Wood floor suggestions?

[om21braz]

We have 2 full grown Labradors here and went with Kahrs oak recently in our living room. It is impressive so far - approx. 6 months in. Almost too many options out there nowdays. The Kahrs is engineered although feels like 3/4" tongue/groove hardwood - they are laid side-by-side against one hallway.

 

[PILOON]

I have laid more than my share of floorings, lots of hard woods both pre finished and raw unsanded un finished.
Also many of the engineered laminates.
Did my first bamboo just a short while ago.

Bamboo is very consistant looking, to the point as looking printed in that it is totally free of knots or variences and can look man made.

It splinters VERY easily, is VERY hard.
Can't attest to wear caracteristics, but should be good.
You can't use flooring staples but need a flooring nailer as the staples tend to split the bamboo.(due to staple legs being 1/2" apart causes a split to occur)
Using my 16g finish nailer to do the edges destroyed my gun as the bamboo is so tough that the driver pin buckled and broke off. We had to resort to drilling and driving finish nails bu hand.
Another thing that I did not like was that every board in the package was exactly the same length so we needed to do a lot of cuts to avoid repetitive seams as that was just too artificial looking.

 

[EddieWalker]

Bamboo is a type of grass. It's fast growing and after cut down, grows right back. In fact, it's almost impossible to get rid of it, so in that regard, it causes no damage to the environment by harvesting it. Kind of like cutting your front yard lawn. It just grows back again.

Bamboo is also very soft. In it's natural, round form, it's very strong, but when cut into strips for floors, it's extremely soft compared to wood. It wears something terrible and ages very quickly. I've managed to talk every one of my clients out of it by first telling them about it, then challenging them to find a home where they have it and would install it again. Nobody wants to use it after having it already.

If you go solid, then it's a matter of prep and finish. The wood is pretty much the same with who you buy it from, but getting a good sanding and finish of it is what you are really paying for. It's allot more then $3 a ft, so that's probaby not what you are looking at.

Of the two main types of snap together flooring, there is the laminats and the engineered floorings. The laminates are the less expensive of the two. If you go this route, there are two really important things to remember. The paddind crucial. Never buy the cheap padding. If it's a high traffice area, you really need to buy the premium padding, otherwise, the middle grade stuff works well. Right now, Home Depot does not sell a padding that I'd use on a job. Lowes has a very good padding that's worth the extra money. The other thing to remember is that the cheapy brands and copycat brands are pure junk. Pay at least $2 a ft on up from a name brand. If you don't recognize the brand, check them out. There are allot of Chinese and East European makers of some really bad laminate flooring.

Engineered flooring has the same two rules. Buy the good padding and buy a name brand. Price for engineered is about twice what laminate is, but you get a real wood finish that just looks and feels allot better then the laminates.

When bidding a floor, I give my clients a budget of $7 a ft for materials and then we go from there on what they can afford and want. When they start downgrading to the cheap stuff, I start telling them about not offering a warrentee on it, and to expect it to fail on them in a few years. $5 a foot seems to be about the bottom end of a decent engineered floor that I'll gurantee. I've been installing and refinishing floors for a dozen years or so, and with the name brand products, I've never had a claim. When I've installed the cheap stuff, I've been called back to replace sections that have failed. What's sad is they could have bought the good stuff the first time around for what it ends up costing them for the cheap stuff and my time to come back and replace the pieces that chip, crack and curl up on them.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[rtdiggr]

My sister put down IPE. it is not the cheapest but it is one of the hardest woods you will find in this part of the world. It comes from South America.

if you do a Google search on which type of wood and there hardness you will learn alot.
Shane

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

we put bamboo in our house when we built it. Our dogs are 65 & 85 pounds and it doesn't matter what kind of wood you use, it'll show marks.
The bamboo was pretty easy to put in, I staggered my seams about 9" and it so far everyone who has seen it likes it.
We ordered it from Lumber Liquidators and picked it up at a showroom so did not have to pay any shipping.

 

[kenstrac]

Last week I just caught the end of a news report about bamboo ,people getting sick from the formaldehyde in the flooring.
Might turn out to be like the Chinese sheetrock after it's in for awhile surprise.

 

[nhkabotab7800]

be very careful with engineered wood floors...Eddie is right buy the high quality stuff, and most important follow the instalation directions to the t. i have been back to many installations when i was a warranty manager, every problem with the flooring buckeling or pillowing ( you will know what i mean if it happens to you ) has been due to poor instalation. the proper gap around the entire edge is criticall. personally i would not use engineered wood flooring i prefer the old 3/4" nailed down flooring.

 

[Western]

Bamboo is a type of grass. It's fast growing and after cut down, grows right back. In fact, it's almost impossible to get rid of it, so in that regard, it causes no damage to the environment by harvesting it. Kind of like cutting your front yard lawn. It just grows back again.

Bamboo is also very soft. In it's natural, round form, it's very strong, but when cut into strips for floors, it's extremely soft compared to wood. It wears something terrible and ages very quickly. I've managed to talk every one of my clients out of it by first telling them about it, then challenging them to find a home where they have it and would install it again. Nobody wants to use it after having it already.

