Unique flooring options available locally

WORTHINGTON -- While wood and laminate flooring have remained popular over the years, new trends occasionally come to the forefront.

Paul Woll, who with his wife, Lois, owns and operates Prairie Decorating in downtown Worthington, believes buyers are often moving beyond oak and oak-type finishes and into "exotics," which, in essence, is a selfdescriptive term.

Woll carries Armstrong's Global Exotics line, which in a product brochure is described as "unique species distinguished by their origin, color and sophisticated grain. In addition to their striking elegance, these premium hardwoods possess superb hardness and inherent durability adding to the quality and value of your home."

"There are just more and more of these being shown, and they're starting to take off here," Woll said of Global Exotics.

Options available in the Global Exotics line include such names as Jatoba, Cabreuva, Sucupira, Tauari and Cumaru. There's even a product called Tigerwood, with a stain resembling tiger stripes as opposed to the famous golfer.

Another product in the Armstrong family, American Treasures, is a hickory wood that has gone over well, Woll said. Bruce -- an additional Armstrong brand -- "has introduced some exotics gradually in the last several years," he added. An American Exotics line, meanwhile, has a number of different cherry woods available, with "a little more variation than the standard cherry."

Widths for flooring planks are evolving somewhat, Woll described.

"You used to mostly see 2 1/4 (inch)-wide planks," he said. "That's still popular, but now you're seeing a trend to wider planks like 3 1/4, 4 and up to 5 inches in width. It's just a change in preference, I guess."

Change isn't occurring only in the realm of hardwoods, as "exotics are also being introduced into the laminate floors," Woll said. One example is an Armstrong product Prairie Decorating carries called Grand Illusions, a "premium laminate."

"This is a new laminate that's a little heavier than the others," Woll explained. "That gives it more of a feel of solid wood. It also incorporates a new finish in it. ... It's eight times more resistant to ordinary scratches, dents and dings than engineered wood."

Woll added that the product also has a "piano" finish that mimics filled-face wood for a luxurious look.

"It's a beautiful floor," he said.

Additionally, Grand Illusions has a "lock and fold," two-step installation process, which means no pounding or gluing -- the installer simply locks and folds the pieces into place.

The Wolls have been in business at the same Worthington location since 1972, when they relocated to the community from Iowa. Now that it's springtime, the store will start getting busier as it begins to move more of its flooring and other various home interiors merchandise. "It does pick up now. With graduations and anniversaries and weddings, things like that, it usually helps our business."