Wood flooring rec's?

[Cruiser]

So we bought this house as a foreclosure about a year ago and we have officially destroyed the carpet downstairs. The downstairs is about 1000 sqft with about 700 of it in carpet and the balance covered in linoleum. There is an unfinished basement below about 3/4 of it and the rest is an insulated crawl space. I'm looking for suggestions for wood flooring to install throughout the downstairs area. My nextdoor neighbor is a contractor and has told me that he'll install a floating engineered floor for $2 / sqft. I started looking at flooring material and have seen some options from a couple of local stores. I really am concerned about the durability of these products though since I have 2 ~50# dogs and a 10 month old. Who among you has a engineered wood floor? What thoughts can you share with me about the durability of the floor? What about refinishing it? I know that the new aluminum oxide finishes are pretty durable, does anyone have any experience with the products that you apply to rejuvinate the finish without doing the full sand and stain route? Any other thoughs from the maggot collective about this project? Thanks in advance.

[hutash]

I have engineered wood floors that are anywhere from 5-10 years old. Different rooms were done at different times, but they have held up well so far dog our dogs (combination of retrievers over the years.) Buy one with a good finish, and thick top layer. They are more expensive, but have held up well for us. If you want cheap and tough go with laminate, i.e. Pergo.

I have done the total sand and refinish thing, and it is a lot of work. I have installed floating floors, and it is an easy, but all day project. I hate carpet, and it is totally gone from our house, so we now have 2,000 square feet of wood, stone, marble or granite flooring.

All my flooring is on slab, so I was restricted to floating floor, but you can also install pre-finished solid wood flooring. More cost, but can be refinished multiple times, which really isn't a factor unless you live in the house 75 years.

[RootSkier]

I'll install REAL wood flooring for $2/ft. So will other builders around here. Sanding and finishing I won't do, but my guy will do that for $2/ft, too.

Anyways, I wouldn't spend the cash on engineered when you can get solid, prefinished 5/8" bamboo for $1.90/ft at Costco. The stuff is super hard, way harder than some prefinished maple (which is supposed to be super hard) I installed a few months ago.

Engineered floors and especially floating floors look and feel cheap, IMO. They can't usually be refinished. And they aren't cheaper....so what's the point, exactly?

Cruiser, the only realistic method of repairing a finish without buffing/topcoating is to use solid wood and a tung oil based finish, like Waterlox. It can be done and it looks awesome, but it is a much more time consuming process than a waterbased poly.

[Cruiser]

Root, you in the Denver metro? Cuz I haven't seen anyone who'll install solid prefinished nail down style hardwood around here for that price. Between the material (~$5 sqft) and the labor ($2 sqft) I'm already looking at over $7K for this job. I just don't have a whole lot more room in the budget ya know?

[CG]

Check out Lumber Liquidators They have great prices. Also if you own miter saw and can rent a nail gun and compressor you should have no problem installing yourself in a weekend. I would go with pre finished myself, that finish should be superior to any thing you do or have dome on site. Good Luck

[mcsquared]

Stranded Bamboo is $3.89/ft at lumber liquidators. Stranded is much more durable than regular bamboo which, contrary to rootskiers experience, I have found to be too soft. Could depend on the brand as well I suppose. But for $2000 I would rent the tools at home depot for a weekend and do it myself. It will make you a better person.

[CG]

I did a bamboo floor 2 summers ago, it was only $2 per square foot then. On another note, bamboo's hard but my dogs have managed to dent the floor pretty well. It still looks good but in the right light it looks like crap.

[RootSkier]

Believe me, I was the most skeptical guy in the world when these people produced some $1.90 bamboo from Costco. I put it in, it looked good, and then they got a spastic dog, and babysit other spastic dogs.

It has fewer and smaller scratches than any other wood floor I've seen after 2 years.

However, I have a big dog and fir floors which are super soft and scratch very easily...and it doesn't bother me in the slightest. If you have wood floors, they will get scratched. If you are too anal to handle that, then put in tile and enjoy cleaning the grout.

[Cruiser]

I looked at bamboo, and I agree that it has some advantages. The problem is that I don't like how it looks. I'm looking for something in a nice wide plank (~5" or so) and in a dark redish stain. I've seen some sapele that I really liked as well as some Brazilian cherry. Our taste kind of skews a bit too country for bamboo to really look right, and the area is really open so I'm looking to avoid the choppy look of thin planks.

