To earn a Green Select label, the product must currently be recyclable, contain a minimum of recycled material and/or be made from a natural, sustainable, quickly renewable resource. A key example is our Montado Cork flooring (see image below). Beautiful and durable, MontadoTM is 100% natural cork flooring made from a naturally sustainable resource, so it’s good for the environment.

Green Select products include reclaimed hardwood flooring, 100% wool carpet flooring, engineered hardwood floors, 100% wool area rugs, and flooring with recycled content.

To be considered green:

• The manufacturer must be socially responsible and makes use of processes that are not detrimental to the environment.

• The distribution methods and transport, including the packaging, must meet standards for environmental friendliness.

• For a building material or flooring product to be truly green, its source must be renewable, the material itself must be recyclable, and must not contain toxic materials.

Look for other exclusive Green Select flooring at Buddy Allen Carpet One like these great products below.

We hope that when you next shop for flooring, you’ll at least consider your Nashville Green Flooring options with us. Join us in our efforts to protect our environment. Working together, we can make a difference.

p.s. stay tuned for our Tigressá carpet  event is coming soon!

Don’t forget to check out our Hardwood Floor Shopping Guide if you’re unsure of the “hardwood jargon.” Too, it will help you know what you’re looking for when you’re ready to buy.

Fort Worth

Berkeley

Bayou

Color: Crushed Wheat
Size: 5″
Warranty: Gold
Installation: Floating, Glue, Nail
Appearance: Smooth
Species: Red Oak
Gloss Level: Medium

Napa Valley

Central Coast

Hot Springs

Oglethorpe

Puritan

Color: Gaucho Brown

Size: 4″

Callout: Green

Warranty: Platinum

Installation: Floating

Appearance: Scraped

Species: Hickory

 

 
Colorado

Color: Cobble Brown

Size: 4-1/2″

Warranty: Titanium

Installation: Floating, Glue, Nail

Appearance: Scraped

Species: Birch

Gloss Level: Low

 

 

 

If you ever have questions about hardwood flooring Nashville, please connect with us – we’re happy to help in any way!

Functionality
The functional aspect should always be the first consideration and this can in fact help to narrow your choices. Think about what you will be placing on this floor and how long of a lifetime you want out of your flooring. What kind of foot traffic do you expect? Answering these questions will help you decide on what type of flooring is best: hardwood, carpet, tile, vinyl or laminate.

Flooring for an area of high traffic may not benefit from being too pale in color, as this would show up stains and dirt easily (especially on carpet). Similarly, a polished, dark shade of hard flooring will show up dust and damage more easily and should not be considered if you will not be able to devote time to regular cleaning and maintenance. For heavy foot traffic areas and where pets may track in dirt, consider a medium-toned floor that will not show dirt or pet hair.

If you’re placing flooring in a rental property, you will want to consider something durable and nearly stain proof in material and as for color, go neutral!

Color

Once you have idea about the material  you wan, you can better decide on color. An easy way to narrow down color options to reflect your personal style would be to look around at the colors you have already chosen for your home and even your wardrobe. You’ll probably notice you naturally gravitate towards a particular palette. Keep these colors in mind, and consider limiting your choices to your existing palette.

Going with a neutral color scheme makes it easier for you to redecorate or change the look of your home, simply by highlighting different furnishings and accessories. This can be an advantage when considering putting a house on the market, either for sale or rent, as it is more likely to appeal to a larger portion of the population and makes it easier for new residents to integrate personal design preferences.

Too, consider the fixed design elements in the room. The floor color and style should complement adjacent flooring, counter tops and cabinets. Decide whether you want your flooring to blend with your furniture, or make it stand out. Bear in mind that lighter colors will make a room look larger, and darker ones will make the room look smaller.

Finally, consider the entire house when choosing flooring colors in different rooms and remember that a good décor flows seamlessly from room to room. The most expensive materials will be wasted if colors are not considered, resulting sadly in flooring which looks like a clashing patchwork quilt across the entire household.

