Yes! Raintree utilizes a hybrid construction that takes the waterproof core from resilient and tops it with a luxurious sliced hardwood veneer to create a real hardwood floor that is engineered for modern life. This innovative construction provides the waterproof performance and indentation resistance of rigid core flooring without sacrificing the authentic design and value-adding benefits of real hardwood.

Raintree Hardwoods are categorized as engineered wood composite / hybrid flooring, meaning it has a real wood face which is supported by a waterproof rigid core. This type of construction gives Raintree Hardwoods the floor performance attributes that are not possible in solid and engineered wood floors, like being 100% waterproof. Composite wood floors are always finished in a factory because the coatings required to make it waterproof are not possible to add on the job site. The core is waterproof, and the wood veneer is encapsulated by waterproof coatings to achieve a 100% waterproof construction. Composite wood floors generally have a click tongue and groove locking mechanism and an attached sound deadening pad on the back. This saves installation time and makes them perfect for DIYers and remodeling projects. The overall thickness is about 1/3”.

Raintree composite / hybrid hardwood offer a number of advantages over solid and engineered flooring:

• Waterproof hardwood floors: offering high-performance, 100% waterproofing, so the planks don’t swell or lose their integrity when they contact water.
• Rigid inner core with Ninja Core: this thick inner core is structurally sound, highly durable, and more dimensionally stable than other manufacturer options.
• Pet Guard waterproof and scratch-resistant wear layer: this layer protects against typical wear and tear of everyday use, including scratches, spills, and wet maintenance.
• Acoustic foam backing: reducing the amount of sound emitted through the hardwood and improves insulation and resilience.
• Click Tongue and Groove Edge – joint locking system that is easy to install without glue, nails, or other fasteners.

Engineered wood composite / hybrid floors are built with a rigid core in the center layer. It is made from a combination of natural limestone powder, polyvinyl chloride, and stabilizers. This provides an incredibly stable base for each flooring plank. Rigid core flooring can withstand heavy traffic, extreme scratches, indentations, and major spills. The core is 100% waterproof, allowing drink spills and pet accidents to leave your hardwoods looking brand new and unaffected. The waterproof hardwoods at Raintree use (remove NINJA) a 5mm Rigid Core that is stronger and more stable than other engineered wood constructions or wood plastic composite (WPC) options. With the combination of our rigid core and waterproof finish, you don’t have to worry about spills warping or damaging your hardwoods! This core substrate does not take away from the luxurious, real hardwood surface, nor does it sacrifice durability.

Laminate floors have a printed surface made from plastic or printed paper material to provide the appearance of wood. Engineered hardwood and composite/hybrid hardwoods are made with a top wood veneer layer, which is a thin piece of natural hardwood with a base of plywood to give it stability. Since engineered and composite / hybrid flooring, like Raintree, are made with hardwood veneer, they don’t just look real – they are real - while laminates are more uniform and lack the beauty of natural wood.

When choosing your new hardwood floors, you must consider the type of finish and the sheen. The sheen refers to the amount of light your flooring will reflect from that finish. A high-gloss wood floor reflects the most light and gives your floor significant shine. Matte wood floor finishes don’t reflect as much light and create a more natural wood appearance.

Choosing the finish is an essential part of your decision-making process because it will dictate how much light your hardwood floors absorb or disperse throughout the room. Consider the amount of natural light that is already coming into your home. Using a high-gloss finish will move the light around the room and boost overall brightness, but unfortunately, it can also show dirt, scratches, and wear more easily than matte finishes.

All Raintree styles feature a matte finish, which is in keeping with current home trends that favor more natural and organic wood designs. The matte finish moves around less light, will hide imperfections, and offers lower maintenance over time, making it an excellent choice for high-traffic areas of the home.

Floating hardwoods: Floating hardwoods generally use a tongue and groove method of connecting one board to another and do not need to be attached to the subfloor, so they essentially float over the subflooring. They often have a glueless click installation system and can be laid over your existing hard surface flooring. They offer simple and easy installation if you’re looking for a method you can do yourself and will not contract and expand with changing humidity levels, giving your floating hardwoods more longevity. Floating hardwoods are highly resilient and offer durability and strength that other flooring options can’t match. However, depending on the construction, they’re not always as stable as glued options. Floating floors may also create a hollow sound underfoot without the proper backing because of the space created between the flooring substrate and the subfloor in areas of high traffic.

The advanced acoustic pad and the density of Raintree‘s core minimize the hollow sound associated with most floating floors.

Glue down wood flooring: With glue down wood flooring, the installation involves connecting the wood planks to the subfloor with a glue adhesive or bonding substrate. They are a highly secure flooring material because of the bonding agent used to hold the boards together. You can even glue down panels to an uneven surface of a subfloor that has imperfections. Typically glue down floors are much messier to work with and can take a lot of extra time to install, so they require slightly more skill than glueless click wood floors, typically requiring the job to be completed by a professional.

Raintree planks have a tongue and groove edge for easy floating installation, plus an attached acoustical pad that improves sound and comfort. If Raintree flooring is being installed in an area that is not going to be heated during the winter, it should be glued down.

Choosing the perfect color for your hardwood floors is a big decision. The best way to begin narrowing down your choices is to select a style that works with your existing home aesthetic. Consider your color palette — walls, cabinets, furniture — and look at wood floor colors that complement that palette or offer a nice contrast to your decor. One thing to keep in mind is the color of your furniture and home decorations. If you have a lot of dark-colored furniture, try a light wood floor to offer a beautiful, clean contrast.