BTW here's a link to the JANKA hardness scale which is a representation of the amount of force that it takes to drive a 1/2" steel ball 1/4" into a piece of wood.

[RootSkier]

Country? Wide plank? Have you seen circular sawn fir? It's got some texture, so scratches don't show nearly as much. It's probably a lot cheaper than wide plank rainforest wood and there might even be a local mill that produces it.

[Fear Of A Flat Planet]

I'll install REAL wood flooring for $2/ft. So will other builders around here. Sanding and finishing I won't do, but my guy will do that for $2/ft, too.

Anyways, I wouldn't spend the cash on engineered when you can get solid, prefinished 5/8" bamboo for $1.90/ft at Costco. The stuff is super hard, way harder than some prefinished maple (which is supposed to be super hard) I installed a few months ago.

Engineered floors and especially floating floors look and feel cheap, IMO. They can't usually be refinished. And they aren't cheaper....so what's the point, exactly?

Cruiser, the only realistic method of repairing a finish without buffing/topcoating is to use solid wood and a tung oil based finish, like Waterlox. It can be done and it looks awesome, but it is a much more time consuming process than a waterbased poly.

heh... actually i helped some friends of mine install that 1.90 bamboo flooring a couple months back. er... not very hard really...Scratches way to easy. not good if you have dogs. looks nice tho.. just not as durable/scratch resistant as some other types of flooring i've seen.

[timvwcom]

As a Realtor will comment on the resale value part and as a handy person the durability/use parts of this... Keep in mind MY market could be different from YOUR market, but the concept is very likely to be the same.

For resale values on choices;

"Pergo" types (faux wood print on man made floor) - Can be acceptable in the lower quarter of prices for our market, but basically just a more durable vinyl floor. Since it is often installed by a homeowner, maybe as much as half of the installs have poor workmanship; exposed gaps around door jambs, missing thresholds at border to carpet, exterior doors, basement stairs and the like. Anywhere above the bottom third of prices and it starts to detract from values... In homes in the upper half of prices it can cause a home not to sell.

"Laminate" types (thin real wood glued to plywood type base) - some of these are actually quite nice in look (especially those with the 2.25" width to match true solid hardwood floors) but often can never be machine refinished. Once they are scratched thru the finish, you either have to "hand refinish" in the way you would do to furniture, or tear out and throw away. Usually considered acceptable for the lower half of market... neutral in the next segment, but a negative in the top third or so of prices in our market. These often are in the same price range as job installed finish in place floors, but much less durable.

"pre-finished" solid wood floors - (just like real wood floors, but the finish has been applied at the factory) Often these have "V" grooves between each board to prevent sharp edges (that would catch sock etc) along joint between planks. These have become associated with a "cheaper" look than the finish in place floors. If you ever drop a yogurt, plan on spending 10 minutes with a napkin rolled up dabbing the cracks. Stones and debris sit in the cracks, making sweeping (or swiftering) difficult. When time to refinish they have to have much larger amount of wood removed to get past V groove so final product is uniform. Often can be more expensive than finish in place wood floors. These grooved varieties are less common than 10 years ago or so.

Solid wood floors "finish in place" - What has been the standard since the late 1800's... Several different widths and different wood species which have changed in popularity over the decades. Works in all price ranges, in the upper half of prices this would be standard and expected, any of the others types mentioned earlier would detract from value.

I paid in the range of $2/$2/$2.50(=$6.50 sq.ft.) for the raw maple floors/install/finish when I added hardwood floors 10 years ago to the areas of my home that had been added in the 1950's and 1960's.

[/second wordy hardwood floor post lately] Seems as if the Padded Room now has wood floors???

[Pow4Brains]

3rded or whatever on the bamboo. Looks elegant and would be good in a dinning room but not much else IMO. Another downfall is refinishing. It has a tendency to come off in strands and is really hard to make look good again.

Here's another decent site for hardwood flooring.
http://www.internetlumber.com/

Good luck Cruiser and let us know what you end up with.

