Wood flooring questions

[Brian Runau]

My wife and I are planning on replacing the 1950's strip flooring in our living room. @ 360 sq ft. 1/4" thick 2" wide strip faced nailed to 1 x 6's that are diagonally across the floor joists. Plan is to remove the strip, remove all the nails, have someone screw, 2 per 1 x 6, into the joists to eliminate any movement in the subfloor.

Don't want to use engineered flooring, prefer to use 3/4" solid with a vapor barrier on the 1 x 6's and install the floor 90 degrees to the joists.

Looking at Maple, select or better grade, and trying to get the best bang/quality for the buck. One of these prefinished options is coming in @ $9.20 sq ft for material only.c I can purchase unfinished for $5.69 plus freight, but then I have to have it stained and sealed at additional expense. Would they sand a new floor install before stain and finish? Some of the prefinish claims a 50 year warranty which would outlive me.

Not sure I can save enough money on the unfinished version with the additional costs and what level of quality vs the prefinished? My brain tells me the factory applied finish would always be a higher level of quality and since I am only doing 360 sq ft, not much of a cost savings when it is all said and done.

Appreciate any input.

Brian

[Jim Becker]

AFAIK, if it's not prefinished, you'll be sanding before stain and finish. So that labor/equipment component has to be part of the cost comparison between the pre-finished and the raw wood options.

[Bill Dufour]

Most prefinished I have seen have beveled edges to catch dust. I prefer a floor to be flat not grooved. IF you sand get the orbital not belt sander
Bill D

[Tom M King]

There are some LVP’s that actually have a layer of wood in them that shows. You get tight smooth joints, unlike prefinished wood, and could even stick close to your original floor thickness, plus other advantages.

Edited to add: I think this actually goes under the engineered wood category, but joints are almost as tight as LVP. I saw some in a hospital lab room, took pictures, and found it on the internet when I got home that day, but can't find it now. I do remember it was very expensive, but very impressive.

Edited to add again: I think this is it.

https://www.hursthardwoods.com/10-1-4-x-3-4-european-french-oak-natural/engfonat1034/

[Paul F Franklin]

Even with the best equipment, sanding and finishing in place makes an incredible mess, and is often very stinky as well, depending on the finish used. Then you have to stay off the floor until the finish is fully or at least mostly cured. And in my opinion, no in-home finish will ever be as durable as the UV cured al-ox containing finish used on high quality pre-finished hardwood. It's true as Bill states that most PF hardwood has beveled edges, but many have micro-bevels that are barely noticeable after installation and are not deep enough to trap dirt or dust. But if you want an absolutely flat floor with no detectable bevels between planks, you have to go the sanding and in-place finish route.

[Brian Runau]

Most prefinished I have seen have beveled edges to catch dust. I prefer a floor to be flat not grooved. IF you sand get the orbital not belt sander
Bill D

Bill, I have the skills to do it, but I am too damn old to! Brian

[Michael Drew]

I used 3/4" hickory in my home's great room. Random width, T&G flooring. Nailed through the toung with a flooring nailer every 6" or so. My floor is 12" BCI's on 16 centers, with 3/4" OSB sub flooring. I also used construction adhesive under the hickory. The downside to solid flooring is expansion/contraction and it's not a simple install. I can't imagine trying to install it over 1X's. I would just install 3/4" OSB subflooring over your 1X6's, or pull those up too, and lay the sheeting on your joists. After the flooring is nailed down, the fun starts. Several passes with a walk behind drum sander to get it level, then walk behind orbital/vibratory sander, then a floor polisher. Once the floor is level, sanded smooth, and all dust removed (a chore in itself), it gets stained. A hard clear top coat is then applied. I used the same stuff used on basketball courts. After doing this floor with real wood, I used engineered wood downstairs. The engineered stuff is 10X easier to install. It floats, so you don't have to worry too much about expansion/contraction issues, and it's a lot less costly overall. Downside, is it doesn't look as nice, feels different when walking on it, and the top layer is only 1/8" thick or so. If you ding it by dropping something on it, well, you can't really fix it by sanding it out.

I dunno, if I were you, I'd probably just wander through a flooring store and see what's new. Get some type of faux wood tyle that will hold up to abuse and is simpler to install than wood. But - nothing looks as good as a real wood floor though.

