Engineered Innovation / Stylewood Collection

When considering the role of an engineered construction for wideplank hardwood flooring, the importance of stability cannot be overstated. As an installed floor goes through the cycle of four seasons, it is subjected to differences in relative humidity that can have a big impact on the moisture content of the wood. These changes in moisture content make the wood want to expand and contract, wreaking havoc on a floor unless it is properly engineered to prevent it.

DACS III is the evolution of our innovative DACS (Design for Advanced Core Stability) technology. The foundation of the DACS III concept is the principle that “stability comes from the core”. Thus, all of CRAFT’s engineered floors are made with a proprietary, hand-assembled core that demonstrates exceptional levels of dimensional stability.

Our DACS III Engineering System is based on solid-sawn components of high quality, structural grade Canadian Spruce, a well managed renewable resource that comes from Canadian forests. These components are hand assembled by skilled craftsmen into an innovative tongue-and-grooved structure that forms the most dimensionally stable engineered core in the flooring industry.

Our StyleWood Collection uses a structure consisting of a 2.8mm wear layer mounted onto the DACS III core. StyleWood floors enjoy an advantage in their high degree of affordability and in the fact that their thinner construction makes them more suitable for installations where the substrate may not be completely flat.

Many hardwood flooring manufacturers, especially those that make thin ½” and 9/16” products, use very thin rotary peeled or sliced veneers. This peeling or slicing process can negatively affect the structural integrity of the veneers, and it considerably degrades their appearance. The net result is a veneer that’s typically too thin to be re-sanded even one time, and a wood pattern that can look strange or inauthentic. Given that such thin-veneer flooring cannot be re-sanded, it ends up being “single use” material which negatively impacts its overall lifetime value, and results in a lower ranking from an environmental perspective.

In contrast, the veneers in high quality, long lasting engineered flooring are made by way of the “solid-sawn method”, whereby veneers are sawn in thick layers from planks of hardwood lumber. This process retains the wood’s structural integrity and results in the most natural, aesthetically pleasing grain patterns. All of the veneers used in CRAFT’s floors are solid-sawn, meaning that our floors can be sanded and refinished multiple times, extending the life and value of a CRAFT floor for generations.