[Grange]

I've been looking a lot at wood flooring and if you search you can easily find full 3/4 inch wood flooring for less than $5 sqft. As mentioned Lumber liquidators is a good source and I've talked to contractors that have used them, but there are others online as well. This weekend I saw Menards had real wood floors (3/4 in.) for $2.99 sqft.

Myself I've always like wood flooring and the fact that that is the main reason I sold my house (according to the buyers realtor). Right now I'm a really like the handscraped wood flooring. The rougher surface breaks the light up more thus not showing the dog scratches as much.

[freezorburn]

All good advice,

In NJ 2.50 Sq foot to install. (Good Price) and the wood is anwhere from 3.00 to 6.00 a square foot.


DO NOT BUY THE LAMINATE CRAP! IT"S JUNK like PERGO exc.. it glues down like tile and it's junk!!

3/4 inch soild wood floor is the only way to go.

if possible, Climatize wood in your house for 2 weeks before you set.

[LeeC]

Resurrecting thread,
I would like to put in solid wood floors, but I am on concrete, and will be limited to 3/8 so that it will be level with tile, and carpet areas. I have a feeling I will be have to go with either engineered, or laminate. Which is preferable? Brands?

Thanks

Le

[nickwm21]

I had an engineered floor in a college house. My roomies and I installed it ourselves in order to save on rent (one roomies dad owned the place). It was throughout the entire house, a four bedroom place. Other than 2 or three gaps and one bouncy spot, due to our stoned installation, it was great. Cleaned really well, looked good, and I never noticed any scratches in the two years I lived there.

Keep in mind this was in a college house and we treated it like shit... only cleaned it when it was uber nasty, dragged furniture around.

I think it was an IKEA product. Maybe this: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70080569

[LeeC]

It will be in about 1000sf, in a 3300sf house, that will end up being around 400,000 dollar house
I want it to be good, but not cheap looking..Not knocking your pick, but I would like something a bit nicer.

Thanks though

[nickwm21]

yea.. no prob. I did not pick it, just installed and lived with it. I bet you would be surprised on how nice it looked though. That being said, I bet 400k buys quite a nice pad in NM

[pepperdawg]

Second or third the LUmber LIguidators and do it yourself option......I;ve done 4 rooms and about to do our living room over the past year.....I have a 2 and 3 yr old, so can only manage to get a little bit done at a time, thus why its taken a year..

Hint -they change and publish their prices on their site on Thursday mornings....also if the price drops after you order before you pick up they will honor the lower price as I found out with my last order.

Definitly pay attention to the hardness scale referneced above...we did Brazilioon Mesquite as its beautiful......but low on the hardness scale......yah...low on the harnes scale for a reason.

Doing the hand scaped 4 inch or so wide oak in the living room cant wait...

[pepperdawg]

Also we did engineered/floating/snap togather in our walkin closet - it seems durable, and doesnt move, and looks a lot better than I would have imagined as we put it down....but as I said its a closet, not a big room.....

If you do it (real hardwood) your self - you will need to invest in chopsaw, table saw, nailer. The chopsaw and table saw you can get away with $100 specails...the nailers are not cheap however....

[Blatant]

are you set on wood or would tile be an option? Also is resale an option? I have no idea what would get the best resale but as sorta mentioned above, may as well look ahead a bit as well.

I was under the impression real wood or some sort of hd tile like travertine really do alot to add to the value vs regular ceramic tile or budget laminate.

[LeeC]

No, resale is not an option. This is a spot that I was raised on, and since my Mom passed, I get to go back home, and we are building our own home. I just want something durable, and I want it to be real wood. I just can't put solid wood down. We have looked at tile, and we are putting about 1000sf of tile in, but I did not want the entire interior tile, there is about 1500sf that is an open area. I wanted to break it up between tile, and wood floor. It will be a big house for sure, but it is only 3 of us, and no pets inside.As I said before, is there any brands that are better than others to look at?

[pepperdawg]

Resurrecting thread,
I would like to put in solid wood floors, but I am on concrete, and will be limited to 3/8 so that it will be level with tile, and carpet areas. I have a feeling I will be have to go with either engineered, or laminate. Which is preferable? Brands?

Thanks

Le

You can get 3/8" in some pre-finished hardwood....but on concrete would you be gluign it down I'm guessing.

[LeeC]

I was thinking float, but it would have to be one of them