Ozark Hardwood Flooring offers a wide variety of beautiful hardwood floors. We install, sand, finish and refinish real hardwood flooring in Central and North Arkansas, and Southwest Missouri.

We have been in business since 1994 and have installed, sanded-finished, or refinished over 1.2 Million SQFT of Real Hardwood Flooring since that time. We have hundreds of satisfied customers, many repeat customers, and builders that we have worked with for over 10 years.

We provide dust free sanding of real wood and refinish flooring jobs.

We specialize in real solid wood Sand and finish on site floors. But do pre-finished and engineered products as well. We install over wood subfloors or Slab on or above grade with Engineered products.

Check out our website with pictures of some of our projects, then contact us for all your Hardwood Flooring needs.

We finished 2010 with just over 131,000 SQFT of floor completed, just a bit better than 2009, but not quite up to par with our record year of 2007. Hopefully this is a sign however that things are starting to turn around in the construction industry.

After a fairly slow spring, things the last month or so have been picking up, and we’ve been real busy since about the first of June.   It seems like lots of people are wanting to do some remodeling and upgrade their existing home instead of building a new one.   That is great, because upgrading the floors will really make a difference.  We have about 30,000 SQFT on the books right now into the fall, and we seem to be getting 4-5 good inquiries per week, which is a lot better than the late winter when the phone just wasn’t ringing.

We are getting more and more inquiries about hand scraped flooring all the time, and recently finished a new “Heart Hickory” hand scraped floor in Texas. I posted many new pictures of this beautiful and unique floor on the website, so be sure and check them out.  We have also completed another hand scraped hickory floor in a very nice home in Little Rock, and a 6 inch Hand Scraped White Oak Floor in a Log Cabin in Hasty, AR. These are really beautiful floors and we have a new page on the website about hand-scraped and textured floors. We also provide the hand scraped floors for Llanorado Hardwood Floors near Kingsland, TX. You can visit their website at www.llanoradohardwoodfloors.com.

Our hand scraped floors are much more unique than most, as many people who do hand-scraped, install the floors first, then try to scrape them after they’ve already been installed. When you do this, you lose the unique definition of each board and the floor ends up looking like a damaged piece of plywood (In my opinion) We actually hand scrape each individual board in our shop, which means busting each bundle, hand scraping the face of the board, easing the edges by hand, and hand sanding each board before re-bundling for shipment to the job. The boards are installed and immediately finished on site. This means you’re floor will be totally unique, and no two hand scraped floors that we do are alike.

The housing slowdown has affected everyone in the home industry. We have been blessed however, and are still working, along with building homes and cabins thru our sister company, Ozark Custom Country Homes.    We will be building a new home in Omaha, AR soon and there will be pictures of that home on the website.

If you plan to do some wood floor in your new or existing home, give us a call as soon as possible to get on our list. Thanks a bunch.

Lee

We did not originally get to do this job, but after the first flooring contractor made a horrible mess of this wood floor, we were called by the owner to fix the problems.   This is not the first time this has happened, and because it happens more than I would like, I decided to show these pictures and tell this story.

I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of very poor jobs over the years, some done by homeowners themselves when trying to save a few dollars by doing their own floor.  And most would say they would never repeat that process.   But in all these years, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a floor in this bad of shape.   I really don’t see how someone could mess up a floor this bad, unless they were trying, and even then it would be difficult.  Especially someone who actually claims to be in the hardwood flooring business.

I would never name the flooring company who did this floor, because with work like this, I am sure they will be weeded out of the business very soon, and rightfully so.   This floor has about everything wrong with the sanding and finishing job that you could have wrong with one.  I’ll outline many of the problems that you will see when looking at the photos, and I’ve made notes on the photos so you can see tell what I’m showing you.