If you go solid, then it's a matter of prep and finish. The wood is pretty much the same with who you buy it from, but getting a good sanding and finish of it is what you are really paying for. It's allot more then $3 a ft, so that's probaby not what you are looking at.

Of the two main types of snap together flooring, there is the laminats and the engineered floorings. The laminates are the less expensive of the two. If you go this route, there are two really important things to remember. The paddind crucial. Never buy the cheap padding. If it's a high traffice area, you really need to buy the premium padding, otherwise, the middle grade stuff works well. Right now, Home Depot does not sell a padding that I'd use on a job. Lowes has a very good padding that's worth the extra money. The other thing to remember is that the cheapy brands and copycat brands are pure junk. Pay at least $2 a ft on up from a name brand. If you don't recognize the brand, check them out. There are allot of Chinese and East European makers of some really bad laminate flooring.

Engineered flooring has the same two rules. Buy the good padding and buy a name brand. Price for engineered is about twice what laminate is, but you get a real wood finish that just looks and feels allot better then the laminates.

When bidding a floor, I give my clients a budget of $7 a ft for materials and then we go from there on what they can afford and want. When they start downgrading to the cheap stuff, I start telling them about not offering a warrentee on it, and to expect it to fail on them in a few years. $5 a foot seems to be about the bottom end of a decent engineered floor that I'll gurantee. I've been installing and refinishing floors for a dozen years or so, and with the name brand products, I've never had a claim. When I've installed the cheap stuff, I've been called back to replace sections that have failed. What's sad is they could have bought the good stuff the first time around for what it ends up costing them for the cheap stuff and my time to come back and replace the pieces that chip, crack and curl up on them.

Good luck,
Eddie

Good info Eddie, Thanks.
I didn't even know you put down a padding 1st.. Is/ it possible to put a wood floor in a triple wide? I know the florrs are junk but was wondering if its possible or even practical?

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

We have 3/4" x 3.5" gun stock stain oak plank floors & tile throughout the whole house. Both are slippery for two dogs - one 90 #'s other 125 #'s. So far after 6 years there are only a few minor scratches in the hardwood - nothing serious. The scratches are more like indentations - the surface is not broken. Worst mark on the hardwood came when I reached out to one of the dogs, overbalanced my office chair and the metal foot made a couple of actual gouges.

Another family member has natural maple plank floor with dogs / kids. Seems to be holding up very well.

Local Home Depot has dark bamboo on sale. As others have said, grain is too consistent. Put a few boards together and to me it doesn't look any better than cheap printed laminate.

 

[EddieWalker]

Good info Eddie, Thanks.
I didn't even know you put down a padding 1st.. Is/ it possible to put a wood floor in a triple wide? I know the florrs are junk but was wondering if its possible or even practical?

The snap together floorings, like laminate and engineered, are ideal for moble homes if it's dry. Moisture is a big enemy of them. On new homes, it's importat to make sure the concrete under them is cured and dry, on moble homes, it's all about the outside elements getting in.

Since the floors float on the surface under them, it works great on something like a mobile home that might have more movement on the floor then a conventional home. It also goes right over vinyl without any modifications to the vinyl. Just make sure everything is flat and smooth. Depending on what's there, Bondo works great at leveling out those spots that need something added to smooth them out.

Since the floor is held in place by gravity and it's enourmous weight, it does move around to a small degree, when you walk on it. Because of this, it's very important that it does not touch the walls. A quarter inch is plenty, but more is ok too, as long as you can cover the gap. On most homes, 3/4 inch quarter round is added to the baseboards to cover the gap. I prefer to remove the baseboards and either reinstall them, or put in new baseboards. To me, this gives a cleaner finish.

At doorways, it's ok to have the flooring touch for small areas.

When insallling it, make sure to start in the proper corner. If you start in the wrong corner, they won't snap together very well. Practice first and find the right place to start. As a basic rule of thumb, the grain goes in the same direction of the light, or the length of the room. Of course, whatever looks best is what usualy decides this anyway.

They sell tools that you can buy for tapping them together, but I always just use the end of a piece that I've cut off. You really dont' get allot of waste with these floors, but you will have to cut them to get it right. I found that cutting the end off of one of the pieces gives me a perfect tapping tool. Be sure to cut off the proper end. Just put you pieces down at the corner that it all fits together an see what the end is. Then cut off a piece that fits in there and you have a tapping too. that is perfect for that model and type of flooring. Since there are so many variations, I always do it this way.

Buy the better padding, tape it together with 3 inch masking tape, or you can use a special tape that they sell for this. The last floor that I did had a clear plastic over it with a tape already part of it. That was from Lowes, and it was a really good pad. This was the first time that I saw this, so I don't know if anybody else sells this type of padding or not. If not, buy tape. The padding just lays on the floor undernieth and is not attached to anything. It can touch the walls, or come up short by a bit. It's not crucial there, but it is crucial in all the walk areas and anywhere somebody might walk.

This is an easy do it yourselfer, but you do have to make sure the floor under is flat and level. You will also find that allot of getting up and down, bending over and working on your hands and knees. To get around corners, doorways and fireplaces, the cuts have to be precises. If unsure, cut it twice. Once to get close the second time to make it perfect. I've been known to cut a board three and four times to get it just right. For those areas that you will see it, only perfect will work.

Eddie