| Headquartered in Danville, Virginia, Columbia Flooring is one of the best manufacturers of wood flooring products. Basically, this firm is the subsidiary of the Columbia Forest Products. Also this wood flooring manufacturer and dealer has got four other units located throughout the eastern part of the United States and has got two more manufacturing plants located in Malaysia. |
Solid And Engineered Wood
Columbia flooring has been in business for quite some time, almost more than forty years. It can design and manufacture engineered and solid hardwood flooring. Solid flooring is one that is simply solid. Basically, it means it is a single solid piece of wood. Whereas in the case of engineered wood this is a real wood, which is not cut into a single piece.
Here, the series of woods or the so called layers of wood (i.e. ten thin layers) called piles are simply glued together using their grains that run crosswire from each other. The biggest and best advantage of using engineered wood is that it is quite stable compared to the solid wood. Also it does not contract or expand to a great extent under the changing heat source and humidity. Basically, in-floor heat will not be that hard to the engineered or laminate flooring as it is on the solid flooring.
Exotic Hardwood Products
Even though most of the Columbia Flooring’s items are manufactured using the American wood like maple, oak, and pine; recently the company has added more exotic types of hardwood products.
Acquisition One of the major reasons on why Columbia Flooring entered the exotic wood flooring market was because of acquisition. Yes! It had acquired MWI (Malaysia Wood Industry) Sdn. Bhd. This was an engineered hardwood company that had floor manufacturing offices along with two plants situated in Sungai Petani, Malaysia. Plus it had sales offices in Europe, US, and to the Far East. Before Columbia Flooring acquired MWI, it used to import finished and exotic wood laminate floorings from other countries.
New Design
In 2005, Columbia Flooring had introduced two brand new designs. They were Patagonian Rosewood and Santos Mahogany laminated floorings. Both of these designs are extra-wide board design. In addition, a 9-1/2 inch board is sawn into the three lengthwise, along with a three-inch strip planks. This is matched on the site for creating a single and robust wide-board.
New Products
In early part of 2006, Columbia Flooring was selected to design and manufacture the famous Laura Ashley line of laminate and hardwood flooring products. Here the new products consist of engineered and solid hardwoods which are in exotic and traditional species.
Furthermore, under the Laura Ashly brand, the Columbia Flooring makes wide plank and hand-sculpted designs and that too in various unique finishes. Recently, Columbia Flooring had launched 9.5 and 8mm thick laminates in variety of slate, strip styles and even in different designs.
Besides these products, Columbia Flooring’s product line consists of robust hardwood floors made from exotic hardwood, maple and oak. Here the solid flooring can be re-stained and sanded many times. Typically it is done for every 16-20 years. The robust flooring has got a grainy and rich appearance and this somewhat characterizes hardwood floors.
The engineered wood products of Columbia Flooring are manufactured and designed at the factory using the DiamondPlateTM aluminum oxide finish. This makes the product easy to use and less susceptible to humid climate.
Laminate Flooring
Besides the solid and engineered wood, Columbia Flooring manufactures laminate floorings. Basically, these products are multi-layered and they feature a clear abrasion and have one of the best stain resistant top layer.
After that is the ‘design’ layer which is simply the melamine. This can have patterns that range from wood grains to the simple slate-kind of design or pattern, which is similar to any kind of thing. In addition, the core layer of this product is made of water-resistant glue along with a high-density fiberboard.
Another important thing to note down here is that the laminate flooring planks are created using the tongue-and-groove edges. Yes! They are simply created like do-it-yourself. Basically, laying a laminate floor is quite simple as laying down planks and getting them tapped and snugly against each other. Most of the time, such kind of floors are not nailed or glued. But they are simply allowed to float so that it can take care and control the changes in terms of dimensions which occur due to humidity and temperature.
Distribution
You can purchase the Columbia Flooring products from interior designers, retail home improvement stores and remodelers.