Quality of Pre-Engineered Flooring?
Hey Guys,
I am bidding on a flooring job where the owner is desiring a pre-finished floor. Up until now I have always done traditional solid wood, nail-down, sand and stain flooring. Any advice on the quality hierarchy of pre-finished flooring? Pergo, Bellawood, etc? Top end, mid, low, etc??
Thanks!
Replies
Unless Pergo has added products, they aren't prefinished flooring but rather a laminate sort of thing. I only used it once, and wouldn't use it again. Found the installation a nightmare and not nearly as durable as it was billed to be. I think Bella has a variety of products ranging from mediocre to pretty decent. I've used some of Armstrong's hardwood (IIRC mid range-ish) with pretty good results. If you are thinking of laminate kinds of things, check out Konecto, pricey but fabulous stuff.
PaulB
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It varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. I've had good luck this far with Bruce.
They make prefinished solid wood, and engineered wood. The prefinished installs pretty much like your used to if you have been doing hardwoods. But, you have to be absolutely sure the subfloor is true and level, because you aren't going to be able to sand out any uneven edges.
They used to make, and still might, engineered wood strip, that didn't have the beveled edges. IMHO it looks a lot more like traditional flooring, than the beveled edges.
So far as I know, no one makes tongue strips, so you are stuck laying whichever way you start.
So far as I know, no one makes tongue strips, so you are stuck laying whichever way you start.
Wrong. I have bought slip tongue material from two sources, one being Lumber Liquidators.
To the OP: the bellawood domestic wood, like oak and maple that is milled in the US and canada, has pretty good quality control. It is ususally dimensionally consistent. The exotic woods, like brazilian cherry, is made overseas and tends to show quite a bit of variance in width.
I installed some BR-111 that was real nice to work with.
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Edited 4/29/2009 5:00 pm ET by FastEddie
your title and text leave me confused as to which kind of product you mean.
Pre-finished means solid wood flooring but with a tiny beveled edge and the finish already on. It installs the same as you are used to, but you have to be more careful not to scratch it while installing obviously.
Engineered refers to the laminates with what is basically thick Formica on the surface to look like wood grain. It snaps together and is most often laid loose without nailing down. It wears well, but is hard on saw blades.
Another type of engineered floor is a plywood plank with high quality veneer surface that is prefinished and installs much like the pre-finished solid wood.
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Old wize one, you blew this."Engineered refers to the laminates with what is basically thick Formica on the surface to look like wood grain. It snaps together and is most often laid loose without nailing down. It wears well, but is hard on saw blades."The right trade terms is Laminate flooring for the "formica" and Engineered Wood flooring for multiple wood layer products. But I think that some of the click and snap engineered wood flooring use MDF or other manufactured "wood product" for some of the layers.I am not sure of this, but I think that the "plywood" type of flooring was called laminate in the beginning.Then they came out with the plastic stuff. So the name was changed to eliminate the confusion.
--------------------to everyone, Yes Bella Wood is a LL brand name. And it is touted by the everyones "favorite" TV "Builder". And I don't think that they use the LL name in it or at least don't have that up front..
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Yes, there has been an evolving terminology there, and I have only done two of the laminate type. All my other floors have been solid wood sanded.Did the OP ever come back to this discussion to say what kind he was considering?
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same as Jigs&Fixtures. I've had good luck with Bruce. The square edge has been a special order whereas the the broken edge is commonly stocked around here. The sharp, square edge looks MUCH better IMHO and worth the upcharge for getting it. Have only used their engineered 3/4"t prefinished.
Lot of folk around here dislike Bruce, having had too many experiences with it being inconsistent in width.
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haven't had that issue but it's been over a year since I put any down. I also think the square edge might be milled to tighter tolerances than the broken edge stuff that looks like crpa.
Edited 4/29/2009 4:46 pm ET by john7g
I used Mirage Mahogany over gypcrete and would use it again. It is fully glued down so I have no idea how it's ever going to come up. :-)
I've recently done a low end snap together system and a medium priced bamboo t & G system. I didn't enjoy the snap together system. It was hard to work it alone. The bamboo was a breeze. Very nice stuff from China. It looked great and just went together smooooooooth.
My last floor that I installed was from Bellawood, Brazilian teak, and It was a headache, I'm not going to use that brand again, and I know that many contractors don't like to work with that brand too, the reason? to much variety with the wide, 1/16 some with 1/8" it was awful, and It was solid hardwood floor. so be careful
I have to further agree about bellawood. Put down a brazillan walnut one that was terrible to work with. The wood was every species except walnut, a real mix of junk wood, split the toungs a lot and had big width differences. Not fun or that great looking.
Is Bellawood the Lumber Liquidator's brand?There is not much good said about them anywhere, except amoung those looking for the cheapest pricing who don't know floors.
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I diasgree a little. I installed a bellawood floor that was maple, I think, and the back of the boards was imprinted "Made in Canada" and it was well made. The exotic stuff I installed from them was a totally different story."Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Made in Canada !!! lucky you , that is the difference !!! the brazilian teak from bellawod come from China to Virginia and from here to your home, is kind the 30 days of extra humidity, storage, ship, storage, trucks, storage,etc
I've used Bellawood, and had great results. Never could understand the griping about it on BT... but, I've only installed oak, maple, and hickory... all domestic, and fit fine.http://www.tvwsolar.com
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That seems to be common among several brands. The US or Canadian species are good to excellent, and the foreign produced stuff is iffy.
Im 90% sure it came from lumber liquidatiors
Why a prefinished floor?
I ask because sometimes they simply don't want the fumes and mess with finishing a floor.. if that is the case then look at shellac..
I did an addition to kitchen / family room in 2006, and used Lauzon pre-finished red oak flooring in both areas. About 800 sq. ft. total. The finish still looks great, and I have two dogs. The Lauzon has an overall thickness of 7/16" with the wear layer of oak about a 5/32". They say it can be refinished twice. It has a micro-bevel edge so there is not a large v groove to collect dirt. I paid about $6.00 a sq. ft. for the material, and purchased through Hoskinghardwood.com.
Robert
I've had good results and satisfaction with the laminates. I've had not so good satisfaction with engineered wood. Used some higher end brand sold through Ifloor.com. Veneer on top was a little thicker than the competitors (I think almost 1/8") and had one of those much ballyhooed Aluminum Oxide finishes. Floor looked terrible after 2 years. Bear in mind we had a dog at the time and 3 kids under 5. Nonetheless the floor was swept twice daily to remove any abrasives but the floor was a scratch and dent magnet. The substrate wasn't solid enough of a backer so we had maybe half a dozen dents that caused the veneer to actually puncture in some spots. That is cause a dent that transmitted below the surface of the veneer. Two years ago we ripped it out and replaced it with Marmoleum and I couldn't be more satisfied with the floor. Very low maintenance.