Has anyone gotten hardwood floors recently? Advice??

[Erin]

Originally Posted by Nancy1999

It really not the wood that shows wear and tear, it's the finish, and some finishes are much better than others. Pine is a soft wood, and you can ding it if you drop something on it, but most wood that they sell for flooring is hard enough and won't ding or dent, the finish is what you have problems with. Some people think going with a harder wood, helps, but if you go too hard, you can have twisting and warping of the wood. There's pluses and minuses to every finish, and knowing what's important to you, will help you decide the best finish. For me, I wanted to be able to touch up spots or a well a traveled area, without doing the whole floor. So I looked into the Tung oil finishes. They don't have the advantage of being impervious to water, so I went with something called Water Lox, it's a great finish, and you can keep it looking like new. It's tung oil and polyurethane that you can just add layer after layer. With regular polyurethane finishes you have sand the floor to add a new layer, and this is a very labor-intensive costly job. You can't touch up spots without it showing. The prefinished floors have a great polyurethane coating that is baked on, but, they have the disadvantage of having the bevel between strips of wood, and junk can accumulate in that area. They are also guaranteed for 25 years, but that is for normal wear and tear, so the guarantee, is kind of worthless. If you get solid flooring, you are really adding value to your home, because it can be refinished quite a few times. There is also something called "engineered wood, and it's real wood, but not solid, so it usually can't be refinished because the top wood is too thin. You probably see this in more new homes, but I like sold wood better. There are some imported woods that have a natural oil finish already on them, like Brazilian Cherry, some are suppose to hold up to water really well, but I haven't checked that out. You will need a finish that water can dry on the surface with no damage to the wood. I agree that you should check out Lumber Liquidators.

This is what we will do next time. I want the poly finish. We did pre-finished engineered and while we don't have problems with scratching, just a few drops of water left on the surface (like from reaching for a towel from the sink) could cause it to bubble if it is near one of the edges. I want a floor I can really wash with water! But, because we are on a concrete slab, we were told that our options were limited.

[TLC]

Most of our floors are the Prefinished but they are Solid wood, NOT engineered in any way.

I don't have problems with any bubbles, etc....

[mkbartz]

Hi,

We recently put bamboo hardwood throughout the main floor of our house. It is pretty decent but I guess I am a bit of a freak when it comes to making sure that it is protected. There is a little part of me that wished I has seriously considered Laminate (sp?) flooring. You can get stuff now that looks like REAL hard wood but is a fraction of the price.

So I would look in to that as well.

[amandawash]

Originally Posted by mkbartz

Hi,

We recently put bamboo hardwood throughout the main floor of our house. It is pretty decent but I guess I am a bit of a freak when it comes to making sure that it is protected. There is a little part of me that wished I has seriously considered Laminate (sp?) flooring. You can get stuff now that looks like REAL hard wood but is a fraction of the price.

So I would look in to that as well.

You know, we had talked about that. We are kind of hesitant to do a whole ton to this house as we plan to be out of it in a few years. Thanks for that suggestion, we will certainly look into that as well.

[jrsygal37]

I was talked out of hardwood due to the dogs. Instead, they reccomended laminates, saying that it will not stain or scratch. I was told that the wood would be ruined if the dogs poop or pee on it and it's not cleaned up immediatly and that sand from the beach would scratch it. Elaine

[hugz4all4]

Originally Posted by jrsygal37

I was talked out of hardwood due to the dogs. Instead, they reccomended laminates, saying that it will not stain or scratch. I was told that the wood would be ruined if the dogs poop or pee on it and it's not cleaned up immediatly and that sand from the beach would scratch it. Elaine

We put down laminate in our kitchen a few years ago and when we first got it I loved it, but now I hate it. It always looks like it has a film on it no matter how much mopping I do and it scratches terrible even though we were promised that it wouldnt. We have also had a few areas that are warping already even though we layed down the mositure stuff and used the glue. Granted we didnt pay a ton for it and I guess in this case you get what you pay for. If you do look into laminate I would highly recommend the higher quality stuff.

[amandawash]

Originally Posted by hugz4all4

We put down laminate in our kitchen a few years ago and when we first got it I loved it, but now I hate it. It always looks like it has a film on it no matter how much mopping I do and it scratches terrible even though we were promised that it wouldnt. We have also had a few areas that are warping already even though we layed down the mositure stuff and used the glue. Granted we didnt pay a ton for it and I guess in this case you get what you pay for. If you do look into laminate I would highly recommend the higher quality stuff.

What brand did you get if you don't mind me asking? We are seriously looking into the laminate after really thinking about our plans... we don't plan to be there for more than 5 years and I do worry about hardwood and my large dogs. Hmmmmm, what to do.....