You can see all of these in our store.
Click for information on:

• Carpet
• Ceramic/Porcelain Tile
• Hardwood
• Linoleum
• Laminates
• Vinyl
• Cork
• Bamboo

Carpet Brands we carry:

• Shaw
• Mohawk
• Royalty
• Beaulieu

Notes from Eric: When your come to the store we’ll ask you how you use the room(s) you want to carpet. Do you have pets? Do you walk through these room(s) a lot? Is there an  outside door to this room? Do your kids play on the floor or is it a formal room for entertaining?

Other tips about carpet selection: Many people bring swatches of fabric from other furnishings or curtains to help them pick a carpet color.

About colors. Darker carpet colors make rooms feel smaller and cozier. Light colors make a room feel larger. Warmer colors are warmer and can be energizing. Cool colors can be calming. Look what colors you already have in your home and how they affect your mood.

Homeowners: Carpet and Flooring Products for Your Home

Eric Hodge, owner and Glenn and Helen Davis view carpet samples

Carpet for warmth and almost limitless color choices

We carry several brands and lines of carpet in our store. You’ll see a range of quality is available from regular to luxurious.

Carpet Fibers-Carpet is available in nylon, olefin, polyester, wool or SmartStrand.

These are the five basic fibers used in carpets today. All make excellent carpets, but each has different characteristics. Some carpets are made of blends, but most are made entirely of one of the following five fibers:

Nylon

Nylon is the most widely used carpet fiber. Because of its resistance to wear, you will never see a visibly worn carpet path in even the busiest spots of your home. Nylon carpet fiber is soft yet strong, shows color brilliantly, and cleans well.

Polypropylene or Olefin

Polypropylene is extremely resistant to stains, fading, and moisture. Polypropylene is also notably colorfast because it is solution dyed, which means the color goes all the way through like a carrot. The color is such an inherent part of the fiber that you can even clean polypropylene with bleach.

Polyester

Polyester offers exceptional softness, making it ideal for thick, cut pile styles. Polyester is also stain resistant and fade resistant. It has excellent color clarity, color retention, strength, and abrasion resistance. Carpets made from this fiber are easily cleaned and they resist water soluble stains.

Wool

The preeminent natural fiber, wool yields a warm, soft, comfortable feel. Wool is not resistance to moisture or abrasion, but it does age well and clean easily. Because it is the most expensive carpet fiber, wool is generally used only in luxury carpets and area rugs.

SmartStrand

SmartStrand fiber made with Dupont’s Sorona polymer has the resilience of nylon, coupled with remarkable stain resistance and a very soft hand. Unlike many stain treatments that are added to the fiber after manufacture, SmartStrand’s stain resistance is engineered into the fiber, so it will never wear off, no matter how many times it is cleaned.

Test show that it even resists damage from bleach and acne medications. In fact, its stain resistance is so good that Mohawk is offering it first-ever Limited Lifetime Warranty for stain resistance.

Carpet also comes in many different textures. That’s right, you’ll be selecting a color, fiber and a texture for your carpets. There are about 8 distinct textures of carpet with names like cut pile (plush), loop pile, patterned loop, and cut and loop. You can see some excellent figures and pictures of these textures at shawfloors.com

Come to our showroom to see a larger selection of carpet or phone us to bring samples to your home. Read on to learn about other flooring or click on Map for directions to the store or Installation to learn about carpeting your home.

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Ceramic Tile Brands we carry:

• Royalty

Ceramic and Porcelain Tile has been ideal flooring for homes over the centuries

Ceramic tile is longer lasting and more durable then almost any other flooring. And it comes in an amazing selection of colors, sizes, shapes and textures. The selection of tile has really exploded in the last decade.

Ceramic tile is made up of clays and minerals that has been shaped, pressed, then fired at temperatures exceeding 2,000 degrees (F). A protective glaze that is applied before firing. This gives the ceramic tile added color and finish and makes it resistant to stains, odors, bacteria, and scratches.

Tile is perfect for kitchens, bathrooms, entryways, and other areas of the home and are available with coordinating trim, transition pieces, and decorative accents.

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Hardwood Flooring Brands We Carry:

• Br-111
• Harris-Trakett
• Junckers
• Lauzon
• Mirage
• TimberCreek

Natural, warm Hardwood Floors

One of the most popular choices for flooring in the Bay Area. Installing hardwood can actually increase the value of your home and it is a very long lasting flooring.

Homeowner’s have a choice between solid and engineered hardwoods.

A solid hardwood floor can be sanded and refinished over several generations of use. One of the characteristics of solid wood flooring is that it expands and contracts with changes in your home's relative humidity. Normally, installers compensate for this movement by leaving an expansion gap between the floor and the wall. Base molding or quarter round is traditionally used to hide the extra space. Traditional solid hardwood flooring is not well suited for high moisture areas such as bathrooms or below-grade installations.

