Brass & Metal Inlay Hardwood Flooring in Atlanta
Classy Flooring ATL is a brass and metal inlay flooring specialist serving metro Atlanta and North Georgia. We rout solid metal into hardwood floors — feature strips, borders, thresholds, and inlay set into custom pattern work.
Classy Flooring ATL is led by Claudiu Toma, an NWFA Certified Installer, NWFA Certified Sand & Finisher and NWFA Certified Sales Advisor, who completed NWFA Precision Patterns: Parquet Flooring and NWFA Precision Patterns: Medallions. Every project is carried out by our in-house crew.
Homeowners, interior designers and custom home builders have shared their experience of working with us in reviews on Google and Houzz, which you can read on our Testimonials page.
Brass inlay starts at $24 per linear foot.
This page covers what decides how a brass inlay performs — solid metal, the depth of the channel, and the condition of the subfloor — what it costs, and why.
What brass inlay costs
Brass inlay starts at $24 per linear foot. That figure covers the brass itself, routing the channel, fitting and setting the metal, and hand-finishing the wood along both edges of it.
It is a starting figure rather than a fixed one because brass inlay is priced by the time it takes, and the time is set by the design.
What makes the work slower, and therefore more expensive:
- Miters, corners, and changes of direction. A long straight run in an open room is the fastest brass there is. Every corner is a separate cut and a separate fit.
- Doorway thresholds. The slowest work per foot on any job. Each threshold is a short, independent run with a cut at both ends.
- Curves. The metal has to be formed to the radius before it is set into the channel.
- Prefinished floors. There is no sanding pass afterward. The metal has to land flush the first time, and there is no correcting it later.
- Short runs. The setup is the same whether the run is three feet or thirty.
- Brass specified shallower than the thickness of the floor. This is one of the larger cost drivers, and it is the one you can do something about at the design stage. It is covered below.
Specify the brass at the full thickness of the floor
This is the most useful decision you can make about a brass inlay, and it belongs at the design stage.
When the brass is as deep as the floor is thick, the channel is routed straight through to the subfloor. The subfloor then sets the height of the metal. The brass sits flush with the wood face as a matter of geometry rather than judgment.
When the brass is shallower than the floor, the channel has to stop at a controlled depth — and that depth has to be held accurately along every foot of the run. It is slower and more demanding work. On a prefinished floor there is no sanding pass afterward to correct anything that drifts.
Both approaches produce a flush floor in skilled hands. Full-thickness brass takes a variable out of the job, and it costs less to install. That is our preference from having done the work, not a rule.
NWFA’s Ornamental Floors states that quarter-inch nonferrous metal is preferable for inlay work.
Specify solid metal
A floor is a wear surface. That changes what the material has to survive.
Plated and anodized strips are aluminum with a brass-colored coating on the outside. The coating is thin. When it is scratched — and in a floor it will be — the aluminum underneath shows through, and there is no way to bring it back. Thin sheet strips have the same problem for a different reason: at a sixteenth of an inch there is very little metal to give.
Solid brass wears to more brass. It can be scratched, walked on, and refinished, and it is the same material all the way down.
We specify solid C360 brass bar and request mill test reports certifying the alloy composition.
Which metal
Brass, copper, or aluminum. Any of the three will work, because all three are nonferrous metals — none is iron-based. That is the property that matters, and it is the reason the choice between them is a design decision rather than a technical one.
Iron-based metals are a different matter. Steel and stainless steel should not be set into a wood floor, because sanding them throws sparks into a room full of wood dust. Even where a floor is prefinished and no sanding is planned, a floor with a real wear layer can be refinished at some point in its life, and whoever does that work may not know which metal is in the floor. NWFA’s Ornamental Floors calls for nonferrous metals only, because ferrous metal sparks during sanding.
Within the nonferrous group, the differences are in how the metal ages and how it reads in the room. Brass is what we specify and what most clients ask for; it warms as it patinas. Copper darkens further and faster. Aluminum stays cool and modern in tone, and it is the least expensive of the three.
Whichever metal you choose, specify it solid.
How the brass is held in the floor
The brass is bedded in the same flooring adhesive that holds the floor itself down, in a routed channel, so that the metal and the wood around it sit on one continuous bond layer.
