Finance research report - Essay Example

Finance research report: Oak lumber hardwood flooring The USA market for residential housing and residential remodeling has beenon the rise, occasioning the higher need for oak lumber hardwood flooring. The main areas of production of oak lumber flooring material is the eastern region of the United states, which accounts for an average 90% of the total USA flooring raw material (Catinella, 303). The major producers of oak lumber flooring material in the US wood flooring manufacturing industry includes big companies such as Wood Flooring International (WFI), Mohawk Industries and Armstrong World Industries (Pereira, 42).

There are many other small companies operating in this industry, which mainly deal with the production and supply of wood flooring materials locally. Cumulatively, the US wood flooring manufacturing industry comprises of over 100 companies, with annual revenue of $2 billion (Axelrod and Bruce, 77). The industry has had several random events, notably that of 1990-91, where the demand of the flooring materials increased sharply, creating a great need for such material for residential constructions.

This affected the shipments of the flooring materials to other regions outside the USA. The techniques applied by the producers of oak hardwood flooring include solid wood flooring and engineered wood flooring. Solid wood flooring refers to a production of oak hardwood flooring material, where the solid wood flooring is milled from a single piece of timber, which is dried in a kiln or naturally, before being sewn (Catinella, 302). The solid piece can either be sewn in three different ways, depending on its use.

It can be sewn in rifts, quarters or flat pieces, which are then used in flooring. The pieces sewn can be transported to the site unfinished, where they will then be cut and shaped depending on the requirements of the floor to be dressed. The fundamental principle of Solid Wood Flooring is the control of the moisture content for the pieces of wood that are to be sewn, which is essential to ensure that such pieces do not warp, to avoid the disruption of the solid flooring pattern (Pereira, 43).

The solid wood floors are manufactured with appropriate thickness that ensures the production of a neat solid floor, and have groves and tongues readily cut into them; necessary for installation. Engineered wood manufacturing is the other oak lumber production technique, which entails the production of two or more layers of planks of wood (Catinella, 312). The top layer of the wood that forms the face of the floor is known as lamella, which can be installed on all types of sub-floors, considering that it is a universal finishing layer.

The second layer of the engineered wood manufacturing can be made up of either sewn timber wood, which is the most common, or a composite product such as veneer, which is then finished with a lamella top layer, making it to appear as if it was a wood floor (Pereira, 42). The Engineered wood manufacturing can also entail the use of Acrylic impregnated wood flooring, where wood is impregnated with layers of liquid Acrylic, and then dried well through the proprietary process, to give it a wooden finishing appearance.

The organic materials are used to impregnate the wooden top layer, so that it can attain the right thickness, while still maintaining the wooden finishing appearance (Axelrod and Bruce, 72). The major inputs used in the production of oak lumber include organic substances such as veneer and acrylic, which are integrated with wood, under engineered wood manufacturing. Thus, the notable difference between the solid wood flooring and the engineered wood manufacturing is the fact that, while the Solid wood flooring technique entails the use of solid pieces of wood only, the engineered wood manufacturing entails more than one layer, which may comprise purely of wood material or other organic materials.

The primary use of oak lumber flooring product, is the construction and refurbishing of floors in both commercial and residential houses (Catinella, 304). The bulk of this product is used for housing constructions, accounting for approximately 90% of the total annual production. Wooden structures also forms part of the usage of the products manufactured by the US wood flooring manufacturing industry. The rest 10% is used in the transport industry, mainly in the railway and roads, where it manufactures the railroad cars and truck-trailers respectively (Axelrod and Bruce, 75).

The major consumers of this product are; residential and home owners, who accounts for the bulk usage of this product, followed by the transport sector operators, who uses the product in the manufacturing of truck-trailers and railcars. In addition, other home product manufactures, such as the furniture industry also use a reasonable percentage of the products manufactured by the US wood flooring manufacturing industry (Pereira, 44). Works Cited Axelrod, Karen, and Bruce Brumberg. Watch It Made in the U.s.a: A Visitor's Guide to the Companies That Make Your Favorite Products.

Emeryville, Calif: Avalon Travel, 1997. Print. Catinella, Rita F. "Resilient & Wood Flooring." Architectural Record 192.11 (2004): 300-320. Print. Pereira, Helena. 'Flooring' 2009, Consumer Reports, 74, 8, pp. 42-44. Print.