Wood Flooring Questions
We’re redoing the flooring in our townhouse with 4-5″ wide planks of unfinished, select grade American walnut and wanted to solicit advice /opinions on a few topics. (1) Any great suppliers to recommend? Has anyone had any good / bad experiences with Premium Flooring in Brooklyn (seems like decent prices, knowledgeable salesguy). (2) Is a…
We’re redoing the flooring in our townhouse with 4-5″ wide planks of unfinished, select grade American walnut and wanted to solicit advice /opinions on a few topics. (1) Any great suppliers to recommend? Has anyone had any good / bad experiences with Premium Flooring in Brooklyn (seems like decent prices, knowledgeable salesguy). (2) Is a price of about $5 to $6 / sf just for the wood about right? (3) I’m planning on finishing with satin look polyurethane that hopefully won’t look like a sheet of plastic. Hi-end flooring stores in Manhattan seem to disdain poly and prefer finishes with tung oil or marine oil or similar (and charge a lot). Are they on to something? Don’t non-poly finishes leave the floors very exposed to bad discoloration from any water that hits it? (4) We’re thinking about staining it a bit to darken it. Will the floor be too dark then in a few years? All of your comments are much appreciated.
If you’re interested in recycled wood, we had a great experience with Pioneer Millworks. They are upstate and supply a variety of recycled flooring including doug fir, heartpine (our favorite — and it’s very hard), oak, elm, chestnut etc. Go to http://www.pioneermillworks.com. They can send you samples.
there’s a guy who sells & installs hardwood flooring. well priced and great service. Usually does big jobs but if he’s not busy will do small jobs. company is broadleaf flooring or floors not sure
call 718-915-0887
hi, i’m interested in buying some
i bought some red oak #1 from premium flooring but when my contractor was installing it, he mentioned that the quality was inferior to what he’d seen. so we end up buying the rest from home depot and for a little bit more got select grade.
on a separate note, while getting quote on steel door & window guards from american steel manufacture on metropolitan, the salemem mentioned that there is no sales tax on products use for capital improvement. i noticed that when i was buying kitchen cabinets, bathroom tiles, windows, etc, every vendor was charging me sales tax. any tax accountant out there with insight on this? it is too late for me to do anything about it, but i’m curious.
I wish we hadn’t used poly on our floors — the scratches drive me crazy. At least with an oil finish you can touch it up and it’s a much more “natural” look. But poly requires less maintenance in high traffic areas. Not all polys are created equal (appearance, performance and safety are all issues to consider). Do some research online and you’ll find lots of opinions. I’ve seen Waterlox recommended though it can be hard to find in NYC. We just had some walnut trim repaired and our carpenter had to stain the new wood to match the old. New walnut can have a slightly pinkish tinge, rather like unfinished mahogany. Since I prefer the rich, medium brown tones of old walnut, I would suggest staining your flooring. A good supplier should be able to give you lots of advice.
I’m doing a new maple floor and I hate polyurethane so I found a german product called Osmo Hardwax oil which as the name suggests is a mixture of waxes and oils without some of the problems of these finishes and is pretty resistant and kid friendly and easy to apply. I’ve so far finished one floor. Darkens slightly like all finishes but seems to be a good product.
Poly is better, like you said makes the floor more water resistant and retains the color better. Walnut is pretty dark already isnt it? I am not sure if you will need to stain it. Take a piece and poly a small portion to see what it looks like. It will be slightly darker. Make sure the price is per sq foot and no linear foot, it is makes a big difference. If you know the exact flooring you want shop around for the best price.