Real Hardwood (not engineered) (Austin: hardwood floors, houses, school)

[CarnivalGal]

Does any place in Austin do real hardwood floors, not engineered? Like lay the hardwood and stain them on site?

[Aquitaine]

Our builder told us a story about people coming from the coasts and asking for real hardwood. They discouraged it but one client insisted. After a couple of years, the hardwood warped due to the temperature changes in the Texas climate.

Now that they don't do it anymore.

It may just be a matter of finding the right one, though.

[Austin97]

all the flooring places would do that. Are you finding places that wont?

Keep in mind many companies do not like putting solid hardwood onto slab as the moisture can cause solid wood to swell. Engineered is much more stable and suitable for our area/climate. People from the coasts may not fully understand this and value "real" wood more.

The thickest most will lay down is 5/16". The wear layer on that is only 2-3 refinishes which is about the same as engineered.

We had 3/4" solid red oak laid down over slab to match the existing hardwood. It was site finished. We made sure they used a glue membrane (like bosticks MVP). It will add about 2/sq ft to the cost of the install.

I can PM you contractor

[centralaustinite]

It is pretty common! It does work better on houses with pier and beam foundation instead of slab. I have solid wood floors that were factory finished then installed on-sight. You need perfect weather to get a good finish on site-finished floors.

[blakely]

Yes, plenty.

We've installed real hardwood twice and had them stained on site.

Some people conflate "engineered" with "pre-finished." Engineered floors are made of more than one layer of wood, with the top layer being 100% real wood. Pre-finished floors are just engineered floors where the top layer has already been stained/sealed at the factory. Or, you can get engineered floors that have a unfinished real-wood top layer. Those can be sanded and stained on site.

Only point being that there IS such a thing as an unfinished engineered floor that can be sanded and stained on site. Which might actually be what you want if you have a slab foundation, because engineered flooring resists warping from moisture and temperature changes on the slab. The key is to find one with a top layer at least 4mm of real wood, so it can be sanded and stained multiple times.

If you want to install solid wood with no underlayer, it's more suitable to the pier & beam foundations.

[JT-3]

Floor & Decor has a nice selection of hardwood. Check them out.

[riaelise]

I have a solid and an engineered floor side by side, no real difference to me except for the bevels I guess. It has a 3mm wear layer, enough to be refinished at least twice. Besides, who needs to refinish a floor a gazillion times? I plan to refinish only once, when I sell.

There's plenty of places that sell unfinished wood, but pre-finished is very popular.

[austin-steve]

The last real hardwood I laid was in YR 2000 on top of 5/8" plywood glued to the concrete slab, with a moisture barrier. Solid Oak, stained in place. It creates a transition issue where the wood meets (now) lower carpet or tile in bedrooms and baths. I did it because I was a hard core "real wood, none of that pergo crap" believer back then.

Times have changed. I just laid 2,200 sqft of engineered wood flooring in my house throughout, except the baths. The quality of engineered wood flooring has improved to the point that it doesn't make any sense to use solid hardwood instead. The only exception would be if I had a real old school pier and beam home and would nail straight to floor joists.

Steve