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Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

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Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#131

Post by dylan604 »

frozenlettuce wrote: post #32
woliveirajr wrote: post #8

In 2020, the then president of Brazil said he would reveal which countries were the consumers of the illegally extracted wood from Amazonia. [0] No further news were heard about it. There were even a startup that would use DNA to certify the origin of the wood, allowing traceability. The "efforts to halt trade in illegal timber such as the EU Timber Regulation and the US Lacey Act" can greatly contribute to reduce th…

Recently I was watching Property Brothers and saw two episodes where both houses had Brazilian Hardwood flooring. The funny thing is that I live in Brazil and it is quite rare to find houses with that type of flooring - the bureaucracy and costs associated make it very expensive - but that might not be the case if the customer is Canadian

> The funny thing is that I live in Brazil and it is quite rare to find houses with that type of flooring

Does Brazilian Hardwood flooring actually mean the type of flooring Brazilians have or just simply that the hardwood being used as flooring is from Brazil?

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#132

Post by [deleted] »

Spivak wrote: post #104
chmod600 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes life is better when you just accept that something is different but not necessarily worse. Natural gas fireplaces aren't real wood-burning, and I can tell, but I just appreciate that they are way cleaner. Now, furniture is a different story. Wood is much better than the engineered crap. Try lifting a modern piece that looks like wood and maybe has a thin layer of wood (very heavy and easy to damage) and the…

But it's so much worse, we can squabble over particulars the minor day to day benefits of them both but the showstopper is that laminate is just trash waiting to happen. Hardwood floors can last 100+ years easy and can be maintained essentially indefinitely. And even if you don't maintain them they can be restored without too much trouble, there are previously abandoned houses that got flipped and are going for 600k…

[deleted]

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#133

Post by devonkim »

bhandziuk wrote: post #61
thunfischbrot wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not correct. While many people choose polyurethane finished wood since it is less likely to stain from liquids, oils and varnishes are popular as well. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_flooring#Finishing,_buffi...

Polyurethane is one type of varnish so if you're going to contrast it you'll have to be more specific (phenolic resin or alkyd resin) Usually oils would be combined with some other varnish, especially on a floor, because they offer nearly zero abrasion or water resistance. You'd think oil finishes like boiled linseed oil or tung oil would offer some water protection because of the oil but they don't. Better than wax…

Hardwax oils are also used but oftentimes have quite bad VOCs. However, I’m familiar with at least one manufacturer that has low/no VOC oils which certainly shows it’s possible but perhaps there’s a good technical explanation for why VOCs are so common in these oil treatments.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#134

Post by lotsofpulp »

chmod600 wrote: post #86
simonsarris wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> look nearly indistinguishable maybe I'm top 1% neurotic about these things but I can tell from Zillow images alone. And definitely by feel of walking on them and the distinct noise they make. There's no comparison. I seriously doubt they are indistinguishable for most people, but I could be very wrong, especially since so many people go for them.

Sometimes life is better when you just accept that something is different but not necessarily worse. Natural gas fireplaces aren't real wood-burning, and I can tell, but I just appreciate that they are way cleaner. Now, furniture is a different story. Wood is much better than the engineered crap. Try lifting a modern piece that looks like wood and maybe has a thin layer of wood (very heavy and easy to damage) and the…

I have had no issues with “engineered crap” from IKEA. Even have dresser drawers from nearly 20 years ago currently in use.

Another case where real wood provides no extra utility, to me. My furniture does not get tossed around, it does not need to be “strong”.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#135

Post by nateskulic »

I think I've seen it done locally, in the USA... "Forest Preserves" cutting down old growth maple/oaks, and piling the massive logs in parking lots until hauled away... I think I've also seen significant "over-pruning" for the sake of the construction of various pathways and "theme parks" for humans.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#137

Post by bickfordb »

chmod600 wrote: post #77
bastardoperator wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue there is zero point in using real hardwood on floors these days given vinyl planks are way cheaper, way more durable, and look nearly indistinguishable from real thing.

The worst are floors with a thin layer of hardwood surface (a few mm) over some "engineered" material below making up the rest of the plank. I'm not sure vinyl is indistinguishable from real hardwood, but I'd take it over a worst-of-both-worlds compromise.

The engineered flooring is generally superior technology:

1. It requires less hardwood (rare) for the veneer, and uses softwood (plentiful) for the plywood base. 2. It can be milled exactly to one thickness. Generally with solid hardwood floors you need to sand after installing to get everything into one plane due to moisture movement in the hardwood warping and twisting it. 3. It can be applied in wider planks. Wide solid hardwood floors tend to cup and contract and leave gaps after installation. The plywood base in engineered planks is cross laminated so that it is more stable and resist moisture changes

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#138

Post by dylan604 »

holoduke wrote: post #91
abakker wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardwood floors can be re-sanded and refinished many times over, generating no waste. Vinyl floors get scratched and then thrown away. Wood is renewable, vinyl comes from oil wells. I'm not certain this is actually logical.

Buy you have ceramic alternatives. Wood looking ad well.Good in combination with floor heating and probably last for a 1000 years.

Ceramic flooring is so much colder than a real wood floor to me. I have no numerical data to offer as evidence to how it feels to me. However, walking into a house that has solid tile flooring vs a house with real wood flooring has a night/day difference in feel. I'm not necessarily just talking about F°/C° "colder". It's just a lot less "feels like home" with tile flooring.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#139

Post by hcurtiss »

SoftTalker wrote: post #130
hcurtiss wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living with the laminates, I wouldn't say they look overtly plastic. Hardwoods are definitely shiny too. You can see a very similar grain in the second photo with the oak. You're right that some wear might change the finish, but I would definitely not trade for the wear you see on the oak. My wife's parents have high-end oak hardwoods and full size dogs. Their flooring is a mess.

The biggest problem with laminate flooring is not the wear, it's that if they get wet the compressed fiberboard absorbs the water and swells, and the surface warps, and the only repair is to replace. Some laminates are 100% waterproof for locations like bathrooms but many are not. Something like a spilled glass of water or puddle from wet shoes, if not noticed immediately and wiped up, can permanently ruin the floor.

Yes, we were a little apprehensive about putting them in our three bathrooms. You pay more for better moisture resistance. Eight years later and ours still look like new, notwithstanding our kids getting out of showers multiple times a day. At least the flooring we got seem to handle water very well.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#140

Post by wxnx »

noah_buddy wrote: post #118
finite_depth wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if there's a way to tag trees to stop this. Like, spray the protected wood with some harmless-but-detectable dose of a radioisotope so you can tell which wood is which.

Or if there’s a way to ruin the wood for woodworking without killing the tree itself. It seems like you would need to do something really clever. Inject it with capsaicin?

Tree spiking is one example of this. It's so common as to be illegal in the United States [1]. Unfortunately, without strict worker protections, it's conceivable that workers would be the ones to pay for their employers' (or their upstream suppliers') illegal actions.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_spiking

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