The Storehouse Plank Collection has a special place in our hearts.
It features two premium wood species: European White Oak from southern Germany and hickory from the Ozark Mountains. These gorgeous woods allow for the genuine hardwood nature of the floor to shine through and does so as a ¾” solid floor.
In the not-so-distant past, many storehouses, barns, and utility buildings were built with rough-milled hardwood lumber. This is the inspiration for one of our favorite floor collections.
A need in the market leads to innovation.
Modern textured floors have tried to capture the look of authentic rough-cut wood planks by trying to reintroduce texture and history into the wood. We believe that effort misses the mark.
In 2007, we were processing lumber for an unfinished engineered product.
At the time, a lot of textured flooring tried to look like it was reclaimed. In other words, a rough-cut board was resurfaced, thus pulling out all of the wood’s natural character. Then manufacturers added tongue and groove, texture on top, and stain to replicate the texture they were after.
Thirteen years ago while at a lumber processing site, we investigated what we’d want in a reclaimed-looking plank floor, and we realized it was already in the lumber. There was no reason to take the texture out only to try to add it back in.
So we took the lumber and skipped the surfacing step. We knew this would call for a longer manufacturing process, but we were dedicated to giving our customers a unique product that no one else in the market offered: a genuine pre-claimed floor, solid natural wood with all its texture, character, and history.
Lucky for us, then as now, we don’t have to pull wood boards off of a barn or old country store, but we do cull fresh lumber from Germany and the Ozarks—wood that already has unique texture. At the sawmill the wood is cut by circular saw and band saw, which naturally leave their own cut marks. Ultimately, we provide a finished product with all that reclaimed-looking texture in it without it being a reclaimed floor.
The advantages and long-lasting nature of Storehouse Plank.
In the Storehouse Plank collection, we apply a UV-oil finish to the surface of the flooring. We’ve chosen this process instead of urethane because a urethane finish yields a plastic-like coating over the top of the floor. As the urethane wears, it becomes very difficult to add more finish to increase the usefulness or life of your wood floor without altering the floor’s texture.
When many floor finishes get worn down and refinishing is needed, you have to sand out the original texture, and it takes away the unique design aspect. However, a UV-oil finish is a living finish. The wood soaks in the oil, providing a layer of protection, but it’s not an artificial barrier of plastic between wood and world.
It’s particularly advantageous to use a UV-oil finish instead of urethane with this collection. Consider that it’s ten years down the road, and you want to get some luster back in your floor. With the UV-oil, you only have to follow a few simple steps. You deep clean your floor and apply the oil. It blends with the UV-oil already there, and that floor can be repeatedly recoated as needed and last for well over a century. You don’t have to remove the original texture, original color, and refinish, re-sand, or re-stain. You can continually protect and refinish without removing the soul of the wood.
Consider this classic.
The floor in this collection is produced to have the same texture of a 100-year-old piece of wood, and it’s manufactured and finished so you can keep it for another hundred years.