Posted by jsexton – October 30, 2006 9:47 PM
We really like wood floors, particularly for the public spaces in our home. We like the visual warmth wood gives a room, how simple it is to clean and how it's easy on allergy sufferers. For the record, we do like carpet for the bedrooms and hallway upstairs. Downstairs, our kitchen had linoleum flooring, the dinning room and living room were carpeted, and the entryway was hardwood.
For this remodel we decided to install hardwood floors throughout the downstairs — the kitchen, dining room, living room, entry area and the bathroom. One big, beautiful shiny wood floor.
Floor Choice #1: Prefinished or unfinished wood?
Prefinished means the wood is sanded and given several coats of polyurethane finish at the factory. This means the installation is quicker and easier in the home (it would take about one day to put down the 700 square feet in our house). No need to sand and put on several coats of finish in the home. For us, the downside to a prefinished wood floor is the final surface is not perfect. You can see tiny gaps between some of the boards, and you can feel them when walking around in socks or bare feet. We have a prefinished wood floor in our family room, and while we like it, we don't love it. The older homes we have lived in had the old fashioned wood floors that were solid, like a bowling alley or a gym floor. They weren't prefinished.
An unfinished floor starts with raw wood. Once installed, it is sanded and coated with polyurethane. In most cases, three coats of polyurethane. Many people move out of the house during installation to avoid the dust and fumes. The unfinished floor takes longer to complete. In our case, three extra days for the sanding and polyurethane coats. For us, the extra time was worth it. Particularly in the kitchen, where you have spills, we felt the tiny gaps you occasionally get with prefinished floors would not be good.
This is our floor being installed. The darker wood in the upper left is the
old entryway floor being blended in.
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We just finished a full kitchen re-model and installed pre-finished bamboo floors. Not the right choice, the dog scrathed them all up and we ended up having them re-finished and used a better poly with 3 coats to hold up to the dog. They are much better now!
Posted by Anne – November 1, 2006 3:51 PM
As a Realtor and homeowner, I would have to say, if you can afford wood stained on site that is the way to go. I installed wood in some areas about 10 years ago and have had to change carpet twice since then, and the wood still looks good. I'm involved in a kitchen total remodel and I am putting the same wood (red oak with a Min Wax golden oak stain) to match the other older wood, and it matched perfectly. Also, for resale, the real wood (as opposed to engineered wood or laminates) will make your home more saleable at a higher price. Nothing warms a home more than nailed down hardwoods, and I found them to be the same or lessor price than the "fake" woods.
Posted by Loyce Mason – November 1, 2006 10:53 PM
Good choice on the unfinished!! I have prefinished floors throughout my main level. The area by the refrigerator is damaged and the finish is lifting from ice falling from the dispenser and not being picked up/wiped up. Needless to say the fix is to cut out the bad boards and glue down replacements. However, unless you keep an extra supply of boards on hand, after a few years it is hard to match as styles change. My flooring guy said it is a pain to sand these types of floors because of the amount of poly on them, it gums up the sand paper and makes a huge mess! My next floors will be unfinished!!
Posted by Diana – November 14, 2006 12:47 PM
It always looks like a lot of work at first but the beauty is in seeing the finished kitchen floor afterwards. Quite rewarding indeed.
Posted by Pablo – February 20, 2007 3:02 AM
