Composite wood flooring

A composite hardwood vehicular trailer flooring system having an exposed hardwood upper surface, the vehicular trailer having a longitudinal length and a lateral width, said composite vehicular trailer flooring system comprising:

• a plurality of hardwood boards extending longitudinally up to a length substantially equal to the longitudinal length of said vehicular trailer, each hardwood board of said plurality of hardwood boards having a top surface, a bottom surface opposite said top surface, and a first side surface and second side surface extending between said top surface and said bottom surface, and a board width that is less than the lateral width of said vehicular trailer, each hardwood board being formed of a plurality of hardwood segments joined to one another by shaped coupling portions;
• said plurality of hardwood boards being arranged such that at least one of said first side surface and said second side surface of each of said hardwood boards approximates one of said first side surface and said second side surface of adjacent boards to form a continuous trailer floor having an upper hardwood surface and a bottom surface for extending for the lateral width of the vehicular trailer, a joint region being formed at locations at which said first side surface or said second side surface of adjacent boards approximate one another;
• each of the plurality of hardwood boards of said composite hardwood flooring system further comprising a substantially planar polymer layer formed of a fiber reinforced polymer, said polymer layer being substantially continuously bonded to said bottom surface of each of the plurality of hardwood boards of said trailer floor and extending unitarily substantially across the width and along the longitudinal length of each hardwood board, the upper hardwood surface of each of the plurality of hardwood boards being essentially uncoated by fiber reinforced polymer, and wherein about 70% to about 90% of the fibers of said fiber reinforced polymer extend in a direction substantially parallel to the longitudinal length of the boards of the trailer floor, and the fibers are glass fibers, carbon fibers, or mixtures thereof;
• and
• whereby said substantially continuous planar polymer layer of fiber reinforced polymer bonded to the bottom surface of each of the plurality of hardwood boards of the trailer floor resists pop-out of the hardwood segments at the shaped coupling portions and improves one or more of the flexural modulus, strength and load carrying capacity of the vehicular trailer floor.