Floor recommendations?

dork, thank you for letting me know about this product but in truth, i would not install a floor at this point in my life unless it was for someone i knew. in so far as bruce being a mass market product – from where i sit as a contractor – i think you hit it on the head as that is something i am comfortable working with as i am not a floor specialist (its important i say all this here as i do not want people calling me to install floors, though if someone needed a patch, even in T&G which some homeowners think is impossible) i would consider it as for me floor patches are pure wood work). the bruce goes down just like old t&g; no thinking, just labor.

for what it is worth, even on new construction over new sub floor, T&G gets sanded. but i am not sure why this is neccessary and i am not sure those new sub floors are that uneven (i get what you are saying about uneven floors in old houses) and one would think that with the TG lock and the fine milling flooring is made to, it would all line up. i bet if i asked the real floor guys working in new construction why they have to sand it out, they might know they have to do it and might say there will be a little roughness or uneveness between the boards, but i am not sure they would know why they encounter that situation (a lot of people who do repetitive tasks in the wider construction industry know they have to do something but they don’t drill down to the WHY and that leaves them handicapped when they hit a situation on their own and don’t realize that they should now not do it or should do something different; that’s when things go wrong with moderately expereinced people).

stevecym

in General Discussion 4 years and 6 months ago

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Guest User | 4 years and 7 months ago

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anyone have a recommendation for where to buy a new wooden floor for our kitchen?

I found a place called Liqwoodations near Home Depot in Bed Stuy that has very well-priced parquet floors to match our existing for $3-8/square foot. However there are few reviews online so not sure what the quality is…

stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago

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i have been watching this for a few days and not respnding because i think the question leaves too many options, some which i know nothing about.

generally when i have to put a floor down or patch one, i go to the place on 124st in manhattan. dykes is now in their old warehouse and i think they still have a location across the street and have decamped to another warehouse around the corner, not sure. i think it is ny floor. these folks have all the unfinished flooring; your regualr strip floor that can be cut into the needed pieces for parquet. these strips are not tongue and groove but the straight wood, 5/16″ inch thick. they also carry the t&g and may have prefinished flooring; i do not know as i have not visited them since before dykes took over their warehouse and i bet that is the better part of 10 years now. (my guess is they have prefinished as they have an office with a sales team and they are not there to sell strips of unfinished wood).

in Brooklyn, there are two floor suppliers outside the front of lowes. the independent person, and i think his name is jack, is great. when i have to do patches, i go to him and he treats me like a million dollar customer even if i buy one small bundle of wood. He has a pretty big warehouse and i am not sure what else is in it but is is full. he is such a helpful guy, i would not do any floor work without talking to him.

located near him is lumber liqidators. i have never bought anything from them because they advertise this and that and the prices are the same as the guys on the corner and would rather support the independent than the chain. here is the thing, i was telling a real floor specialist this one time and he said “there is no wiggle room with the unfinished wood flooring you buy, but if you are buying prefinished, lumber liquidators is great and you can save money”.

depending on the size of your room you may wish to shop around (on real small jobs i don’t shop, it is not worth my time to drive; but the entire floor of a house, yes). also, if you are going with prefinished vs. unfinished, you may wish to make phone calls first and see that people have what you want. and lastly, as you move forward and figure out what you really want, when you know and it is only a matter of finding the supplier you want, call and ask if they have it and the price per sq foot; these guys rattle numbers off to contractors all day long. i did notice that with that guy on the corner across from lowe’s entrance that the price fell as the size of the order grew; he will work with you.

i cannot comment to the specifics of any finished product and your asking for parquet floor is general even though parquet specifies a shape. there is something else to consider, you can buy parquet precut so the pieces fit together as squares. they also used to make preglued squares of the tonge and groove – i don’t buy this stuff so i am not sure if it is still on the market, i guess it is, that would make life easy right? bear in mind that parquet refers to one pattern and the other pattern, the herringbone, is called something else. i forget what though.

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 4 years and 7 months ago

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I had a new pre-finished oak floor installed in my kitchen a few years ago by Conte on Avenue L. They did a very good job and the floor has held up well. Of course this is my only experience with having a floor installed,

stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago

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i did a prefinished bruce floor for someone years ago any everyone was happy. here is the thing about prefinished strip flooring or T&G; they have to put a bevel on the edge because when you lay a wood floor, even though the sub floor should be flat, the new wood floor edges are uneven so a new floor has to be sanded no matter what. to get around this they bevel the edges and that hides the uneveness. its just a quirky thing about prefinished floors that we have to accept as part of the beast. some of the manufactures of engineered products probably have a way around this-

see bob’s comment above about doing a wood floor in the kitchen. since i am a wood guy, we did that here. we had a lot of trouble with the finishes for a while. i was screening and recoating every few years and as soon as i could teach my son how to machine sand a floor with hand held equipment, we sanded it off and i put down BASIC COATINGS STREET SHOE and have never been happier.

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 4 years and 7 months ago

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RE: Pre-finished flooring; I was initially resistant to having it installed because I disliked the look of the bevel in floors I’d seen, but the Bruce “Gunstock Oak” we had installed has a bevel so slight that it’s virtually unnoticeable. The finish also seems pretty durable–only a few superficial scratches after three years. Since its solid oak, rather than engineered, it could eventually be sanded and refinished, if necessary. So far we’ve been cleaning it with a product from Lumber Liquidators (which we considered, but rejected as a source for our new floor).

stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago

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so bob, after my comments about the Minwax stains, i have to say the color of theirs i really like is “Gunstock”. if i recall it was a new color about 2005, just about the time i began moving away from minwax.

and the prefinished floors you mention, the Bruce. that is what i used in the flooring job i mention above. prefinished Bruce and i think the guy who sold it to me was wearing an orange apron.

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 4 years and 7 months ago

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It may be a “new” color Steve, but it’s a close match for the wooden floor in the hallway outside of my kitchen.

stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago

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bob, for me and you, that is a new color. for the rest of these folks on here it is just part of the Minwax line.

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 4 years and 7 months ago

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Steve,

I wonder if Minwax produced the gunstock oak color to match the color Bruce uses for their pre-finished flooring!

stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago

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bob, i refinished a floor back in 06 and stained it with gunstock. it was truely brilliant looking. i am not sure i made the connection though with the bruce floors. perhaps.

dorkofwindsor | 4 years and 6 months ago

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steve, i have had prefinished flooring installed without the bevel. I thought it was bruce but perhaps it wasn’t – i refused to buy anything with the bevel so brand was secondary. AFAIK The bevel is there for slightly uneven subfloor imperfections and works for the mass market installers. The one i had installed w/o the bevels was simply amazing and flawless, its been through a bunch of tenants in 10 years and still looks amazing. Sorry i cannot recall the brand now.