Our supplier opened 25 years ago, their company is based out of Malaysia and uses the American Dollar as currency to do business. The 5-hectare covered manufacturing facility is in Indonesia which is considered the largest manufacturer under one roof in Indonesia. Since there is so much quality control at the facility, products produced in Indonesia do not have to go thru the European Audit; which is a lengthy quality control process that all products being sold in Europe must pass.

Of the top three flooring manufacturers (SP) in the world that produce engineered flooring products that use the 3- ply construction, our supplier is the second largest producer.

80 -85% of each box of flooring is full length boards, so the product overall has a longer length appearance.

At the manufacturing plant, there are major levels in place of Internal Quality Control for the products. There are no 3rd party inspectors in the facility. The manufacturing facility holds 1900 employees that work 3 shifts over a 24hour period.

The manufacturing facilities current claims ratio is .3 percent of total annual sales.

70% of the products Valencia carries are produced by using 2-5 reactive treatments that are Klumpp Coatings. Klumpp Coatings manufactures 12 different reactive stains pronouncing the natural variations in wood and changing the overall appearance of the face (veneer) of the engineered product.

All reactive processes are applied with distilled water and then all owed to dry in a controlled environment to stop the reactive processes at the appropriate time before the next process in the finishing can be complete. The main reason for this is to keep the moisture content in the wood around 7% with only a 1-2% variance all throughout the manufacturing process.

Due to the reactive processes used in finishing, the average production time on finishing the product is four to six days. This process is not rushed and takes much longer to produce than topically staining the product then applying heat, which is a standard with most of Chinese and other manufacturers..

The veneer or face of the engineered floor is mostly white oak that is sourced from France and Germany, there are also other species of wood that are used to make the face of the floor as well. The reason the white oak face wood is sourced from this region in Europe is because it known for having a high level of Tannins in the soil. These Tannins are absorbed by the white oak trees and make the reactive staining process able to react properly with the wood in the face or veneer. The white oak is all harvested from these forests with selected harvesting in mind. These white oak trees are considered slow growth trees which means the graining structure is much tighter making them accept the reactive treatments more efficiently.

There is a chain of custody for this lumber all the way through the manufacturing process.

The other two species of wood that are used in the manufacturing of our engineered wood products are the Hevea tree, (which is used to make the core of the engineered floor) and a soft-core pine. The soft-core pine is used on the bottom of the engineered floor to provide a flat smooth surface for the product to adhere to the corresponding surface.

The Hevea tree (core of our engineered floor) is a planation grown product, known mostly to produce rubber. The Green Factor to Hevea is that once it stops producing rubber for 20-30 years, then it can be harvested instead of just burning the forest down. Once the tree stops producing rubber it is then harvested to make the engineered flooring products core or middle layer. Hevea is considered a hardwood product and not a soft wood like a lot of other manufactures use.

The idea behind using the Hevea wood for the core is that the engineered floors will be produced with balance engineering in mind, and that is considered to take place between the white oak face and the Hevea core. Balance engineering provide you with a much sturdier product that will have a lesser chance of trying to de-laminate or come apart.

All hand scrapping of the floors is done by hand and not produced with a machine. Giving the floors an additional handmade craftsman touch. Also, the cracks that are filled in the products are produced using faux cracks so they will not tend to expand, like they would if they were already present in the surface of the wood floor.

We use the European Standard for all our installations using a tapping block to position the boards.

Note the soft back pine core will absorb moisture if left to do so. Do not acclimate this product in the HVAC controlled installation environment with the boxes opened. Please leave them intact and with the banding on. The product will acclimate to most environments in less than 72 hours.

Three-layer construction of engineered floors is more stable with associated moisture content vs. a standard ply construction. Multi-ply construction can hold more moisture, since the construction consists of more layers and more glue.

The drying process in between the reactive treatments is more utilized in a 3-layer construction consistently thru out the manufacturing process. The engineered floor is re-dried 3-4 times throughout the manufacturing process to stop the reaction in the reactive treatments and maintain a consistent moisture content in the product. This gives you a much more consistent finished product.

To ensure the best product available, the supplier consistently invests more money into the quality of the product vs. the marketing to sell the product.

The products that are topically finished with the Bona Naturelle finish can be repaired like a traditional oil floor since the finish is flexible and able to move as the hardwood floor wears.

Maintenance products suggested for our flooring:

* For oil finish floors use the Woca oil products, typically just the Woca Soap and refresh kit as needed for annual maintenance of the floor.

* Some of the other engineered floors we carry that have a Bona Naturelle or the Klumpp Urethane and can be cleaned with a standard Bona or other traditional pre-finished hardwood floor cleaners. 

* In some instances, Bona Refresh can be used and comes with either a matte or satin finish.