Hardwood – Prefinished or Site- Finished Hickory or Oak?

I am planning to have at least 1000 ft of solid wood flooring put in and considering adding an additional 1000 ft of bedrooms.

I have an Airedale Terrier, complete with beard, and a husband that is not going to change his habits just because we have new flooring.

I am thinking that a wire-brushed matte finish would be best and hide most anything that Doug and the dog do to it.

All of the pre-finished Hickory samples have held up better to our in home testing. I cannot get exactly what I want prefinished and the edges always look better, to me, on site-finished floors.

All of the so called experts, salespeople, tell me that pre-finished is better and cheaper.

Is Hickory really that hard to work with?
Am I crazy to consider site-finished floors. I like the look of longer boards and all of the pre-finished floors generally average 4ft or shorter sections.

What finishes do you recommend? The floors would have to be stained before they are sealed as I want grey/medium brown tones.

I am a total novice at this whole flooring thing and appreciate any guidance and experience you can share.

Michelle

 

I prefer unfinished and sanded, stained, and cleared on site! A much cleaner look to me.

 

We're buying unfinished oak so we can get the stain shade we want on our own and also it'll allow us to do our rooms one by one instead of having to buy 2000 sqft at once.

 

I agree with Stephen81, I had 800 sq ft of clear oak on site finished. It had a slight stain to match cabinets and wood trim, all oak. I know everyone is pushing towards the factory finish, but I think if you find a good installer, the site installed stuff can be just as durable. I like the feel of the thicker 3/4 inch flooring while walking on it. I'm not a fan of the floating feeling some of the pre-fab flooring has. Plus the site installed natural flooring can be refinished later in time.

 

Bamboo?

 

I had wanted White Oak floors, but, the hickory is much harder and should prove to be more durable for my application.

What are you using for stain? sealers? How many coats?

Where are you buying the raw materials?

I want the floors to feel and sound like wood, not plastic. I will be getting 3/4 inch solid wood, not engineered.

Michelle

 

When we redo our floors they will be true hardwoods sanded and finished onsite.We have an engineered wood floor now and hate it.It is reasonably durable but the beveled edges of the prefinished collect so much dirt they are hard to keep clean.One advantage of some of the prefinished floors with big animals in the house is the strength of the finish.My parents put prefinished 3/4in scraped walnut floors in and they are tough.The finish is an aluminum oxide product,if I remember right,that you can nearly clean with a wire brush.the downside is it will be extremely difficult to ever sand and refinish as compared to true hardwoods.

 

We're buying from lumber liquidators. Anywhere else it seems I'd have to order offline so I feel more comfortable being able to buy locally from a store. We're going to use minwax stain and minwax floor polyurethane. Not sure on how many coats yet. Stain will be until desired color is achieved and the poly I'll have to read the directions but probably 2 would be my guess.

 

My brother builds hi-end homes and uses hickory quite a bit, I like it also. I used his flooring contractor for my install and finish. I think their expertise pays off, I wasn't completely comfortable doing this myself. Most jobs I do tackle, but not that one. Are you installing yourself?
After install, they sand it, I believe they apply one stain coat, and two clear/sealer coats.

 

Do you remember the supplier? I am hoping to convince Doug to go with the site-finished, but, I need to find a reputable lumber supplier.

Thanks

Michelle

 

Solid wood.

Finish on-site.

Oil-based finishes.

Pay for a pro. And be prepared to spend a few days at the Holiday Inn, the fumes will drive you out (and they're nothing you want to be huffing anyways).

 

There is a lot of negative feedback that I have found on Lumber Liquidators. Be very careful if you decide to purchase there- a lot of there wood is processed in China and not aged appropriately.

 

I've been waiting to get this done for years and it is finally getting done now because we had 4 pipes break in the basement and decided that since we were already going to be under construction we'd just add everything we can afford now and be done with it.

 

I can find out. He uses a local installer for all his hardwood installs. Rick Short flooring in New Palestine Indiana.

 

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2205062&postcount=103

This guy went a little over the top with his project (he milled his own flooring) but his finishing methods are very impressive. I like the fact that he used a product that actually fills the small gaps and actually seals the floor.

Oh, and another vote for finish on site. I did a hallway with the refinished stuff last year.
, and I am not happy with the joints. There are high and low spots, and the edges look terrible if they get dinged while you are putting them down.

 

Ben Thompson www.hardwoodbarigains.com

 

I put in 3/4 pre-finished wide plank hickory in my living room, it's been nearly a year and it looks great. We have a chocolate lab and he hasn't damaged them. Don't remember the brand but I can find it. Didn't go with lumber liquidators. Most of their stuff looked poor to me. We did have quite a few longer boards in the boxes as well and it wasn't much more than the liquidators prices.

 

Install and finish. Prefinished would be much like laminate, in that it isn't a nice sealed floor, so any spills can seep into the seams.

 

Definitely finish on site.

And get as hard a wood and finsih as you can, dog toe nails notoriously are hard on wood floors leaving scratch and dent indentations especially where they jump on and off furniture.
get a good wool padded floor duster too, if you are coming from an all carpet house you'll be amazed how much dust, hair and debris is laying on the floor.

 

All the people I know that have "real" wood floors and dogs end up with the floor getting trashed, real wood is generally just too soft to handle pets.

Laminate or 'engineered flooring" is much harder on the top surface.... but it also has its own problems..... don't spill any liquid on it without immediately cleaning it up..... ever!