1. Drum Sander Streaks – These can be caused by several different things, but are normally caused by either a bad sanding belt if a belt machine was used, or by a really bad place on the drum or a screw or nail in the drum if a drum machine was used.  There were literally hundreds of these streak marks in this floor, they were everywhere you looked.
2. Planer Marks –  These are the original planer marks from the factory that were left on the floor.  These are places that a sander never touched the floor.  They show up as lines running across the boards, rather than longways.
3. Edger Swirls – This is caused by the edger machine, the machine that is supposed to be used around the perimeter of the floor only to sand areas that cannot be sanded by the larger belt or drum machine.  These are normally sanded out by using a finish sander or hand sanding (we actually use a halogen light to look for these)  They are caused by using too rough a sandpaper on the edges also.   Funny thing about these, they were everywhere.  This original contractor used the edger in places they had no business using it.
4. Puddles in the Finish –  There were puddles in the finish everywhere in this floor.  It looked to me that the finish was basically “slopped” on the floor with a mop.  Some place the puddles were nearly 1/8 inch thick!!!!  You would almost have to just pour the finish on the floor and leave it to get this.  I know, I couldn’t believe it either.
5. Trash in the Finish –  When you site finish a floor, there is no way to get every single piece of trash out of the finish.  1 or 2 tiny pieces of trash in 1000 square feet is acceptable, and these can be easily picked out with a fingernail and repaired, but this floor had literally THOUSANDS of chunks of trash.   Almost looked like the trash had been thrown in the finish on purpose, but it wasn’t.   There was no vacuum system…..I don’t even believe the floor was swept before the stain and finish was applied.   It was really sad.

This portfolio has about 20 pictures of the “before” photos of this job.   We are currently working on this project and of course had to completely re-sand/refinish this floor down to bare wood.  As soon as the floor is finished, I will also post some “after” pictures.   The homeowners were getting very excited about moving into their brand new home, and now because of this original very poor floor sanding and finishing job, they will have to delay that for a couple weeks.

The moral of this story, please check out the contractor that does your work on your home.   It is real easy to check us out as we’ve got hundreds of happy customers, and you can see the quality of the work we do right on this website.  This “flooring contractor”  (and I use that term very loosely)  Did not have a website, and was basically just chosen on price.   Price is not the most important criteria for choosing a flooring contractor, as I believe you would have to agree by looking at these pictures.

Lee Walsh

I have left these pictures large on purpose so you can see the detail.  It may take some time for them to load with a slower connection.

Click on a picture below for a slide show of all the pictures.

The owners of the mill went thru a run and counted the different species at one time, and counted around 20 different species of wood that was in that particular run.  Everything from Sassafras, Gum, Soft Maple, Osage Orange, Birch, Beech, and everything in between.

An Architect working on a project in Harrison Arkansas wanted something unique for a the home and after he and the owners saw a sample of this floor, they decided it was exactly what they wanted.   Since that time we have used it in several different floors in the area.

One thing for sure about this floor, you’ll never get the same floor twice.  So if you’re looking for something totally unique for your home, maybe Mixed Hardwood” is for you.

Click on a picture below for a slide show.

Over the years we have been contacted to work in some beautiful old homes, and we have re-finished floors in some homes that were over 100 years old.  Sometime however, the floors in an old home are just too far gone to refinish.

Such was the case with the Helm-Blair House.  A home that is on the National Register of Historic Places.  It was built in 1906 and was fully restored and updated in 2007-08.  The home is now a rental and you can find out more information about it at ozarkhistoriccabins.com.

Of course the new owners wanted the old pine floors refinished, but there was just too much wear and damage to make the project worthwhile and salvageable.   We installed a new 5 inch pine floor over the old floor and the floors turned out great.  The whole cabin and experience turned out really nice.

Installation of a Pre-Finished, hand scraped wide plank engineered floor at Renewal Ranch, a service and outreach center to help men break addiction at Conway, Arkansas.

We were contacted by one of the regular builders that we normally work for in Conway, Arkansas about helping at a work day at a very worthwhile organization.   Renewal Ranch is an organization which helps men try to break the cycle of drug and alcohol addiction.   With donations and lots of volunteer help, they have succeeded in raising the funds to secure a very nice piece of property outside of Conway and have constructed the first of several planned homes that will be used to help in this effort.

Home Depot had graciously donated about $10,000 worth of pre-finished hardwood floor for the project, and had also donated a “work day” for about 25-30 of their employees to help install the floor in the facility.   Most of these employees didn’t have any hardwood  flooring installation experience, and the builder recommended us to come down and oversee the workday, and finish up the project after the workday was done.   There was a very good turnout for the work day, and even with a lot of volunteer help, quite a bit of floor got installed on the work day, and good food and fellowship was had by all.

This project is now finished and being used by Renewal Ranch, and hopefully with further donations, more can be completed in the future.   For more information about Renewal Ranch or to help their worthwhile cause, you can go to their website at therenewalranch.org

So you have a brand new hardwood floor.  You either have a new home, or we have installed a new wood floor in your existing home.  Maybe you have never had a wood floor before.   What are you supposed to do, are you afraid to walk on the floor, or afraid you will scratch the floor?   It can happen, but hopefully with these helpful hints, it won’t.

