlayments that can provide two or more of these functions at once.

Floorboards

This layer is the layer that people think of when they see a hardwood floor in Carrollton. Wood floors can be hardwood, which is milled logs in their natural state, Engineered hardwood which has a plywood body with a hardwood layer on top, or laminate, which is a body of high density fiber with a wood graphic on top.

Finish

The final part of a wood floor is the finish. Laminate, engineered flooring and some hardwoods come pre-finished, and don’t require a top coat of finish to protect them. Other hardwood floors require a water or oil-based finish to be applied every few years for protection. 

Thinking about installing a hardwood floor in your home? Reach out to the flooring specialists at CMA Flooring. We are located in Carrollton, TX and have a wide range of hardwood options from some of the industry’s top brands. So whether you’re looking for exotic wood floors or wire brushed hardwoods, we invite you to visit our showroom or call us at 972-418-6606 for a free in-home consultation.