These are from our Lee’s Line.

Get Exactly What You Want
In order to accurately choose the color of flooring for your room, request small samples and bring them home to compare to paint swatches and fabric samples for the proposed room. You can get those free by filling out this form.

Remember to take advantage of our flooring experts’ knowledge when shopping for flooring for your home. You can shop for flooring online (by color, warranty, sale, price, material, brand and style!), you can shop at our showroom located at 2517 Lebanon Pike Nashville, TN 37214 or call us, and we’ll send a flooring expert to your home to help you find your perfect floors!

Who doesn’t love hardwood? It is durable, beautiful and easy to clean! Since we’ve already written a post about how to select hardwoods, we thought it would be fun to show you some of our best hardwood products and how some homeowners have decorated their living space around their hardwood floors!

This is the first post in our series of five all about hardwood floors. All of these products are from the  Rustic Rivers Collection. To shop for hardwood flooring in Nashville and see pricing, CLICK HERE.

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Hardwood flooring instantly brings out the natural beauty of your home – rich, traditional, rustic, contemporary- but choosing the right hardwood flooring for your Middle Tennessee home is not always easy. Here’s an overview of the many unique features to consider when selecting your hardwood floors.

PRICE

• Hardwood prices range from $2.99-20.00+ per square foot.  Hardwood prices vary due to quality, finish, species, and appearance.  Hardwood, like everything else, is a product that you get what you pay for.

HARDWOOD vs. ENGINEERED WOOD vs. LAMINATE

• Solid Hardwood Flooring- You can buy solid wood flooring in a variety of North American wood species as well as exotic hardwoods from different countries from around the World. Because solid wood planks are sensitive to changes in humidity, they are only recommended for on or above ground level.  Also, in Tennessee, our weather and humidity changes are very volatile, and therefore solid woods are always moving and have a hard time laying completely flat.  Most people purchase solid hardwoods because they are under the impression that they are “real wood” and that being solid makes them a better quality.  The best reason to purchase a solid floor is if you have an issue that dictates you need the thickness, like cabinets, doors, casings or trim work.

• Engineered Hardwood Flooring- Engineered hardwood floors consist of several, wood plies that are glued together under heat and pressure. Engineered wood planks are more dimensionally stable than solid wood planks and can be used on all grade levels, including in dry basements over fully-cured concrete slabs. Many engineered hardwood floors can be glued-down, stapled down or floated over wood subfloors. They can also be glued-down or floated over dry concrete slabs and some types of hard surface floor coverings, such as vinyl flooring or vinyl floor tiles. Engineered floors are indeed “real wood”.  Engineered floors are ideal for all applications in Tennessee, and do very well with our regions climate changes.  They offer you all the durability that our clients come to expect from hardwood floors.

• Laminate Flooring- Laminate is easier to clean because it is sealed against stains, making it nearly maintenance-free. Laminate is also one of the most hypoallergenic flooring materials available today, and moisture and age resistant, meaning that it will not yellow, curl or crack, like linoleum. Laminate is far more durable for active applications than hardwood due to its scratch and indentation resistance.  With the technology today, laminate floors look just like real hardwoods, and provide you all the beauty you want and the durability you demand.

PREFINISHED vs. UNFINISHED HARDWOOD
Consider the gloss level of hardwood. Satin or low-shine urethanes tend to show less traffic patterns than do the higher gloss finishes.

• Prefinished wood planks are stained and finished at the factory. Advantages: prefinished wood can be solid or engineered, takes only 1-2 days at job site to complete, less affected by moisture- will not shrink or swell, minimal mess and smells, and the finishes are applied in controlled environment and heat set providing far more durability than a hand applied finish ever could. Disadvantages: None that we know of!

• Unfinished planks are sanded, stained and finished at the job site. Advantages: can be custom stained to match existing trim. Disadvantages: takes a week to install and for coats to dry, very messy and can smell, inherent imperfections that come with the environment that it is installed in and varies from home to home, but costs more to install.

