I need a hard prefinished hardwwod floor
Does anybody have any experience with pre-finished hardwood flooring? I’ve typically installed traditional hardwoods and was thinking of using the prefinished products. I’me concerned about the product, because I have a relative in the building business that installed quite a bit of a prefinihsed product and it turned out to be too soft. Can someone recommend a “Hard” prefinished hardwood product? Thanks
Replies
Thanks, I'll look it up. T
Are you talking about the hardness of the finish or the hardness of the wood?
I'm looking for a hard wood, that is one that will resist the day to day denting of a kitchen, and shoe traffic.
Brazilian Cherry, Brazilian Teak -- both of these are harder than oak.
IanDG
Thanks. Tom
If you're interested in Brazilian cherry or other exotics, I can get them for you really inexpensively.
Thanks for the offer, but were not to that point yet. Tom
"I'm looking for a hard wood, that is one that will resist the day to day denting of a kitchen, and shoe traffic."Resist? It won't happen. Sure some of the harder species such as Brazilian Walunt and Brazilian Teak won't show indentations as much as an American cherry, but they will show indentations, and scratching. Preventive maintenance is the key. Any hardwood floors will scratch and ding regardless of the hardness. Frankly I wouldn't suggest hardwood floors for kitchen use unless you're determined and have a careful household. Hand scraped or distressed products may provide an answer.
Thanks for the information. How about pre-finished materials. Are the laminated products any better? Tom
Here is a chart of hardness for different spieces.http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwoodinstaller/hardness.htmAmong the common ones white oak, ash and hard maple are fairly hard.Some harder ones are hickory/pecan.Then you have the exotics that are very hard such as the Brazilan cherry.
Thank you for the information. Tom
the hardness or softness can depend on the wood species.
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry in Carpentry
Pgh, PA
Vintage Pioneered solid hardwood flooring, http://www.vintageflooring.com out of Toronto, Canada sent me are real nice sample and display package for their product.
I recently used "Bruce" pre-finished maple on my kitchen/dining room floor. The maple is plenty hard to resist dents, and the pre-finish is really hard. There are many posts and threads on this subject in the archives...try a search.
I believe that even the pros will occasionally recommend a quality pre-finished flooring with the main benefit to the pre-finish being that it is applied in a factory controlled manner with consistent temperatures etc. Also, in the factory, they can use much more poisenous products and vapors, as opposed to an on-site situation where both the applicator and the occupant have much more exposure to the finishing fumes.
End result being a much more durable finish.
The major drawback to prefinished flooring is that, by definition, since the strips will NOT be sanded smooth after fastening down and then finished in place, there will be a slight bevel or champfer on the edge of each board to hide the slight irregularities that are inevitable when nailing flooring down. Results are that when you look accross the pre-finished floor you will see each individual board. Dead giveaway. To some this is objectionable, to others (me included) this failing is made up for by the facts that:
1...you can start living on the floor as soon as it is nailed down
2...the finish is probably harder and more durable than any finish that could be laid down in place.
I agree - I don't like the look of the 'micro-bevel' that is on pre-finished floors.Yellow pine is another very hard wood. Old growth from a reclamation place makes for a very nice looking floor. It will have areas of reddish brown and areas of yellow. Lacquer sealer smoothes out the color differences slightly, but still leaves enough variation to be interesting.
Thank you for the input. We were considering the pre-finihsed flooring because the time to install and finish traditional flooring was an issue. The extra week to ten days would have added up to a lot of carry cost on this project. Warranty issues were a positive with the pre finised. I'd heard good things about the Bruce Wear Master product and have looked at it. Thanks Again.
check out
http://www.br111.com
Their products are about the best I've ever installed.
the installation for for customer supplied materials ... and he researched everything to death .... he wanted the "best of the best" as far as this remodel went ... so I trusted his judgement and found out that once again he was right.
It as absolutely great stuff to work with.
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry in Carpentry
Pgh, PA
Thanks from the Left coast. I looked at the web site and will include their products in our final list. Tom
Edited 2/15/2005 2:29 pm ET by Tom
Jeff,
What product did you use, the engineered flooring or the pre-finihsed 3/4 in flooring?
I had to go back thru their site to remember ...
it was 5/16th thick ... I believe what they call BR111 Engineered.
Looked to be "all real wood" ... but I think they glue the face wood over something more stable. It was the 6 1/4 wide planks .... think they ran right at 4ft long.
I was very impressed with their milling/tolerences. Virtually no waste due to unusable planks. It was a floating/edge glue floor ... so straight/square planks were needed.
Still used my strap clamps ... but didn't have to "force" any that I can recall.
Jeff
Take a look at the commercial grade Harris-Tarket prefinished flooring. I' ve seen it used on furniture store showrooms and the stuff takes quite a beating, plus the veneer is almost 1/8" so you can sand and refinish. it comes in 7" x 7' T&G panels and does not have a beveled edge.
I appreciate your input, especially because you have used it in commrecial applications where the traffic is more likely to be heavy. I'll check out their web site today. Tom