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Linoleum Flooring Brands We Carry:

• Armstrong
• Forbo
• Tarkett

Linoleum is another long wearing, warm natural floor

Many people refer to all sheet floors as “linoleum,”  however real linoleum is quite different then the vinyl that many people call linoleum. Real linoleum is made in Europe and imported to the US. It’s popular again because it feels great to stand on, is quiet, natural looking and has no synthetic chemicals. It is also ideal for rooms with electronic equipments because it is anti-static.

Linoleum is made out of linseed oil The oil is boiled, mixed with melted resins, and combined with powdered cork, wood flour, resins, ground limestone, and other natural materials. Mineral pigments provide the color. This mixture is formed into a durable sheet by applying heat and pressure.

Genuine linoleum is extremely long-wearing, and some have observed that it actually gets stronger with age as the linseed oil oxidizes. While it is stong it requires reqular cleaning and polishing. It is also on the porous site, and therefore not recommented for bathrooms.

It comes in rolls and sheets. Professional installation is recommended as it is much stiffer then vinyl and edges may need to be sealed.

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Laminate Flooring Brands We Carry:

• Wilson Art
• Pergo
• Mannington
• Columbia
• Alloc

Laminates

Laminates are bright, easy to care for, easy to install and durable. With laminates you can have the look of hardwood, ceramic tile or slate.

It’s one of the easiest and most affordable floors to install. The laminate is made of four layers fused together. It is phenomenally durable and stain resistant and comes in many designs.

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Vinyl Flooring Brands We Carry:

• Armstrong
• Congoleum
• Mannington
• Domco
• Tarkett
• Johnsonite
• MetroFloor
• StainMaster

Beauty, toughness,  affordable Vinyl Floors for the way you live

Vinyl comes in the greatest variety of choices. Everything from natural stone to carved tiles, and realistic wood grain to abstract geometrics. Vinyl floors perform beautifully for years, withstand heavy family traffic, resist stains and provide the greatest quiet and comfort of any hard-surface floor. They’re easy to care for and never need waxing. Best of all, vinyl floors are the most economical choice you can make.

Notes from Eric: You have a choice between high and low gloss.The lower the gloss level, the more forgiving the floor will be to the daily wear of foot traffic.

You can also choose the density of the wear layer or top layer which affects how long the vinyl floor lasts. Generally, the thicker the wear layer, the more resistant the floor will be against wear. Also, consider buying an overall thicker vinyl on a floor you use a lot. Thicker vinyl floors provide more indentation resistance, more cushioning, more comfort underfoot, more noise dampening and more insulation.

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Cork Flooring Brands We Carry:

• Natural Cork

Cork

Cork has been around for a long time. Right now it represents a new trend in stylish, non-traditional flooring.

A member of the beech family, the cork oak tree grows in coastal regions of the Mediterranean. Relatively slow growing, these trees survive harsh conditions in depleted soil that will support little else of value. There are examples of cork oak trees that are 400 to 500 years old though the average life expectancy would be 100 to l20 years.

Unlike most trees where primary value is derived from the lumber of the trunk, cork is actually obtained from the bark of the tree. This unusually thick bark is made up of millions of tiny prism-shaped air pockets which create a resilient cushiony surface and lead to the assertion that, with cork, you are literally “walking on air”. Grown on farms and harvested every 9 to 11 years, the financial benefit lies not in felling these trees but in keeping them alive and in production for generations.

Today, cork flooring is created from the post-industrial by product of the bottle-stopper industry. This waste material is ground up and then formed into sheets using minimal amounts of adhesive to bind the particles together under high pressure. The size, quantity, and type of cork granule in conjunction with varying degrees of pressure make the difference between bulletin board material and material suitable for flooring applications.

Why Choose Cork?

• Durable and easy to Maintain
• Comfortable
• Fire Resistant
• Thermally and Acoustically Insulated
• Antimicrobial and insect Repellent

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Bamboo Flooring Brands We Carry:

• Teragren

Bamboo

"Why go with boring old maple or oak when bamboo is emerging as an economical—and—ecofriendly —alternative?"

-Newsweek magazine’s May 23rd, 2005 Design Issue

Bamboo is hard and durable but has a soft appearance. It’s as hard or harder then the various other kinds of wood floors. It comes in natural and carmel color. You can clean bamboo by sweeping or vacuuming and mop occasionally, just as with a wood floor.

Actually bamboo is not wood but a grass. And as one of the fastest growing wood type plants it can be harvested in just 3-5 years. That makes it more sustainable then other woods that take 10 or more years to grow to maturity. China has lots of bamboo under cultivation which makes it a positive alternative to cutting the Rainforests for hardwoods.

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