The words you will hear on a flooring estimate. The numbers come from NWFA (the National Wood Flooring Association), manufacturer data sheets, trade publications and wood references. The FAQ goes into more detail.
- Aluminum oxide
- A hard mineral in factory finishes that resists scuffs and makes later sanding much slower. Trade guidance says to expect refinishing bids 30 to 40 percent higher.
- Basket weave
- A parquet pattern of board blocks that alternate direction, like a woven basket.
- Bevel
- The small angled edge on prefinished boards. Sanding takes it off.
- Buckling
- Boards lifting off the subfloor from extreme moisture. NWFA says a buckled floor needs replacing.
- Chevron
- A zigzag of boards with angled ends that meet in a continuous V. Herringbone uses square-ended boards.
- Coat
- One layer of finish. The main waterborne products need two at minimum, and three are recommended for heavy traffic.
- Conversion varnish
- An extremely durable finish with strong fumes. VOC is about 725 g/L.
- Crowning
- A board with its center higher than its edges. It often comes from sanding a cupped floor before it dried.
- Cupping
- Board edges higher than the middle, from uneven moisture between the top and bottom of the board.
- Cure
- The time a finish takes to reach full hardness: about 3 days for some waterborne finishes, about 30 days for oil-modified ones.
- Dustless sanding
- Sanding with the machine hooked to a HEPA vacuum. Systems vary in how much of the dust they catch.
- Engineered wood
- A real-wood top layer, 1/16 to 1/4 inch thick, glued to plywood.
- Expansion gap
- The space left at the walls so wood can swell. NWFA guidance has called for about 3/4 inch, hidden by the baseboards.
- Feeler gauge
- A thin metal strip for measuring how much wood is left above the tongue of a board.
- Floating floor
- A floor that locks together at the edges and is not nailed or glued to the subfloor.
- Grit
- The roughness number of sandpaper. Lower is coarser. The last cut before stain is typically between 80 and 120.
- Hardwax oil
- A natural oil-and-wax finish with near-zero VOC. Easy to spot repair, but it needs maintenance oil every few years.
- HEPA
- A very fine filter, used on the vacuums hooked to floor sanders.
- Herringbone
- Short square-ended boards laid in a zigzag. It needs a very flat subfloor.
- Janka hardness
- A number for how hard a wood is. Red oak is about 1,220 to 1,290. Douglas-fir is 620 to 660.
- Lacing
- Weaving new boards in with the old so a repair disappears. Also called weaving or blending.
- Mastic
- The sticky adhesive under old vinyl tile. In older homes it can contain asbestos.
- Moisture content
- How much of a board’s weight is water. Flooring wood is typically 6 to 9 percent, and it should be within 2 percent of the subfloor for planks, 4 percent for strips.
- NWFA
- The National Wood Flooring Association, the main trade group and the source of most installation and refinishing guidelines.
- Oil-modified polyurethane
- The traditional amber finish. It dries slowly, forgives mistakes and smells stronger.
- Parquet
- NWFA’s word for any geometric floor pattern, as opposed to straight rows.
- Plank
- NWFA’s term for boards three inches wide or wider.
- Polyurethane
- The most common clear finish for wood floors, in waterborne or oil-modified versions.
- Prefinished
- Boards stained and sealed at the factory before they are installed.
- RRP rule
- The EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting rule for lead-safe work in homes built before 1978.
- Screen and recoat
- Scuffing the old finish and adding a fresh coat without sanding into the wood. Also called a maintenance coat.
- Sheen
- How glossy a finish is. Extra matte is about 7 to 10 percent gloss, satin about 15 to 25, semi-gloss about 40 to 45.
- Slab
- A concrete foundation floor. Slabs get moisture-tested before wood or vinyl goes down.
- Solid hardwood
- One piece of wood all the way through, often about 3/4 inch thick.
- Subfloor
- The structural layer, usually plywood or boards, that the finished floor is fastened to.
- Tannin pull
- Brown marks that can appear when waterborne finish draws natural tannins out of white oak, especially over gray or pastel stains.
- Termite pellets
- Six-sided droppings pushed out of kick-out holes under 2 mm across. A sign of drywood termites.
- Tongue and groove
- The interlocking edges of hardwood boards.
- VOC
- Volatile organic compounds, the solvents in finishes that cause the odor. Measured in grams per liter and limited by local air districts.
- Water pop
- Lightly wetting a sanded floor to open the grain so stain takes evenly.
- Wear layer
- The sandable wood above the tongue. NWFA says not to sand below 3/32 inch.
- Wire-brushed
- A textured surface made by brushing out the soft grain. It can’t be refinished the normal way.