Has anyone gotten hardwood floors recently? Advice??
 

Well, we are thinking it's about time to upgrade our carpet/linoleum to hardwood. Our house isn't old, maybe 6 years but they put cheap carpet in it and with our dogs and dh's always muddy boots, the carpet looks pretty bad :eek:

We have an open floor plan with two bedrooms, an office and bathroom on one side of the house, the living area and kitchen in the middle and the master bedroom and utility room on the other side of the house.

I am thinking of doing the hardwood all through the middle of the house and the hallways, and then keeping the carpet in the bedrooms.

Does anyone have any advice for me? What types of wood is best? What type of wood do you have? What about installation style and finish? Has anyone had them purchased/installed through Home Depot or Lowes? I really have just began looking, but am not sure of the best place to buy and type of floor to look at! Any advice????

I would look for a harder wood for less damage to show. We have handscraped maple in our less than two year old home and floors are pretty scratched up from all the pet nails already.

This site talks about the hardness scales.

Wood Floor Relative Hardness Table-Janka Hardness Table-Wood Floor Hardness~How Hard is my Wood Floors

Just want to add- Make sure the installers acclimatize the wood for at least a couple of weeks first in your home where the wood will be laid. Otherwise you may get buckling boards or large gaps overtime, also make sure you have a humidifer.

Some installers will try to say that the acclimatizing of the wood is not necessary, please insist. The builder put in our floors without installing them properly and we have huge gaps in spots all over the place. Wrong installation can also void your warranty so make sure if you use a company that know what they are doing.

Here's a great site:
Lumber Liquidators: Hardwood Floors for Less!

We have purchased from them in the past.

I happen to LOVE the prefinish floors. I like the wide planks, at least 3 inches or more if possible. I prefer the dark colors. But we don't wear shoes in our house and we had to get a special vaccum just for hardwood floors, as the dark colors show scratches, etc....

They have a 'hand scraped' line - and it is beautiful! We have that in my hubby's home office! ;)

Oh thanks so much for that website!!

Also, if you purchase the floors through Home Depot/Lowes and have them installed through them, I would imagine everything would be covered by warranty? I guess these are all good questions to ask and thank you thank you!!!

Thanks Nichole! When you got the floors from lumber liquidators, who did the install? How do you know if the installation company is good or bad? Yikes! So scary!!

I LOVE the darker finishes, but I think in this house the lighter would be better. I also love the wide planks and found one I really liked that is 5" wide. We'll see what I like when we actually look!

We had our installed by our carpenter. It is pretty simple *when* you know what you are doing.

In our *Bonus* room we do have the Maple (very nice) and we did a 3 foot border around the maple room using the Santos Mahogoney (sp?)

Oh that sounds pretty. I would love to see pictures. I was looking at the maple, it is beautiful and neutral.

Let me see pictures of your floors ladies!!

We had hardwood installed and that's the best thing we have done to this house. Now it always smells so nice and fresh. Carpets in high traffic and living areas really take a beating, and all the drips and spills really take a toll no matter how often you have them professionally cleaned. Germs linger, causing odors. we had hardwood installed in the entry, living room, stairs, landing and one of the bedrooms we use as an office, sewing, hobby and puppy room. We have carpet in the other three bedrooms.
If your going to have wood flooring installed on the first floor, and the floor is concrete, then they put down a moisture gauge first and leave it for two or three days to see if there is any. Our wood sat in the garage for a few days before being installed. We had it done when we were out of the rainy season.

I know! It's just so much cleaner! I have allergies really bad and I know that no matter how much I vacuum or have them cleaned there is so much dust, dog dander and dust mites hiding in there and it totally grosses me out!!!

Our home is one story so I am sure the floor is concrete. We are super dry here so I don't know if they still do the moisture gauge? We will see I guess. Thanks!

Amanda I bet whatever you pick it will look FABULOUS. I love Southwest so I have tile but only in my den. I hope to tile the rest of the house and maybe one or two rooms in stained concrete. Send us some pics when you decide..:) Lissette

My daughter just had bamboo installed. It's beautiful

Lissette, girl, I just love you!!!!!!!!! I LOVE southwest but living in the northwest it doesn't really jive :p I love tile, but hate being cold so the thought of cold tile on my toesies makes me cold!! I already have some great area rugs picked out :D Poor DH, if it's not one thing it's another!

Oh that's so great to hear. I was looking at some baboo and it's gorgeous, not to mention pretty affordable. I will definitely be looking into that.

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.

Wow send me pics of Bamboo...I bet that looks great,,,,