You’ll also want to think about the size of the room and the natural lighting it offers. Dark wood floors tend to minimize the space and can cause a smaller room to feel cramped. Alternatively, light wood floors are great for moving the light around a room and creating an open space. However, this may not be the case if you have a lot of natural light flowing into the room already with light-colored walls. The lighter walls will bounce light around the room and highlight the dark wood floor’s rich, dark colors.

If you want to go with a more classic and timeless look, warm, neutral browns are always a great choice and will not affect your resale value if a particular hardwood trend is not popular in the years to come. As you’re looking at different options, be sure to compare your home with actual samples of the wood before making the final decision. Seeing it in person can help you decide if a particular color and shade will complement (—or detract from) your space.

Raintree hardwoods come in a wide range of colors to make it easy to find the perfect shade. Plus, we offer two free samples so you can see your favorites in your home before making a final decision.

Trends tend to come and go, and this is no different for flooring designs. Dark hardwood floors have become exceedingly popular and offer a regal beauty to your home. However, recent trends for up-and-coming home design have been favoring lighter hardwood floors for their ability to make space appear larger, more open and inviting, and create a cheerful, soft ambiance. We see a surge of grey blends, whitewashed looks, and light brown hardwood floors. There has been a shift in style toward more desaturated color shades with warm undertones. Dark hardwood floors still certainly add a dramatic and eye-catching warmth to your home, but the majority of homeowners have been opting for lighter shades.

At Raintree, we always keep an eye on the trends and create styles that reflect the latest colors; however, we do so in a way that isn’t too extreme, so your floors still look current when a trend starts to fade.

The best way to reduce noise in hardwood floors is to install an acoustic underlayment and damping compound. The underlayment is used to separate the construction materials in the subfloor to insulate sound vibrations and offer noise reduction for your hardwood floors and is then combined with a damping compound to absorb the sounds the underlayment cannot. Cork, foam, and rubber are all common materials used in creating this backing for noise reduction. The thicker the material, the more sound they will absorb, but the thicker the pad the more pressure is put on the tongue and groove locking system. Our Raintree floors are designed to offer the perfect combination of sound reduction and joint stability.

It’s not an easy job to add sound damping materials to your hardwood floors, but the good news is at Raintree, all of our hardwood floors are already pre-constructed with an acoustic foam backing layer. Our 1mm IXPE Backing serves to reduce the transmission of sound and increase your floor’s resilience underfoot.

As you begin your search, you need to consider how you use the floors, how much time you want to dedicate to maintenance and cleaning, comfortability, and whether you’re adding to your home’s resale value. The material you choose will serve as an integral part of your home and interior design.

If you have a busy household, a composite / hybrid flooring, like Raintree, is the perfect solution. Not only are Raintree hardwoods 100% waterproof, they also feature a Pet Guard scratch-resistant wear layer. This layer protects against typical wear and tear of everyday use, including scratches.

Raintree hardwoods also help minimize noise since they are built with attached acoustic backing, which helps reduce the sound of running children and pets, offering a few much-needed peaceful moments in your busy schedule.

Read more about the innovative hardwood construction of Raintree hardwoods on our blog and discover the benefits of the best hardwood flooring for the busy family.

Absolutely! All Raintree flooring is 100% waterproof and features our Pet Guard Waterproof + Scratch Resistant finish which protects against scratches. We designed Raintree so that you can enjoy your pets and your wood flooring without worry.

We are all too familiar with the sinking feeling you get after freshly cleaning your beautiful floors, only to be surprised when the excited your pet has an accident. Our hardwoods are tough enough to withstand scratches from your pet’s nails, waterproof to prevent damage from spills and accidents, and feature an acoustic foam backing that reduces the noise from barking pets.

Learn more about selecting the right pet-friendly flooring options that both you and your furry friend will love.

First, let’s talk briefly about what radiant heat systems are. Radiant heat transfers heat directly to the floor through heating panels instead of conventional heating systems that emit heat through the baseboards and base of the walls or with a vent in place on the floor for forced-air circulation. Radiant heat will more efficiently heat a room because you will not experience heat loss as it travels through ducts or a ventilation system and relies on the natural movement of heat to warm up a room. A radiant floor heating system typically requires high-temperature fluctuations to operate correctly, making certain flooring unsuitable for installation.

Not all engineered hardwoods have been approved for all radiant heating systems. Raintree has been engineered to withstand radiant heating systems that do not have high temperatures (above 85 degrees Fahrenheit) and will not experience drastic expanding and contracting of the wood, which would otherwise cause damage to a solid wood flooring! See details in our installation guidelines for which radiant heating systems are suitable for Raintree.

Raintree floors already have an attached pad so additional underlayment is not needed nor recommended.

Click tongue and groove hardwood flooring is an interlocking plank flooring that makes hard surface flooring easier to install. Each floorboard piece has interlocking tongues and grooves on all sides. The tongue is a piece that juts out from the side of the board, which fits into a recessed space that holds the adjoining boards of the hardwood flooring together. Click tongue and groove hardwoods, like Raintree, have become increasingly popular because they require no nailing or gluing, can be used in remodeling jobs without having to modify the subfloor and are easier for DIYers to install.

Lacey Act was first enacted in 1900 to outlaw the trade of any wildlife and fish that were illegally possessed or transported, requiring an import declaration upon arriving at its import destination. In 2008, the Lacey Act was amended to include plants and wood-sourced products. Meaning, all hardwood flooring must be Lacey Act Compliant and follow the regulations of importing and releasing cargo to be lawfully sold to consumers. The act aims to create honest environmental action and protect the beautiful hardwoods used to create wood-sourced products. All wood used in Raintree flooring is environmentally harvested and Lacey Act Compliant from countries considered low risk for illegal logging.