Hardwood flooring question

Hey folks. I have a quick question regarding wood flooring. I am getting ever closer to starting our new house. We want to have hardwood floors in a good portion of the living area.

I wondered if it is better to go with unfinished and have someone finish it or is pre-finished the way to go. The things I am looking for is cost and look comparisons. I obviously want it to look great, but I also don't want to break the bank to do it. Can a prefinished floor look as good as an unfinshed one that is finished later?

I am also looking at pine flooring. I really like some of the amber colors I have seen on some webpages. Can anyone tell me some positives or negatives to using pine?

Thanks for your input.


Bryan

Chances are the prefinished will be more durable due to better application envirnment.

Pine floors may be softer and wear quicker.

They are all gona look good. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Hickory is probably one of the hardest flooring and doesn't dent too easily, about twice as hard as oak. I have Birch and it's about like maple and close to an oak floor. The flooring place had a special on 3" wide birch and I saved a bunch, plus I wanted a lighter colored floor to keep the rooms brighter. I would not recommend pine as it is very soft and the new saw timber is fast growing and thus is very prone to shrink and swell, even if they are urathaned, not good for floors. I'd also not recommend the pre-finished product as it is much harder to match when you have a problem. An oil finish is much easier to keep nice and scratches and dents are easier to either remove or to repair if needed.

You may also want to look at "cabin grade" flooring, it is less expensive and in my opinion looks a lot better because of the small imperfections in it. My brother-in-law's parents just put it in a $350,000 house where money was not an issue. They liked the rustic look of it and then found out later that it was less expensive.

I have prefinished heart pine flooring in my house, and I would not do it again. It is too soft.
Very attractive, but soft.
Regarding your question, prefinished flooring has micro-bevelling at the edges in order to make the planks fit together.
That process works, but creates "lines" that are clearly visible.

I prefer the sanded/finished on site product, as it creates a more "mirror" image.

I also admit to being a bit prejudiced on the issue as I manufacture hardwood flooring in South America.
We provided 15,000 square feet of it, pre-finished, to a local condo building and it looks great.
In a home, I prefer finishing it on site after installation.

IF you don't just absolutely have to have the "traditional" narrow plank hardwood floors and like rustic then you might consider large wide planks that are pegged to the subfloor with contrasting pegs. YO can use screws and just fill the holes on top of the recessed screws with the contrasting pegs. Looks good after the pegs are sanded flush with the planks. If you want the pegs to "go away" then cut plugs from the same material as the planks (good use for scraps), select the pegs for similarity in color and grain, and then orient the peg's grain with the plank's grain and after sanding the pegs/plugs will be virtually invisible. Sometimes the edges of the large wide planks are beveled more than a "micro-bevel" on purpose for "the look."

Pat