Decorating & Renovating
pinkeggs
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s/o hardwood floors -
We will be putting in new floor and will likely go with hardwood. I have a stupid question - what is the best type of wood, i.e., what's considered hard enough and not too soft to last a long time?
Also - has anyone finished their own floors? I can get unfinished hardwood at a pretty great price and DH says he would be fine with doing the staining himself. I am wondering if that would be a nightmare though lol
TIA!
"Get your facts first. Then you can distort them as you please."
~ Mark Twain
Re: s/o hardwood floors -
From what I've heard, it's a huge PITA to finish unfinished hardwood yourself--and time consuming. I have redone already laid floors that were in horrible shape (nightmare) but even brand new floors require at least one or two sandings, then staining, then several topcoats. If you are pretty good with DIY and have a lot of time, then maybe it's a good option for you. I'm buying a new house and want to put in hardwood, but won't even consider unfinished. Once they're laid, I wand to be DONE.
To determine the hardness that's right for you, google the Janka hardness scale. It rates all woods from softest to hardest.
We installed hardwood floors in a couple rooms this past Dec-Jan. You can see the how-to's on our blog. As for species of wood... Oak, Cherry and the Hard Rock Maple are good options.. Avoid pine or any actual "soft wood." If it's from a deciduos tree, it's probably hard enough. Evergreen wood is too soft, unless it's from a 100 year old tree.
I don't recommend finishing your own floors. It's not worth the agrivation. Plus, today's pre-finished floors (Bruce, Bella Wood) have sprayed on coatings that resist foot traffic wear very well. Your stain and poly won't be able to do that.
Thank you all, this is very helpful!
Any thoughts on bamboo?
My H LOVES the idea of bamboo floors. Strand-woven is very hard (solid bamboo isn't as hard). The only thing is, most of the reviews that I've read say that it scratches very easily. It also concerns me that they can't be refinished.
Yes if you ever want to refinish the floors finishing on site is the way to go. If you are in a house you plan to be in for a long time this is something to seriously consider. Prefinished floors can only be re-screened which is basically just applying another layer of poly over your floors. It won't remove deep scratches that reach the wood. The screened layer will sometimes show the previous scratches and screening can be a huge issue along the joints between wood pieces (ie. cracking and looking terrible because the pieces are beveled on the edges creating big gaps the screening must fill and the wood is still expanding and contracting).
Prefinished is much easier to install and can be harder than finished on site but it won't look as good long term because it has limited refiisheing options. If you ever tried to refinish a prefinished floor that has aluminum oxide in the finish (basically every floor does because it's the hardest finish) the finish will turn opaque white when sanded. It will also wear away at your sand paper very quickly and take forever to get down to the wood itself (think a week worth of sanding all day every day). Once to the wood you could refinish it if you had a thick enough layer of wood under all of that coating. If you are getting solid prefinished that isn't a problem but think about this... What is the biggest benefit of solid hardwood floors? The fact that they can be refinished again and again. Getting a prefinished coating basically ruins that. Prefinished is just another way for the flooring companies to make money. When they get so scratched and dinged that the floors look bad you have no other option but to tear them out and put in new flooring. And since being green has come up in this post consider how green it is to dump all of that flooring in a landfill because the product can not be refinished or you could start reading up on how harmful aluminum oxide is if inhaled or ingested. There are some studies being done right now if heavily scratched prefinished floors can actually be harmful to young children who spend a lot of time on the floor.
You want as hard of a floor as you can afford to avoid scratches and dings. There are two things to look at in this regard. The hardness of the wood itself and the hardness of the finish. The best way to get a hard floor is to get a wood with a high janka rating. Prefinished manufacturers will boast about how hard their coating is but if you have a hard wood underneath it doesn't matter nearly as much how hard the poly is on top.
All of that said this is our forever home and we want to be able to refinish the floors for many years to come so we are going with solid unfinished hickory. Hickory is the hardest wood in North America (no clearing rainforests to create my flooring). They won't have grooves for dust and dirt to collect between boards and can put on as many coats of poly as we see fit. We're getting them from this supplier who has a great manufacturing facility with solar kilns (which make better lumber) and is 95% Amish. They are less than $4/sf for the 4" wide pieces.
Bamboo is OK. It is structurally different than hardwood and has a lot more areas of "grain" than most wood which is not ideal. Bamboo is also not as green as native hardwoods because of the carbon footprint to ship it here alone. We rarely see it used anymore in our LEED buildings because of this. The biggest issue with bamboo though is that you never know what you're getting. Often large masses if bamboo of all different varieties will be combined into big lots. Different varieties and the different ways they are cut can have very different harnesses. A janka test on one piece could be totally different from another. If you want a constant, greener, and similar look go with maple.
HTH
There are a million and one ways to scratch your floor. I'm pretty sure the OP knows that.