TYPES OF DISCOUNT FLOORING
Hardwood flooring is graded and not all grades are the same.

• Clear Grade – color and graining is uniform and virtually no wood knots, pinholes or blemishes on the surface.
• Select & Better – slight variation in the color but, still, virtually no wood knots, pinholes or blemishes on the surface.
• Country Grade- variation in color and graining and lighter to darker contrasts, could have small pinholes and small wood knots causing more waste during installation.
• Character Grade, Rustic Grade, or Traditional Grade – planks will show more natural character and have more pinholes and wood knots.
• Tavern Grade or Cabin Grade- planks may have visual character in color and graining, as well as wood knots and dark colored mineral streaks.

STYLES

Parquet is a series of wood flooring pieces that create a geometric design and/or pattern.
Plank is linear and wider than parquet. The wider the plank, the more concern for effect by moisture.
Strip wood floors are also linear and gives the illusion of a larger and more open space.

DOMESTIC vs. EXOTIC HARDWOOD
Among the popular choices for domestic hardwoods are the traditional species you might expect: walnut, ash, maple, pine, hickory, oak, cherry, and birch.

• Oak- one of the most favorite hardwoods of homeowners, available in red or white oak, durable and termed best for the everyday wear and tear.
• Maple- a popular choice for those desiring a lighter color than oak, color ranges from plain white to reddish brown, texture is uniform and naturally resistant to abrasion, scratches and dents.
• Cherry- highly moisture resistant with minimal shrinkage and swelling, popular for its rich, reddish-brown color which darkens beautifully into a lustrous burgundy with age and exposure to sunlight.
• Walnut- dark brown to purplish black in color, noted for beautiful, distinctive grain, produces a greater variety of figure types than any other wood, is not recommended in high traffic areas, is preferred as a general building material due to its ease of use.
• Exotics are defined as those that would be imported, like Tiger wood, Brazilian Cherry, and Bamboo. Exotics are more expensive than domestic woods, so many prefer to reserve exotic woods for small areas like entryways and bathrooms.

COLOR

Darker wood floors are more traditional, formal, and warm. Lighter wood floors showcase a more casual, country, or contemporary look. Darker colors tend to show traffic quicker, whereas natural wood colors of oak and maple do not.

Today’s most popular colors are red oak natural and maple natural, but anything goes with today’s eclectic decoration styles.

THE BUDDY ALLEN CARPET ONE DIFFERENCE

Price: As a member of one of the world’s largest buying groups in floor covering, Buddy Allan Carpet One Floor & Home in Nashville offers a vast selection of affordable hardwood floors from major manufacturers. We’ve built strong relationships with these manufacturers giving us huge buying power and allowing us to offer the best price on hardwoods in the area.

Certified Installers: All big-box stores in Nashville that sell hardwood flooring will contract a 3rd party installation outfit out and send them to your home. The person you made your purchase with may not even know the names of the individuals they’re sending over to measure OR install….SCARY! At Buddy Allen Carpet One, we have a certified, in-house installation team that we work every day.  They’re part of our team, and some have worked for us for over 25 years!  A few people on our installation staff are actually the children of Buddy Allen’s first installer!  It really is a tradition at Buddy Allen Carpet One.

Warranty:  No matter which hardwoods you choose, at Buddy Allen Carpet One, you’ll receive our Lifetime Installation Guarantee! This means that if there is ever a problem with your flooring due to the installation, we’ll fix it at no extra cost to you! We have a range of warranties on hardwoods that you can see here. Hardwood flooring products with a Titanium, Platinum, or Gold SelectAFloor™ warranty carry The Beautiful Guarantee®. The Beautiful Guarantee® means that at any time after installation and during the terms of The Beautiful Guarantee, you wish to change your new hardwood flooring for a different SelectAFloor™ style, we’ll replace it free!

