Hardwood flooring...

[minnie56]

What do I need to know?

We are installing hardwood throughout the lower level of our home. So far, it has been recommended that we use Canadian Woods (live in Canada) as opposed to Imported (China etc) and for durability (25 yr guaranty) Oak. Sooo...what else should we look for? Any tips?

Thanks!

 

[Cindyluwho]

We have used Maple in our homes, it's much harder than oak but it is more expensive. There are some folks who swear by the water based method of finishing, it's much easier on the environment,etc. I understand it doesn't hold up as well, someone please correct me if I'm wrong. With our dogs, we always went with swedish finish, supposedly the hardest, most durable.

 

[minnie56]

Well, they're both Hardwoods and as I am having all new kitchen cabinetry as well in Maple I am thinking that the change of wood and grain might be kind of nice. Compliment each other..

I am basically down to almost 2 cats only ( old dog :-( ) so 25 yrs will likely be good for us! Thanks for the info

 

[ticktock]

My house is almost 90 years old (this is the historic district in Fl. ) and we still have the original red oak floors. EVERYONE who comes to our house oohs and aahs over our floors. Go with the oak. I have heard white oak isn't as nice though.


Well, they're both Hardwoods and as I am having all new kitchen cabinetry as well in Maple I am thinking that the change of wood and grain might be kind of nice. Compliment each other..


We also have new maple cabinets in the kitchen and I think that the different woods do compliment each other nicely. Have fun remodeling!

 

[bicker]

We had Indonesian Kempas installed over a year ago and it is wonderful. Harder than oak and maple, pre-finished so it went in very quickly. It it almost glows in the afternoon sun -- it's really remarkable.

 

[Charade]

We had Indonesian Kempas installed over a year ago and it is wonderful. Hard as cherry, pre-finished so it went in very quickly. It it almost glows in the afternoon sun -- it's really remarkable.

I looked at some pics of that and it's quite nice but cherry isn't all that hard compared to oak and maple. I heard that bamboo is about the hardest although I don't care for the grain.

 

[bicker]

Sorry... I'm not sure where I got "cherry" from... The hardness of the Indonesian Kempas on the Janka chart is 1854 versus only 1290 for Red Oak, and only 1450 for Maple.

 

[believe]

We had hardwood floors installed last summer. Make sure the width is what you like. We upgraded to a wider width. We went with white oak because it is a lighter wood than red oak, we had red oak in our entry way and thought it was too dark for us. Maple does not hold a stain, that is what we were told. I thought about maple but worried that I may want to stain the floors down the road and didn't want that to be a hinderance.

Don't settle on a stain until they lay the wood down. Our contractor brought in different stains and put them on our floor for us to decide what we liked. It was great since it allowed us to see how it work with our lighting and wall colors.

We love our floors. So easy to clean!

 

[FayeW]

We have red oak in our living and dining rooms, and we love it! We also chose the pre-finished and it seems very durable. Our friends have maple and with their two dogs, it scratched very easily.

In our new home that is under construction, we upgraded the stairs to red oak as well (vs the standard carpet) and after we take possession we will install red oak in the living and dining rooms. I absolutely love Jabota (Brazilian Cherry), and we will install that in our family room. I wanted it for the other areas, but this builder doesn't offer Jabota for stairs , and since the stairs, hallway, living and dining areas are all connected I had to go with one wood for all of that space.

Red Oak is nice, but Jabota is gorgeous!

 

[bicker]

Jabota!!! That's what it was.... that is the comparable hardness of Kempas! It's all coming back to me.

Jabota is breath-taking, but a bit too expensive for us (which is why we went with Kempas -- it has that same look to it, but Kempas has a bit less impressive graining).

 

[Disney Doll]

We have red oak throughout the house. 2 inch wide boards in most of the rooms, except for the kitchen which has 4 inch wide boards. The installer suggested the widfer boards because trhere is already a lot of wood in our kitchen due to the cabinets and he said the 4 inch boards would look less "busy" with all the other wood.

We have the water-based acrylic finish on all our floors. Have a dog and a lot of traffic, including friends' dogs that come over, and the finish has held up very well. Plus, it's easy to clean. I just mop it with a window cleaner/water solution and it shines like crazy!!!!!