Well I am giving in to wifey on this one, after all she did let me buy two brand new Rush's within 3 months, lol. My question is should I have prefinished hardwood installed or go the more pricey way and have unfinished installed and then have them stained and finished. What is the opinion out there as to which is better or more durable, pros and cons? Laminate is out as she wants the real thing. And if anyone can sugest a good installer in the GB area that would help too. Thanks guys......
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Hardwood Floors?
- Thread starter switch07
- Start date
When we built our house we went with the finish on site floor for a couple or reasons the main on being that we felt the appearance of the floor is better when finished on site, no v grooves between each board to break up the look of the floor or catch dirt. I am sure you can get a more durable finish with one done in a factory and baked on but for us the v grooves made pre-finished a non starter.
That being said the disruption in a home you are living in is much less with a pre-finished floor, no sanding dust and the ability to use the room the same day. If you do pre-finished I have heard very good things about Bellawood.
That being said the disruption in a home you are living in is much less with a pre-finished floor, no sanding dust and the ability to use the room the same day. If you do pre-finished I have heard very good things about Bellawood.
L
lenny
Guest
I've done both and personally like the unfinished hardwood better. Personally I think it looks better without the micro bevel. The finish is probably more durable with the prefinished but than again when I refinished my floors I used 3 coats of the minwax hardwood floor clear coat, I think it's called varethane, whatever they have for hardwood floors and it's held up great. You get a complete seal coat and no water can possibly penetrate it unless it gets soaked for a long time. Prefinished cannot handle water as good as site finished because of the micro bevel. Definitely more time and money to get it finished, I guess it's what are you willing to deal with.
anonomoose
New member
Not an expert here, but the fact that one will take some water spilled on it and left and one won't is a defining issue....having to do a replacement would not be good.
The real stuff can be refinished over and over again....is also able to handle heavy furniture like piano and such without denting.
The ability to stain it a color and then refinishing and stain it again to something different probably is a good thing for resale or a "family member" who likes to change things up every now and again, probably is good too.
I am curious about the grooves and how those attract dirt....never thought of that....particularly with a dog in the house.
The real stuff can be refinished over and over again....is also able to handle heavy furniture like piano and such without denting.
The ability to stain it a color and then refinishing and stain it again to something different probably is a good thing for resale or a "family member" who likes to change things up every now and again, probably is good too.
I am curious about the grooves and how those attract dirt....never thought of that....particularly with a dog in the house.
We (I) just put 1200 sf of prefinished 3/4" x 3.5" Maple (and 400 SF of Acacia in the bedroom) in our house. I chose prefinished because then I could do the entire project myself. (If you are somewhat handy and are a little brave, installing wood flooring is actually really easy - you can rent the tools at Home Depot) We bought it from Lumber Liquidators and they negotiated quite a bit on the price. We figured we paid about the same price as bare wood, but had a great factory finish on it too.
It doesn't end there with the prefinished though, because you always can (and some day probably will) have the floor redone. In my mind I basically saved the $2/SF for the first finish, and when I have it refinished in 10 years or so I will have it sanded smooth).
We have 2 Australian Shepards and although the floor is holding up really well, I at times wish we had went with a Laminate. My parents we with a laminate in their summer place. It ended up being a lot more expensive than the real wood we went with, but it hasn't even scratched yet AND looks really impressive.
Anyway good luck and have fun with it!
It doesn't end there with the prefinished though, because you always can (and some day probably will) have the floor redone. In my mind I basically saved the $2/SF for the first finish, and when I have it refinished in 10 years or so I will have it sanded smooth).
We have 2 Australian Shepards and although the floor is holding up really well, I at times wish we had went with a Laminate. My parents we with a laminate in their summer place. It ended up being a lot more expensive than the real wood we went with, but it hasn't even scratched yet AND looks really impressive.
Anyway good luck and have fun with it!
In a remodel pre finished hands down 1 NO DUST 2 NO SMELL 3 aluminum oxide is much stronger finish than polly.we do both but most people go with prefinish unless doing huge job and the house is more or less tore up any ways.tons of options with prefinish including Rustic hewn look Distressed look tons of wood options.only down side is last 3 or 4 planks end up with some face nailing just like a non finished floor but the non finished floor gets filled and poly and the prefinish just gets filled and artist brush dabs of polly. most of the quality prefinish like bella wood come with a 20yr or better finish warrenty.also some guys are not as good as they clame at staning a non finished floor and can look splotchy if not skilled at staining before polly.but go with what ever the war department wants and dont try to sway her 1 way or the other because what ever she picks is all on her if she is not happy and you know it will come back and bite you in the *** in some argument in yrs to come