Experience: Aside from our nearly 50 years of flooring knowledge and experience, we are locally-owned and on the third generation of being family-operated. We even provide FREE in-home estimates and shopping  throughout Middle Tennessee.  Our showroom is located at 2517 Lebanon Pike Nashville, TN 37214. Shop hardwoods with us online at www. BuddyAllenCarpetOne.com, in-store: Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. and Saturday, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., or call (615) 208-5169, and we’ll send a flooring consultant to your home, FREE!

Buying carpet or any type of flooring sounds easy and for some perhaps it is. But if you’re new to the carpet-buying market in Nashville, you’ll find that you have tons of choices: carpet functionality, carpet quality, Sqft price, warranties and more importantly who’s going to be coming into your home to install it!

Why Buy Carpet?

People buy carpet for many reasons! Cozy, low maintenance, and durable, carpet provides a safe, comfortable spot for kids to play. Hundreds of color and style options mean that carpet can serve as an extension of your personality. So let’s get to your choices!

QUALITY

• Density- Carpets with a high density will resist crushing, matting, and overall wear much better than carpet with a low density.

• Pile Height- It’s simply how tall the carpet is.  The higher a carpet extends the more material it consists of which in turn bumps up the price.  Viewing a carpet’s pile height in addition to its density is critical in determining carpet quality.  While you might want a lower carpet pile on your stairs, generally the higher the pile the better.

• Yarn Twist- Pay attention to the twist if you are considering a plush style or a cut pile carpet. The “twist” is how many times the yarns are wrapped or twisted in a one inch length of yarn. The higher (or tighter) the twist, the better the carpet and the longer the carpet will look brand new.

FIBER

• Wool- Wool is the original Carpet fiber and is soft and very luxurious and is known to age gracefully. Because wool is completely natural, the fiber does not contain toxins. Wool is the most expensive carpet fiber.

• Nylon- Nylon is a synthetic fiber. More than 70% of carpet is made from nylon because it is soft. Most high-end carpet is made from Nylon fiber. The fact that a carpet is made from nylon, however, does not always relate to good quality. Nylon is not inherently stain resistant so nylon must be treated with stain protection such as Scotch guard or stain master, Teflon etc.

• Polyester-Today, polyester can be found in the entire range of carpet from entry level to High End. The construction today provides the same durability and warranties of comparable Nylons, but with better stain resistance and better pricing.  Since Polyester is not tied to the petroleum industry, you can get a lot of carpet at a lower price.  Polyester is also more “green” because it is produced from recycled plastics, such as water bottles.

STYLES

Cut-Pile:

• Textured carpet has alternating lengths of fibers that help mask footprints and vacuum marks.  A textured cut pile is a great all-round carpet and is seen in most apartments.
• Plush is a very soft, formal carpet most often found in bedrooms. Plush carpet will show nearly every footprint and vacuum mark.
• Frieze carpet is made from slightly twisted fibers. The look is less formal than plush, but fancier than many textured pieces or Berber. The carpet feels soft on your feet, yet its fuzziness hides footprints and dirt well. Frieze carpet is one of the most durable carpets that you can purchase.

Berber:

• Berber carpet is dense, extremely durable, and doesn’t show tracks, soil, or stains.  Berber is perfect for high-traffic areas or places frequented by kids.

COLOR

Try cool blues or greens to create a calm, peaceful setting, and warm reds or golden shades to make a large space feel cozier. Light colors can make small rooms feel larger and more open, so try cream or tan if you’re feeling claustrophobic. Dark shades or patterns can hide stains, as can tweed or textured carpet designs.
Always ask for carpet samples of each color you’re considering. Take them home to examine them in natural light before you buy. Keep in mind that sun exposure can fade colored carpeting, so choose fade-resistant products if your carpet will be in direct sunlight.

ALSO CONSIDER

• “Green” Options- Protect your family by choosing carpet with a GreenSelect label, made from natural products, including wool, jute and other organic materials.

• Cushion- Cushion is the life of your carpet. A quality cushion with spill protection, anti microbial, and prime material will enhance the performance of your carpet.