500487

500488

[Tom M King]

I edited my first post in this thread. I think this is the flooring I was impressed with in a hospital lab.

https://www.hursthardwoods.com/10-1-4-x-3-4-european-french-oak-natural/engfonat1034/

[roger wiegand]

I've mostly done conventional hardwood and site finished it myself. With modern WB catalyzed finished like Bona Traffic HD you get an incredibly durable finish with virtually no odor. Their Amber Seal product will make it look more like an oil based finish. I like to do a "picture frame" pattern in the floor with contrasting wood to make a border around the room. More work but it really looks nice.

In my son's kitchen because of the very small area I used a pre-finished solid maple that had square corners, no bevels or microbevels. It looks pretty good, not quite what you can get with site finishing, but unless you're a flooring guy you wouldn't see the difference. Not many choices with the square corners but I think the beveled corners look awful.
I bought most of our flooring for the last couple houses from a no longer in business mill in Traverse City Michigan. They gave me great birdseye maple for about $4.50/sf a decade ago, plain maple for about $2.50/sf, and for the shop, "mixed domestic hardwoods" for a buck a foot. Truck freight at the time was only a couple hundred bucks for a whole house worth of flooring. Finishing products ran another dollar/sf.

Laying it and finishing it is a lot of work. Being young and strong is a real asset.

Here's a picture of the mixed species on the shop floor immediately after it was finished.

500490

[Brian Runau]

Michael, I don't have the height in the room vs firebox height to add underlayment. Brian

[Bill Dufour]

I had to go the Nevada to get good oil based floor varnish. when i refinished my front room. Same to get oil based aluminized roof coating for over roll on roofing.
BilL D

[Ronald Blue]

I installed this at the home that I used to be in. It is very durable and good looking. The hickory is a mixture of light and dark. It seems like I recall you being in an area with access to Menards. This is made here in the United States. I know you mentioned maple but this is worth a look IMHO.


https://www.menards.com/main/flooring-rugs/hardwood-flooring/hardwood-flooring/great-lakes-wood-floors-natural-hickory-3-4-x-3-solid-hardwood-flooring-24-sq-ft-ctn/23206/p-1561444210953-c-12448.htm?tid=7260486733730944254&ipos=4

[Jason Roehl]

Ditto on what Roger said. I don’t care how good the finish is on a prefinished floor if it has grooves that trap dirt—and don’t seal the strips together. A simple spill can quickly wick between the boards, and stain the wood under the factory finish—there’s no finish below the bevel or “micro-bevel.”

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Bruce make some very good pre-finished 3/4 inch solid nail down flooring. I install lots of it. I have not had complaints about the micro bevel. Spills and sloppy plant watering have caused damage in houses with Bruce pre-finished as well as in houses with installed raw, sanded, and varnished in place floors. Nail down flooring is becoming a thing of the past. "Floor covering" is the new normal. I am looking into the floating wood floor covering with the metal clips for an upcoming project.

https://youtube.com/shorts/THYUnR6A0EM?feature=share

[Rich Engelhardt]

Bruce make some very good pre-finished 3/4 inch solid nail down flooring. I install lots of it. I have not had complaints about the micro bevel. Spills and sloppy plant watering have cause damage in houses with Bruce pre-finished as well as in houses with installed raw, sanded, and varnished in place floors. Nail down flooring is becoming a thing of the past. "Floor covering" is the new normal. I am looking into the floating wood floor covering with the metal clips for an upcoming project.

https://youtube.com/shorts/THYUnR6A0EM?feature=share
I ran into s floor once that was installed similar to that.
Heavy wire was laid on the floor and pieces of flooring with narrow dados were pressed onto the wires.

I had to tear out a section and replace it with nail down T&G.

[Brian Elfert]

I edited my first post in this thread. I think this is the flooring I was impressed with in a hospital lab.

https://www.hursthardwoods.com/10-1-4-x-3-4-european-french-oak-natural/engfonat1034/

I find it hard to believe that a hospital lab would use wood flooring. It would be difficult to keep the floor clean to hospital standards with all the cracks between the boards. Even a sanded and finished in place hardwood floor will have the cracks open at least slightly. I seem to recall most labs have a seamless vinyl or rubber floor covering to make it easy to clean.

[Tom M King]

It looked like luxury vinyl plank. I took a picture of it, and that link was the closest thing I found for it with a google picture match when we came back home. It was not a regular wood floor. All the planks were wide, but the surface was like a LVP floor. There were no cracks as you would expect from wood, but just like a LVP waterproof floor like we have in lake rental houses.

