Infloormation

Safaris, exotic animals, white tents and tea in the afternoon. Where are you? Why in Africa of course. What on earth does Africa have to do with flooring? At Pierce we are happy to present our product of the week: the Armstrong Global Exotics Hard Wood collection.

Rich, inviting hardwood floors are not only beautiful to live with, they’re easy to care for as well. Plus, today, hardwood types, options and applications are more diverse and delightful than ever.

The Global Exotics line is no exception. With names like African Mahogany, Tigerwood Natural and Lapacho, Global Exotics hardwoods are distinguished by their origin, color and sophisticated grain.

This line of hardwood will give any room in your home an elegant look. Designed to be durable, this flooring line will not only add an aura of sophistication but will also add quality and value to your home. From soft and subtle colors to vibrant and dark tones, you will find the perfect option for whatever your decorating style.

View the product catalog and rooms featuring  Global Exotics floors.

Pierce is proud to offer this line of flooring as the Armstrong brand is known and trusted for reliable quality, and an expansive offering of colors and designs to meet the personal style of all customers.

Once you browse the on-line catalog, please contact us to make an appointment for an in-home estimate.

Wood finishes are getting lighter, did you know? Then isn’t it opportune that we have a light colored wood as one of our in-stock specials. Visit our website to see the Blue Sky Ash hardwood that is on sale for $4.99 a square foot.

Why hardwood, you ask? The elegant look of a hardwood floor can add warmth and character to any room. In fact, the natural characteristics of wood add depth and a visual appearance that many other types of floors can only try to duplicate.

Rich, inviting hardwood floors are not only beautiful to live with, they’re easy to care for, and can add value to your home at resale time.

Not sure about light colored floors. No worries. Check out these rooms from our Virtual Room Designer feature on our website.

Or look at this.

Have questions? Please contact us. We are here to help you figure out the best hardwood alternative for your home.

Some of us love to read and some of us don’t. That’s why we have videos on the website that go over everything you need to know – everything you should know about carpet, natural stone, ceramic tile, wood and laminate before you purchase anything. If you have questions about maintenance, we’ve got that covered too.

So for those of you who love watching instead of reading – here you go:

Carpet

Hardwood

Ceramic

Stone

Laminate

Vinyl

Just another way we try and make your life a little less complicated.

In this room, you notice the flooring before anything else. That’s because the room was designed around this dramatic wood choice. Have you considered a vivid wood floor such as this one? Let’s take a look at why this room works so well.

The floor itself has strong variations in color and tone. The darkest shades match the ebony-toned furniture, and the lightest resemble unstained maple. In between, reds, browns and gold play a role. The pattern of color and wood length is completely random although balanced. This floor almost feels like an abstract painting.

With this dramatic a floor, the choice of ebony for the furniture shows design smarts. It’s never a good idea to have various elements in a room fighting for attention. The straightforward dark tones allow the furniture to hold their own in a completely different way from the flooring. Together, they create an impact that neither would be able to produce alone.

Thick chair cushions in a strong red hue pull the flooring tones up toward the table. Red is the most noticeable color in the flooring, and the cushions demonstrate that. Several of the accessories also accent red and the accessory choices are simple, a wise decision given the strength of the color palette in this room.

Finally, choosing ivory walls and white baseboards keep the attention toward the middle of the room, particularly smart as this space is part of an open home design. One possible improvement would be to add two-inch wood blinds that match the furniture with floor-length curtains that emphasize the same red as the curtains.

Dining rooms can handle this level of drama. Why not be daring and let your space show a personality to match this amazing floor?

We may dream of having wood flooring and furniture that has the look of an older time, but most of us would not trade the comforts and conveniences of today’s homes for a space like this. However, we can appreciate the rich variety of wood and the charm that this room offers.

Let’s start with the most beautiful and useful element – the table. This is a multi-use piece of furniture. It probably worked as a counter for food preparation, as the family dinner table, and for any other purpose we would use a table or desk today. The wood has a patina earned over the years with much use and good care.

Kitchens in the past often consisted of the family table, the hearth or a cast iron stove, and a hutch like the one on the back wall to hold supplies and kitchen tools. The blue shelves are the only painted wood in the room. This particular color came from a product known as milk paint. People would buy a tinted powder and mix it with milk to create a thin paint. Colors were limited and coverage was not good, but it provided a nice change from wood. Notice that the paint matches the enameled metal pot on the table. That was about as good as kitchen décor got at that time.

Some of the wood surfaces are reproduced for homes today. The hand-scraped walls have a feel similar to the hand-scraped flooring currently available. The light pine on the back wall matches light pine or maple flooring you can have today.

We may not want to live like this, but consider adding some similar elements to warm up your home and capture some of the charm of the past.

Choosing our favorites from Anderson Flooring is a tough job!  Their current hardwood flooring collections include Anderson, Appalachian, Virginia Vintage and Brevard. Each collection has a range of styles and woods, including oak, American cherry, walnut and pecan.  There are a variety of plank widths to chose from, ranging all the way to 8” in the Brevard collection.  And the collections feature the Anderson Luster Lock® Ultra finish that is up to 6X more resistant to scuffs and abrasion. So whatever flooring collection you choose from, you know you’ll get Anderson’s quality.  Here are some of our favorites from each collection.

We couldn’t choose just one style in the Anderson collection so we picked two as our favorites.  The Vineyard™ Collection has wide planks with lots of character. We love the light colored Chablis. Sand Dollar, a silvery colored oak from the Coastal Art™ suite, is gorgeous.