THE BUDDY ALLEN DIFFERENCE

Warranty:  No matter what floor covering you choose, at Buddy Allen, you’ll receive our Lifetime Installation Guarantee! This means that if there is ever a problem with your flooring due to the installation, we’ll fix it at no extra cost to you! We have a range of warranties on the carpeting that you can see here. Carpet flooring products with a Titanium, Platinum, or Gold SelectAFloor™ warranty carry The Beautiful Guarantee®. The Beautiful Guarantee® means that at any time after installation and during the terms of The Beautiful Guarantee, you wish to change your new carpet for a different SelectAFloor™ style or color, we’ll replace it free!

Who is coming into your home? All big-box stores that sell flooring will contract a 3rd party installation outfit out and send them to your home. The person you made your purchase with may not even know the names of the individuals they’re sending over to measure OR install….SCARY! At Buddy Allen, we have an in-house installation team that we work every day.  They’re part of our team, and some have worked for us for over 25 years!  A few people on our installation staff are actually the children of Buddy Allen’s first installer!  It really is a tradition at Buddy Allen Carpet One.

Where are you shopping? Aside from our nearly 50 years of flooring knowledge and experience, we are locally-owned and on the third generation of being family-operated. We even provide FREE in-home estimates and shopping  throughout Middle Tennessee.  Our showroom is located at 2517 Lebanon Pike Nashville, TN 37214. Shop carpet online with us at www. BuddyAllenCarpetOne.com, in-store: Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. and Saturday, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., or call (615) 208-5169, and we’ll send a flooring consultant to your home, FREE!

If you made it this far, you deserve a FREE Carpet Cleaning Kit!!!——————————————->

When it comes to cleaning, some surfaces simply require a dab of cleaning agent and a lot of elbow grease. Unfortunately, cleaning grout between tile is one of those surfaces. Whether it’s your bathroom, kitchen counters, or floors, keeping your grout clean is not only good for maintaining its original color and your own health, but it also keeps your tile from breaking down…saving you money in the long run!

Here we’ve listed some ways to use typical household (and Green) products to clean and maintain your grout:

Baking soda and water – mix the ingredients into a paste, use an old toothbrush and scrub away. For the hard to clean spots, after scrubbing leave the paste for several minutes then rinse and dry.

Vinegar – while this is normally used for everyday cleaning and disinfecting, leaving the vinegar on the grout can get off some of those pesky stains especially when mixed with baking soda and salt. Apply, rinse and dry!

Lemon Juice – This is particularly great for those stains that have been around for a while. Leave the lemon juice on the stained grout for 10 to 15 minutes and wipe with a damp cloth or sponge.

   *Warning: Do not use any these agents on natural stone flooring like marble, travertine or granite they will etch up your flooring. If you’re unsure, don’t use these.

   *Note: Try not to let these agents sit on your tile for very long or they could damage the tile. Simply keep a wet rag with you to wipe off any of the lingering liquid that is on your actual flooring.

You may prefer chemical cleaners and that’s just fine! If so, we’d recommend:

1. Foaming bathroom cleaner – you’ll want to use a brush to scrub the cleaner into the grout, leave for a few minutes, rinse and dry.
2. Oxygen-based cleaners – make a paste with the powder and water, scrub with an old toothbrush, rinse and dry.

!!!Remember!!!: Do not use bleach based products on colored grout. Using bleach could change the color of your grout which will change the whole look of your tile and ultimately your room.

For your tougher grout stains and tile cleaning jobs, we highly recommend our friends at Pro-Care. Tell them we sent you!

We hope this simple tip helps you save money and keeps your tile and home looking beautiful!

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Thanks for stopping by. In the coming month, we’ll be publishing our new blog! Stay tuned for posts about decorating, going green, quick cleaning tips and other useful information!

In the meantime, please shoot Zack an email at Zack@BuddyAllenCarpetOne.com letting us know what topics you’re most interested in.

Check back soon!

Buddy Allen Carpet One