The reason is movement. Wood and metal do not respond to the same thing. Wood is hygroscopic: it takes up and gives off moisture with the seasons, and changes dimension across the grain as it does. Metal does not respond to humidity at all — it moves with temperature. NWFA states this directly in Ornamental Floors. It means that every inch of the boundary between the brass and the wood carries differential movement, seasonally, for the life of the floor.
A wood flooring adhesive is made to hold a floor while it expands and contracts with the seasons. Bedding the brass in the same adhesive as the field ties the metal into the same bond system that carries the wood, so it moves as one system with the floor. Metal inlay can be set several ways; this is the approach Classy Flooring ATL uses for its long-term hold.
NWFA’s Ornamental Floors names moisture-cure urethane adhesive among the adhesives commonly used for brass, copper, and aluminum inlay. The adhesive we use is MAPEI Ultrabond ECO 995, a 100%-solids, one-component, moisture-curing urethane — the same adhesive that holds the wood floor around the brass.
One practical consequence: MAPEI’s data sheet gives Ultrabond ECO 995, with engineered wood flooring, a working time of 45 to 60 minutes and an adjustability time of 2 to 3 hours at 73°F and 50% relative humidity — the window in which a piece can still be repositioned without compromising the bond. On a prefinished floor, where the brass has to be seated at final height the first time, that window is what makes it achievable.
Brass inlay in prefinished floors
A prefinished floor is finished at the factory, and nothing is sanded after it is installed. Brass inlay can be set into one: on the Woodstock estate, Classy Flooring ATL set 214 linear feet of solid brass into factory-prefinished, wire-brushed engineered white oak.
It is harder work because NWFA’s steps for metal inlay are written for a floor that is sanded afterward. Ornamental Floors describes nails of the same metal along with the adhesive to keep the strip from curling during sanding, and setting the metal about 1/32 inch below the wood surface, since the adhesive raises it slightly. On a site-finished floor, the sanding that follows brings the metal and the wood to one surface.
On a prefinished floor there is no sanding pass. The brass has to land flush when it is set.
That is what full-thickness metal solves: the channel routes to the subfloor, the subfloor sets the height, and the brass arrives flush without a correction pass. Where a design calls for a shallower bar — at Woodstock, the design firm selected the brass detailing, a 1/4-inch by 1/2-inch bar in 5/8-inch plank — the channel is routed to the depth of the bar and held at that depth along every foot of the run. Either way, the depth question matters more on a prefinished floor than on any other.
The subfloor decides what is possible
Brass is less forgiving than wood, and the reason is rigidity.
A wood plank has enough give to absorb a shallow dip in the subfloor and hide it. A solid brass bar has none. It bridges a low spot and stands proud of the wood, or it drops into one and sits below it. Whatever the subfloor is doing, the brass will report it.
NWFA is direct: subfloor irregularities are mirrored in the finished floor, which is why its ornamental guidance calls subfloor flatness critical for borders, inlays, and patterns. For glue-down work, NWFA’s installation guidelines call for the subfloor to be flat to within 3/16 of an inch over ten feet, or 1/8 of an inch over six feet, unless the flooring manufacturer specifies otherwise. Herringbone, which NWFA classes as a parquet pattern, is held to the same tolerance; where a herringbone manufacturer specifies a tighter one, such as 1/8 of an inch over ten feet, that specification governs.
That makes the condition of the subfloor something to establish before the design is agreed, and to correct where it needs correcting. Our subfloor preparation process sets out how flatness is measured and how it is brought into tolerance.
Featured project — European White Oak Herringbone with Solid Brass Inlay, Woodstock GA
A two-house family estate. 214 linear feet of solid brass set into prefinished engineered European white oak — 76 linear feet outlining the herringbone hallway in one house, and 138 in the other, outlining the herringbone catwalk and running across 15 doorway thresholds.
Flooring: RW Floors Bowland Fells, Marshaw — prefinished engineered European white oak, 9-1/2″ wide × 5/8″, 4 mm sawn wear layer, wire-brushed, single manufacturing batch
Brass: Solid C360-H02, 1/4″ × 1/2″, mill finish, unlacquered and left to patina
Method: Routed channel cut to the depth of the bar, bedded flush in MAPEI Ultrabond ECO 995
Pattern: Herringbone shop-fabricated from the plank stock, framed with a custom mechanically-locked border
The floor is factory-prefinished and wire-brushed and was never sanded after installation, so the brass was set flush with a surface that stays as it was delivered. The design firm selected the materials, the pattern, and the brass detailing; Classy Flooring ATL installed the work in both houses.
