Todd Erskine (pronounced Er-skin) knows a thing or two about wood flooring. In 1986, he began installing and refinishing floors to pay for his college education. In the twenty years since, he has built a reputation for providing the finest wood flooring available in the Twin Cities and Western Wisconsin markets.

Erskine Floors, Inc. provides a full line of wood species & custom inlays. Erskine uses domestic woods or those imported from around the world. Whether it’s site-finished or pre-finished, solid or engineered, nail-down, glue-down, or floating, Erskine has learned to match the old standards and the latest trends to each project. To round out flooring options for clients, Erskine Floors, Inc. now provides a “one-stop shop,” offering a full line of carpet, laminate, vinyl, cork, and tile.

Flooring Trends
Although other floor coverings maintain a strong hold in our homes today, the standard on main levels continues toward wall-to-wall wood flooring. “When we first begin installing wood in new construction it was typically specified in the foyer, kitchen, and dinette. Over the years, the dining room became part of the standard, and then the dens/offices, and now here come the great room and the master bedroom!” expresses Erskine. Stairways are also becoming wood very quickly.

Trends in Wood Flooring – New Species, Grades, and Widths
As recently as five years ago, 2-1/4” select grade, red oak was the standard choice for wood floor. “Things have sure changed in this area,” says Todd. “Red oak doesn’t even make up 50 percent of our installations anymore.” Domestic walnut, cherry, hickory, maple, and birch have become mainstays along with Cumaru and Ipe from South America, cypress and spotted gum from Australia, sapele and wenge from Africa, and bamboo from Southeast Asia. “These species have become our normal business instead of the unusual.”

As lifestyles become more casual, people move further from select and clear grade products in standard board widths and closer to common, character and rustic grades in wider board widths. “The more graining, knots and color variation we build into a floor the more difficult dents, scratches and other imperfections are to see and the more user-friendly the floor becomes.” Hand scraping and distressing new wood to simulate old timbers takes this approach to the next level by pre-stressing a floor to start it off looking worn and used.