It was a hospital lab in Emporia, Virginia. My Mom was living in Assisted Living near there then.

[Cameron Wood]

I agree with Paul F Franklin in post #5 above-

especially for a smaller space, prefinished for more durable, less mess, & faster turn around.

I have the same subfloor in my house, & it originally had cork tiles and carpet over 3/8" plywood underlayment. The cork was trashed so I replaced with new plywood,

and eventually put down vinyl plank. It won't win the design awards, but it looks fine, and has performed great so far (~5 years), works excellent in the kitchen, and avoids the lumpy

transition between 5/16" and 3/4" wood floors.

[Derek Meyer]

We re-did our living room, dining room and kitchen about 18 months ago. We used a laminate flooring called Audacity. It is waterproof, comes in a bunch of different finishes, and has no bevel or gap between planks. Click-lock installation. If I remember right it retailed for about $4.25 a square foot when I bought it.

The planks have a texture to them that makes them feel more like real wood. We did have one plank get scratched a couple of weeks ago, but if I didn't know exactly where it was I'd be hard pressed to tell just looking over the floor. I'm very pleased with it.

[Brian Runau]

This is what I have learned in this process. Unfinished hardwood flooring has standard grades across the industry. Easy to compare. Prefinished hardwood flooring does not. Each manufacturer sets their own standards. One calls their mill run spec, it has grade 1 grade 2 and character(read crap) in it. Character has large knots splits etc...they are filled,but This is fine, personal preference/budget, but this supplier tried to tell me it was something it wasn't until I pinned them down. Almost impossible to get a clear face grade in a prefinished Floor. Can't afford rift saw or quartesawn product, but found a a couple manufacturers that sell prefinished maple in grade 1 & 2, so small knots, they tell me dime size or less, no splits etc... I plan to purchase a single box of the final choice before going forward with the job so I can see what a box includes, vs the small samples in the showrooms. Thanks for all the input. Brian

[Cameron Wood]

IME, the top grades, especially of maple, can be too uniform and stark, & lower grades have color and figure variation that makes a better looking floor.

[Brian Runau]

IME, the top grades, especially of maple, can be too uniform and stark, & lower grades have color and figure variation that makes a better looking floor.

Kind of personal preference and what someone wants. We actually are going for boring . Thanks brian

[Ron Selzer]

Kind of personal preference and what someone wants. We actually are going for boring . Thanks brian

Good way to say it. My wife wants lots of character, (knots, splits, etc) I prefer midway between that and the high grade (boring)
All comes down to who has to live with it

Ron

[Carol Schnell]

I live in a house built in the 40's. I decided to get rid of the carpet in a bedroom so I could glue down engineered flooring. Under the carpet I found ¾ " diagonal plank yellow pine wood with gaps between the boards. There is a crawl space under the house with high quality plastic as a moisture barrier over the dirt. Should I remove the plank and replace it with 3/4" plywood? If I add plywood over the plank, the floor will be considerably higher than the adjacent wood at the doorway. The floor is relatively flat and would need minimal leveling. Is Ardex cement-based underlayment the best product for that? Do I need an underlayment paper or felt over the plywood? Do I need to silicone the cracks between the plywood? As you can see, I need lots of advice. I appreciate any help you can provide.

[Jerome Stanek]

I live in a house built in the 40's. I decided to get rid of the carpet in a bedroom so I could glue down engineered flooring. Under the carpet I found ¾ " diagonal plank yellow pine wood with gaps between the boards. There is a crawl space under the house with high quality plastic as a moisture barrier over the dirt. Should I remove the plank and replace it with 3/4" plywood? If I add plywood over the plank, the floor will be considerably higher than the adjacent wood at the doorway. The floor is relatively flat and would need minimal leveling. Is Ardex cement-based underlayment the best product for that? Do I need an underlayment paper or felt over the plywood? Do I need to silicone the cracks between the plywood? As you can see, I need lots of advice. I appreciate any help you can provide.

I would pull the pine and insulate then put down plywood

[jack duren]

For unfinished flooring you’ll need a nailer. I use Powernail. Once done you’ll have to rent a belt sander.After I used the rented belt sander I used a PC 505 and finished it. Stained and put a coat of poly on the floor. Floor is lost 20 years old. I’ll probably be recoating it in the next couple of years.

I ran mine diagonally with a 6” border.