• Moving in Appliances.   We see more damage from moving in cook stoves, dishwashers, and refrigerators than any other items.  Buy a couple sheets of 1/4 or 1/2 inch plywood or chipboard to lay on the floor to protect it from appliance feet, wheels and dolly wheels.  Keep the appliances on this plywood until they are completely in place.   DO NOT RELY ON REFRIGERATOR WHEELS!!  Deep scratches or dents from heavy appliances can be very expensive to fix, and could result in the entire floor having to be re-sanded/refinished.  Wood floors are hard and they are tough, but refrigerators are very heavy and the wheels are fairly narrow, so there’s a lot of pounds per square inch on the wheels.
• Furniture.  Place felt pads on all furniture that moves…….Chairs, bar stools, coffee tables, recliners, etc.   If you move your couch around frequently, put them on the couch also.  Make sure that the pads are large enough to cover the entire “foot” of the furniture, and make sure the pads are kept clean.  This may mean replacing the pads on the dining room chairs a couple times per year, especially in dusty/sandy areas.
• Check your outside shoes at the door.   Or at the very least, check your shoes for nails, tacks and gravel that may be lodged in the soles.   Changing your outside shoes when you come inside is a good option.  That really prevents a lot of outside dirt from coming in also.
• When you are moving in, check all boxes for gravels lodged in the cardboard on the bottom and for large steel or copper staples that may be on the bottom of the boxes.  Don’t slide cardboard boxes around on the new floor.
• Don’t use rugs or towels to slide heavy furniture around on the floor.  This may not prevent a scratch or a scuff.   Sometimes the feet of the furniture happens to find a thin spot, and by the time you see the damage, it’s too late.   In a similar vein, don’t use the plastic moving or “magic casters”  to move heavy furniture either.   I know they look like they work on TV, but all it takes is to get a gravel under the edge of one, and it’s all over.  The only correct way to move in furniture on a new floor is to carry and place it in.
• Keep pets and rugs off the floor for at least 3 days after the final coat of finish.   Keep pets (especially heavy dogs over 20 pounds) nails trimmed.   Animals that have learned to run around on carpeted floors will not understand that the wood floors are different, until they get used to them.
• It is always good to have all the landscaping done, all the concrete approaches and sidewalks done, and the garage cleaned well before move in day.   You wouldn’t believe how many new homeowners I’ve seen trying to move in to their new home when the house is surrounded by mud.   I understand that everyone is anxious to move into their new home, but it is really better to wait till you’re really ready.
• Our floor finish is 90% cured after 24 hours, 98% cured after 3 days and fully cured after about a week.   You can walk on 90% cured floor finish, and wood floor finish is very scuff and scratch resistant,  but it can scuff a lot easer in the first 24 hours.   You should be especially careful during this time.   That extra 10% really makes a huge difference.   All wood floor finishes are very hard, but finish companies have to balance hardness with other things, such as chipping resistance.   If the finish is made too hard, it will/can chip and flake off, so even though the finishes are very hard, they aren’t as hard as steel or a diamond!!
• No finish will prevent denting of the wood from heavy objects that may be dropped on the floor.   An object like a hammer, or even a can of peaches or green beans, if dropped just right can dent a wood floor.   These dents usually can’t be repaired without sanding and refinishing, but normally they will just be written off as the patina of the floor.  Most people (except for you of course) won’t even notice them.  Sometimes if the dents are “sharp and deep” we can repair them with a clear epoxy, similar to how a dentist would repair a cavity.  But this isn’t always the case.
• If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call or send us an e-mail.

These are photos of a Hand Scraped “Heart Hickory” floor that we did in Texas in 2009.   Heart Hickory is hickory that has been graded out at the mill has 100% Heart wood.  It is the “brown part” of the hickory, so there is no white wood whatsoever.    In some cases, it nearly looks like walnut, but is just a bit lighter in color.  It is also very hard, even more hard that standard hickory in general, because the “heartwood” of hickory is harder than the sapwood.

In 2009, a good friend of mine who is also in the Hardwood Flooring business in Kerrville, Texas, had to have a hip replacement, and needed our help on this special 3000 Square Foot project.   We scraped this floor in our shop, hauled it to Texas, and installed and finished in a few days.   This is a special “heart” hickory, that only contains the dark wood from the hickory, none of the white wood.  It is a very hard wood, and more uniform in color than standard hickory.  This turned out to be a beautiful floor, in a beautiful home.