The Shenandoah style group from the Appalachian Collection is available in  beveled edged 4” planks. We love the dark stained solid oak in Fiddlers Run.

Virginia Vintage is the original engineered hand-scraped flooring from Anderson. The wide 5” plank American Cherry in Fumed Cherry finish is a beautiful dark floor.

The Brevard™ collection combines enCore™, an environmentally-friendly core that uses 50% less timber to produce, and a Luster Lock® Ultra finish with a subtly-sculpted surface.  Great value, too.  We like Millstone, a maple with a cool, almost limed finish.

If you are looking for a solid hardwood or engineered wood, dark or light stain, you’ll be sure to find it in one of Anderson’s flooring collections at Pierce Flooring.

It’s exciting to move into your own home. Once you close, take the time to think about what you want that home to look and feel like before you move into it.

Do you want to replace flooring, put in window treatments or paint? If you have the time and the budget, you’re going to be better off getting those things taken care of before your moving date.

This couple already has a beautiful ebony wood floor. What kind of flooring do you want? If you’re replacing carpeting, it can really create a lot of dust when it’s removed. You’re better off having that cleaned up before your furniture is in your house. It’s also easier to install flooring before your move.

Window treatments eliminate the need for that tasteful sheet look when you first move in. Installing your window treatments also helps you define the right paint colors for your home. With these three elements in place, your home will feel like it belongs to you even before you move your furniture into place.

Before your moving date, take the time to measure your rooms and make a plan for furniture location. Even though you may make changes later, having an initial plan helps keep the move smooth and efficient. Label your boxes with the appropriate room also to reduce the headaches of unpacking.

Once you’re settled, consider taking some time before adding any furniture or hanging pictures. Your home will become more familiar and this will help you make the right decisions to finish your unique space.

The sophistication and style of this room stands out so that it takes more than a moment to realize that this is actually a basement space.

One reason for the high-end feel of the room is the dramatic staircase. The homeowners removed the standard stairwell and walls to create an inviting entry to their ground-floor space. However, other than this change, the rest of the room was redesigned on a tight budget. Let’s take a look at how this was done.

First, the flooring enhances the space but is less expensive than many other options. By choosing solid surface commercial-style flooring, costs were kept low and maintenance is easy. However, the high gloss turns the flooring into a strong and positive design element. First, the shiny floor mirrors the stairway above it, almost creating a sense of artwork in the reflection. The darker trim around the wall makes the floor feel almost like an area rug and adds another nice design element to compensate for the minimal use of furniture.

The wall of contemporary artwork uses simple prints matted in a number of matching store-bought frames. The layout turns this low-cost choice into another inviting and contemporary design element in the room.

There is an interesting conversation area defined by a zebra throw rug ringed by a white sofa and loveseat. Coffee table and accessories are simple but dramatic and stay with the black and white theme. Bright white walls also create a sense of light in this basement space.

With this much personality and daring, it’s easy to look past its basement origins to recognize this space as an intriguing addition to any contemporary home.

Since we are all starting to get conscious about how to help save our environment, bamboo is starting to become an emerging trend in flooring. The reason why bamboo is considered one of the most environment friendly materials is because it grows back so easily and does not need as many pesticides as the other types of wood.  Let us take a look at the many faces of bamboo.

To start with, bamboo flooring is not really hardwood, although it may really look like it. Bamboo is actually a woody grass that is broken into smaller strands of fiber and then cleaned through a process that is similar to paper making. Then the fibers are recombined to form boards that are made to interlock with each other to provide easier installation.

There actually are several different types of bamboo flooring. The first type is the natural bamboo, which retains its grass-like, flaxen color. The second type is the carbonized or heated bamboo. This gives the material a darker color like dark red, brown or sometimes a light honey color. When it comes to bamboo boards, it can either be created with vertical or horizontal fibers. They are sometimes woven into strands to make it stronger and more durable.

Yes, sadly, stiletto shoes can damage a laminate floor. But don’t get weepy. There is a way to keep those laminate floors looking beautiful. Step number one is to remember to take off your fav manolos at the door.

First things first, dirt is your enemy. Your laminate floors should be swept, dust mopped or vacuumed (no beater bars please) often. Hey, that’s why you had those kids, right?

A light damp mopping is also recommended. Be sure to dry your floors after you mop as excessive water can cause your floor to expand.

The best way to prevent dirt from being tracked across your floors in the first place is to place mats at each entrance to your home. Make sure you shake them out regularly.

Place floor protectors on the bottom of your furniture and for goodness sake, don’t slide furniture across your floors. Carry it!

And here are the list of don’ts:

• Don’t flood your floor with water.
• Don’t wax or polish your floor.
• Don’t try to sand or refinish your floor.

Don’t use abrasive cleaners, scouring pads or steel wool on your floor. Spot cleaning is fine. Just ask your sales representative which products are best. And don’t use mop and shine products either.

One of the great advantages to having a laminate floor is that they don’t fade from sunlight and UV rays like traditional hard word floors. If you find that you have to repair part of your floor in the future, keep in mind that the dye lot may be a bit different. With time and usage that part of the floor will usually blend in.

So now you know the basics of taking care of laminate. We are very experienced in dealing with laminate flooring so please visit us to discover more and remember – take your high heels off before you walk across that floor!