Classy Flooring ATL installs inlay work in hardwood floors across metro Atlanta: brass and metal inlay, custom site-milled borders, and pattern fields.
Inlay flooring is a floor with a second material set into a recess cut in the surface of the wood, finishing flush with the boards around it. The recess is cut to the profile of the insert. The insert is bedded in place, and the floor is sanded and finished as one plane.
What is inlay flooring?
In inlay work the decorative element sits inside the floor. A channel or a pocket is routed into the wood to the width and depth of the material going in, the insert is bedded in that pocket, and its face comes level with the boards on either side.
Depth governs what is possible. Solid wood carries thickness below the surface to cut into. On engineered flooring the working depth is the sawn wear layer above the core, so that measurement sets the limit before any layout is drawn. The European white oak on our Woodstock estate project carries a 4 mm sawn wear layer on a 5/8 inch board. On an engineered floor the wear layer thickness is listed on the manufacturer’s specification sheet, and it is the first number to find.
What are the different types of inlays?
Inlay in a wood floor divides into a few working categories, separated by the material going in and where it runs.
| Type | What is set in | Where it runs |
|---|---|---|
| Metal inlay | Solid brass, bronze, or another non-ferrous metal | Straight runs, field divisions, thresholds |
| Border | Wood milled to its own profile, often a second species | Framing the perimeter of a field |
| Medallion | An assembled wood panel, often circular | Entries, foyers, room centers |
| Contrasting wood inlay | Strips or shapes of a second wood species | Feature lines and field accents |
Classy Flooring ATL has installed metal inlay and custom borders on documented projects, including 214 linear feet of solid brass across a two-house estate in Woodstock and a 7 inch custom border framing European ash herringbone in Savannah. Claudiu Toma has completed the NWFA Precision Patterns courses in Parquet Flooring and in Medallions.
What is a metal inlay?
A metal inlay is a length of solid non-ferrous metal set into a routed channel in the floor and finished flush with the wood. Brass is the common choice. Brass is non-ferrous, so it sands flush with the wood as part of the floor’s own sanding sequence and comes up under the same coats of finish.
On the Woodstock estate the brass is solid C360, 1/4 inch wide by 1/2 inch deep, mill finish and unlacquered so it takes a natural patina over time. It runs 214 linear feet through the herringbone fields, along a catwalk, and across the doorway thresholds. It is bedded in MAPEI Ultrabond ECO 995, the same adhesive carrying the wood, which ties the metal into one bond system with the floor around it. Metal inlay can be set several ways; this is the approach Classy Flooring ATL uses for its long-term hold.
Brass inlay work starts at $24 per linear foot. The rate moves with the complexity of the run — straight lengths in an open field sit at the base rate, and cost rises with corners, joints, curves, and the number of thresholds the line has to cross.
What is the difference between marquetry and inlay?
Marquetry is built from veneer. Thin pieces of wood are cut and assembled into a pattern that forms the visible face of a panel, and that assembly is applied to a substrate.
Inlay is cut into solid material. A recess is removed from the piece itself and the insert is set into it, so the wood surrounding the insert is the original board.
In flooring the difference shows at sanding. An inlay set in solid wood, or in a wear layer of known thickness, is sanded flush with the floor and refinished along with it.
What is the purpose of wood inlays?
Inlay does three things in a floor. It marks a transition, it frames a field, and it carries a line through a space.
A border defines where one area ends and another begins. A metal line runs continuously through rooms that meet at a doorway, so the same mark reads from one room into the next. A medallion sets a center point in an entry or a foyer.
Each of these is cut and fitted on the floor it belongs to. The layout is set against the room’s measured dimensions.
Classy Flooring ATL installs brass and metal inlay, custom borders, and pattern work in hardwood floors across metro Atlanta. Our brass and metal inlay page covers the work in full, and the Woodstock estate is documented on its own project page.