Related hardwood flooring services
A brass inlay is decided by the work around it. The pattern it sits in, the condition of the subfloor beneath it, and whether the floor is prefinished or site-finished all determine what is possible, how it has to be installed, and what it costs. These are the decisions made before any metal is ordered.
Custom hardwood pattern installation
Herringbone, chevron, and custom borders. Brass inlay is rarely specified on its own — it is almost always set into pattern work, framing a herringbone field, running through a border, or marking the line where one material meets another. The layout of the pattern determines where the metal can go and how many corners it has to turn.
How flatness is measured, and how it is brought into tolerance. This is the condition that decides whether a brass inlay is possible at all. A wood plank can absorb a shallow dip in the subfloor. A solid brass bar cannot — it will report whatever is underneath it. The subfloor is established before the design is agreed.
What inlay flooring is, the forms it takes, and how it is set into a wood floor.
How a medallion is positioned, routed, and set into a finished floor, following NWFA’s guidance for ornamental floors.
Prefinished vs. site-finished engineered hardwood
The choice that determines whether the floor receives a sanding pass after installation. It changes how the brass has to be set, how the depth of the channel is controlled, and how much of the work has to be right the first time. If you are considering an inlay, decide this before you decide anything else about the metal.
Engineered and prefinished flooring installation
The products we install, the subfloor and moisture requirements they carry, and the methods used over plywood and over concrete slab. The brass on the Woodstock estate was set into prefinished engineered plank.
Documented projects across refinishing, custom pattern installation, and new installation, with the materials, finish systems, and methods recorded for each.
Answers on installation, refinishing, subfloors, finishes, and material selection.
Frequently asked questions
Can brass inlay be used in wood floors?
Yes. Brass, copper, and aluminum can all be set into a wood floor, because they are nonferrous — NWFA’s Ornamental Floors calls for nonferrous metals only, since ferrous metal sparks during sanding. The metal is a solid bar set into a channel routed in the floor and bedded in adhesive, with its top flush with the wood face. It can go into solid or engineered floors, site-finished or prefinished; what decides it is a subfloor flat enough for a rigid bar and a channel depth planned with the design. On the Woodstock estate, Classy Flooring ATL set 214 linear feet of solid C360 brass into factory-prefinished, wire-brushed engineered white oak, outlining two herringbone fields and running across 15 doorway thresholds.
How much does brass inlay cost?
At Classy Flooring ATL, brass inlay starts at $24 per linear foot. That covers the brass, routing the channel, fitting and setting the metal, and hand-finishing the wood along both edges. The figure moves with the design, because brass is priced by the time it takes: miters, corners, and curves each add cutting and fitting; doorway thresholds are the slowest work per foot; short runs carry the same setup as long ones; a prefinished floor leaves no sanding pass to correct the height; and a bar shallower than the floor is thick means holding a controlled channel depth along the whole run. On the Woodstock estate, the 214 linear feet included mitered corners around each herringbone field and 15 doorway thresholds.
What can I use instead of transition strips?
A flush joint where two floors sit at the same height, or a solid brass strip where the line between them should read as a detail. Two wood floors at the same height can meet directly along a cut line, and NWFA’s installation guidelines call for a spline or slip-tongue, glued, at flush transitions. A brass strip set flush in a routed channel marks the same line in metal. Where wood meets stone set into the floor, NWFA’s ornamental guidance leaves a joint of 1/8 to 1/4 inch for a flexible transition material such as silicone, latex, or cork. On the Woodstock estate, a solid brass strip runs flush across 15 doorway thresholds; in Big Canoe, white oak herringbone meets reclaimed heart pine along a single cut line with no transition strip, the two species finished to one tone.
Will brass ever rust?
No. Rust is iron oxide, which forms on iron and steel. Brass is a copper alloy, a nonferrous metal, so it does not rust. That is also why it belongs in a wood floor: NWFA’s Ornamental Floors calls for nonferrous metals only, because ferrous metal sparks during sanding. Brass does change color — unlacquered brass oxidizes and warms to a patina over time. The C360 brass on the Woodstock estate was left in its mill finish, unlacquered, so it develops that patina as part of the floor.
Brass and metal inlay in Atlanta
Classy Flooring ATL installs brass and metal inlay across metro Atlanta and North Georgia. For a brass or metal inlay project, contact Classy Flooring ATL for an on-site evaluation.