pre finished or raw floorboards?
So as you can see in the other post I was in Lumber Liquidators today trying to decide on floors. Out of the pre-finished floors I choose the Brazilian Redwood 3-1/4″ prefinished timber. (see attached photo sample – the tile is our kitchen backsplash but in the 2 x 1 shapre). I know it will…
So as you can see in the other post I was in Lumber Liquidators today trying to decide on floors.
Out of the pre-finished floors I choose the Brazilian Redwood 3-1/4″ prefinished timber. (see attached photo sample – the tile is our kitchen backsplash but in the 2 x 1 shapre).
I know it will darken up over time and I’m fine with that.
1 of the GC’s I met with last week reccomended getting unfinished timber so that after the final paint/hardware installation etc they could come in sand the floors and then seal the timber.
His reasoning was that even though the floor will be papered for protection after the instal that when they are putting the kitchen in etc or carrying in the appliances that things get scratched and with prefinished you can never get it to look right.
I’m confused….why cant you just sand and repair prefinished to match the rest of the boards etc?
Does anyone with real world experience and not heresay have an opinion?
thanks in advance,
Dean
The builder should be able to protect your floors with construction paper, then sheets of 4×8 masonite on top of that.
One thing to consider re pre-finished is that you’ll be able to better match it to cabinets, paint etc. Problem with site finished, as I found, is that it doesn’t always take the stain/poly/whatever finish you choose the way you might expect it to. We did a test board but as it turned out I would have preferred a different stain.
Dean, all the above posts are correct but it’s pretty simple, like everything else in life pre-finished vs. finished on site has advantages and disadvantages to both.
Pre-f, +, harder finish, less susceptible to scratching. -, when scratched, can’t be repaired. When installed, it’s a dome deal.
site-f, +, looks better, easier to repair finish, but you have to put up with dust, noise, and chemicals while finishing.
I elected to go pre-finished for various reasons but ultimately I agree w Steve, site-finished will just end up looking better. Especially in a historic or old home, which mine is not.
A chamfered or eased edge is usually an option in prefinished flooring, not mandatory. It means you can be a little sloppier with your subfloor.
I elected to have a chamfered edge with the engineered flooring on my second floor here because I didn’t want something that looked like Pergo. It was a mistake for the reasons Bond mentioned. With a long-haired Newfoundland, it’s a perfect channel to collect dog hair and pieces of Milkbone and it’s very difficult to clean those channels. Neither a sponge mop nor the terry cloth mops you’re supposed to use on prefinished floors can get into those grooves.
I’ve seen some very nice prefinished floor installations though, even DIY. But I’d never do one again.
My biggest complaint with prefinished is that they have to put a slight bevel on the edges of the flooring planks since they aren’t going to match up perfectly with each other. To compensate for this, the manufacturers usually ease the edge of the indiviudal planks, which when installed form little grooves between each row of flooring. Those little channels catch dirt, which obviously can be vacuumed up, but I think they start looking funky after a while. Bottom line is that I just don’t like the channels, in my opinion they ruin the look of the floor, but as i said, that’s an opinion not fact (the look, not catching dirt, that’s a fact).
As Steve previously stated, Aluminum oxide can’t really be reapplied in a residential application, so if you have to sand it out, you have two problems. One is the finish is not going to match, and secondly, if the scratch is too deep, you are going to have to sand a lot, and then you run into those bevels. Once you sand them out, that section isn’t going to match the rest of the floor.
On the plus side, the finish that most prefinished flooring comes with is extremelly durable, so scratches are less of an issue. Not impossible, but less likely.
I’m not a fan of installing pre-finished flooring. I have always got the best results by sanding and finishing the floor myself, after it’s installed. Not only do you have more control and better results, but I think it looks better. Often I look at pre-finished floors and it looks more like fake wood than a real hardwood floor. However, if you like pre-finished lumber, go with Steve’s comment and cover it with masonite. Once it’s scratched it will never be the same.
Do you mean just sand and finish the damaged areas? If so, that hardly ever works. Stained floors are a bitch to color match if only because the finish changes the hue of the stain. Secondly, prefinished floors usually come with an aluminum oxide finish which is much harder than urethane and cures by UV light. In other words, it can’t be done on a job site.
If you want protect your prefinished flooring just tell the contractor to lay down paper and tape down a layer of 1/4″ masonite over that.