FCNews unveiled the winners of its fourth annual FCNnovation Awards—an initiative designed to recognize and showcase some of the most innovative new products and technologies launched in the current year. These awards honor groundbreaking ideas and industry-changing concepts that have impacted flooring across categories and verticals. The hardwood winners below were chosen among several nominees.
Prima Lusso
Urbanfloor
With some of the thinner, engineered hardwood flooring products that have grown in popularity in recent years, flooring installers often had to put in plywood to raise the overall height to match that of cabinetry, trim and molding, etc. But thanks to ongoing innovations in engineered construction, installers have other options.
Urbanfloor’s new Prima Lusso—introduced earlier this year—not only gives installers an engineered construction in an overall thickness of 3/4 of an inch, but the product alleviates issues for the rest of the trades who install the trim work, treads, etc. This makes the job more cost effective by minimizing disruptions and reducing the amount of time required on the job site.
Loosely translated as “first luxury,” the term Prima Lusso aims to capture the essence of what prime-grade, select, clean oak is all about—a product that performs well, fills a gap in the market, provides a trade-up opportunity in a growing engineered sub-segment and looks good, too. Prima Lusso, comprising A-B grades and boasts a hefty, 4mm face, also reflects another trend that has dominated the wood flooring sector for the past 10-plus years—wide and long. To that end, the 9 1/2-inch-wide boards provide a dramatic footprint—especially in large, open floor plans—while random lengths up to 7 feet accentuate the graining of the oak planks.
Serenity
Hallmark
When Hallmark Floors unveiled its stylish Serenity Collection, the company had a good feeling that it might have a hit on its hands. But who would have guessed that the product also caught the attention of The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd., which bestowed Hallmark with a GOOD DESIGN Award for 2024. The program recognizes the most innovative and cutting-edge industrial, product and graphic designs produced around the world.
For all intents and purposes, the new Serenity collection fits the bill nicely. The Serenity collection, which is built on proprietary technologies, is crafted from a cleaner grade of hardwood, offering a refined and uniform appearance that enhances its natural beauty. With 7.5-inch-wide planks in lengths up to 7 feet, 2 inches and subtle wire-brushed textures, this collection showcases the elegance of select hardwoods. Serenity also offers a palette of natural colors.
Woodura Herringbone 2.0
Bjelin
In 2023 Bjelin announced its breakthrough Woodura Plank 3.0 line, a product designed to offer 3x the performance and scratch/dent resistance than some traditional wood floors. Bjelin continues its innovative, award-winning ways this year with the unveiling of a popular herringbone design featuring some of the same underlying performance attributes of Woodura Planks. Empowered by patented technologies, Woodura Herringbone 2.0 offers a modern take on a timeless classic albeit with larger panels and advanced click technology. Previously tested in Scandinavia, this product’s success has prompted an international rollout.
Like Woodura Planks, Bjelin’s hardened wood herringbone flooring features the innovative leakproof 5G Dry locking system, allowing for effortless installation without nails or glue, while watertight joints prevent any leakage through seams. What’s more, at approximately 3.6 inches wide x 22 inches long, these panels surpass traditional parquet herringbone sizes, offering a modern feel. Woodura technology not only enables larger panel production but also optimizes raw material utilization. Made with responsibly sourced Croatian oak, this collection is initially offered in three trendy colors and a clean “select” grade.
Expert Series
Lauzon
Some diehard hardwood flooring contractors with an affinity for products comprising a solid, 3/4-inch construction were somewhat averse to switching over to multi-ply engineered products despite the proven performance characteristics of the latter. Enthusiasts pointed to both the long-held perception that thicker, 3/4-inch products provided a longer lifespan while giving experienced installers a product platform with which they were long familiar.
However, ongoing innovations in manufacturing are shifting those perceptions. Take Lauzon’s Expert line of 3/4-inch engineered product, for example. The company has come up with a manufacturing method that delivers an engineered construction in an overall thickness that traditional installers are more accustomed to. This allows floor layers to nail or glue the floor down the same way they have done with 3/4-inch solid products while providing the consumer a much more stable product, thanks to the cross-ply engineered construction. And because it’s a 2-ply product, the thicker top wear layer can be sanded multiple times over the lifespan of the floor, putting it on par with traditional solid products.
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