Solid wood floors - help please (hardwood, how much, engineered, Home Depot)

[paisleysea]

Okay, we're having a new home built by one of those home-building giants in a new development and, so far, our "wood" flooring choices have been limited to laminate or engineered wood. But we decided (very recently) that we want to make things harder on ourselves and put in flooring the builder doesn't offer - solid wood. But now I'm overwhelmed with the choices out there. And I was hoping for some guidance from the wood flooring gurus here.

I put in a call to Sedaris flooring and they seem like good people who can do the work for us but we're still in California so communicating what we want and seeing what they have to offer can be kind of tricky. Basically, my main problem is that I don't know where to start. I know that Sedaris flooring commonly installs oak floors and they gave me a price for that but I'm not too fond of oak flooring. I'm pretty sure I like maple but I don't know the price and they don't have samples of stained maple on their website. Our choice is also limited somewhat by cost. Blah, blah, blah... I could ramble on.

Any tips on where to begin? Are there any good websites that might help narrow down my selection? Do most flooring places just let you show them what you want and they'll do it or do they usually have a gallery of what they have to offer?

Oh, and the builder won't leave out the flooring so the flooring company will have to rip up the existing floors first.

Thanks so much for any wisdom you can pass along to me.

[ejleighton]

Check out this website. Not only will it help you pick a floor, but if you go to the area "find a professional" you can find NWFA(national wood flooring association) professionals in the Raleigh area. Let me know what you find out. My husband is a Hardwood flooring installer in Maine and we are looking to move to Raleigh and this is what we have been using to find companies in the area.

http://www.woodfloors.org/consumer/design.aspx

[MikeJaquish]

Great wood link!

Like the link says, maple can be hard to finish. That is why it is commonly finished clear or neutral. It is very hard, with tight grain and doesn't take stain well. If you stain it, the results can vary widely.
http://www.woodfloors.org/consumer/w...ail.aspx?id=13

[paisleysea]

That is a really great link! Lots of info. Thanks! Guess I know what I'll be doing this evening.

I had read about maple being more difficult to work with and that concerned me. Is there another similar wood that's easier? We definitely want a wood that is as hard or harder than oak?

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by paisleysea

That is a really great link! Lots of info. Thanks! Guess I know what I'll be doing this evening.

I had read about maple being more difficult to work with and that concerned me. Is there another similar wood that's easier? We definitely want a wood that is as hard or harder than oak?

Ead about Ash or Hickory. Hickory has a rather...uh..crude grain. Ash can be beautiful, and it is very hard.
Go through the wood site and see if they don't have a chart of wood species ranked by hardness. I think I have seen that before, possibly on the Lumber Liquidators site.

[alice_61]

My experience has been with red oak and antique heart pine. Red oak is the most common solid wood flooring. Well finished, it is beautiful. Antique heart pine is beautiful with a rich array of colors from yellows to deep red browns and a bolder grain pattern. A lot of heart pine is reclaimed from old Southern factories and other buildings and resawn. I've worked with maple for furniture and have seen it a few times in some lofts in NYC. The color, with time, is a plesant yellow-gold but lacks much in the way of grain. I think that I prefer oak for flooring.

[fbass62]

If you want to put in hardwoods make sure you have them put a "floating" laminate down. That will be the easiest to get up because it will not be glued or nailed. If they put down enginered harwoods they will probably glue it and then you will spend the next year trying to rip it up. All the laminate does it lock together and float on some sort of underlayment(depends on how much you want to spend). Acouple things to consider. Why do you want the hardwoods? IF you are thinking you want to be able to refinish them eventually well you can do that will a engineered hardwoods and the engineered hardwoods are going to resist warping and swelling far better because they have... about 3/8 of hardwood and then plywood that has the grain running vertical and horizontal almost like a weaving. Next thing to consider... Laminate floors acctually have a much stronger finish then hardwoods or engineered hardwoods. Go into home depot, take your keys, and try and dent a high quality 2.75-3.50 sq ft. laminate floor, you can't. Now go over to your hardwoods, they will dent in a second. It will scratch but again not as easily. Also with laminate if one plank gets messed up you can take it out and replace it easily. If you really mess up hardwoods you have to refinish that area and most likely that whole room to make it look right. I love the look of real hardwoods BUT if you are looking for something stronger go with the HIGH QUALITY LAMINATE! Notice i said high quality... If you are paying 75cents to 2 dollars a square foot is is probably junk and will scratch and dent much easier. It pays to get quality...

[wildwumanxoxo]

Bruce makes a nice locking hardwood, goes in and floats like laminate but it is real wood. Found at your local Lowe's. JP