Leftwich Chapman

The Leftwich and Chapman show room caries a wide variety of flooring materials such as wood, soft textiles, tile, and stone. On the floor of the show room there is a patchwork application of different flooring materials so that clients can get a better idea of what the material looks like when it is instaled. sixty to seenty percent of Leftwich and Chapman's sails are of wood and tile and about thirty percent are from carpet. The most popular floor application is wood, wood used to be applied using nails however now it can be glued down using a crossplyed system to create more stability. Crossply is where there are multiple layers of wood alternating in directions of horizonatl and virticaly placed wood, this creates strengs and a more cost affective and universal way to apply wood to a floor. You can find really cheep versions of this at big stores like home depot however Mr. Leftwich told us "If it's cheeper, there is a reason" most of the time a wood is cheeper is because they use the nice wood only on the top layer of the crossply system and the rest is a soft would like basalwood which is not very sturdy and over time it will break down. The Products at Leftwich and Chapman are all American made using a hard wood venier all the way through. Wood floors are great for almost every room in the house however it is not recomended that they be applied in a bathroom or a kitchen because water and wood do not mix. When water is constantly put on wood the wood will swell and crack and it will eventualy lose its uniformity. A better option for those areas of the home would be tile or other sinthetic products that can be made to look like wood.
    There are some other options when it comes to flooring that can look a lot like wood and give the viewer the sense that a wood floor would give. A very high density corke, not like the corke in wine bottles, can be used very affectivly as a flooring material. A treatment is applied to the corke so that it is very easy to take care of. Bamboo is another specialty floor option which can look very similar to the typical woods. Bamboo is greatly cost affective because it grows very fast and is a very hard material. However bamboo is sensitive to heat, cold, humidity, and dryness. Bamboo needs humidity so it wont crack, a situation called checking. Normaly when Leftwich and Chapman is instaling a wood floor they bring the wood to the house a few days in advance so that the wood can aclamate to the climate in the house, bamboo requires around two weeks to aclamate to the inviernment. 
   One of the most interesting flooring materials at Leftwich and Chapman is a leather floor, thats right leather. Normaly one would expect that this leather floor would not be a very good choice because leather although great for furniture would not be able to stand up to the wear and tear that a normal floor has to stand up to. However this leather floor is rated for heavy residental use and light comercial use. You may be thinking "how is that possible", this leather floor is made of recycled leather with added palimers that makes it strong and has an applied sealent on it to keep it safe from moisture and other mishaps. 
    Overall the trip to Leftwich and Chapman was well worth the time and I was able to learn a lot, not only about wood floors but, about tile, carpite, stone, and other man made materials which are made to simulate all of the other materials.