School me about Hardwood floors....

[Taco]

Doing a renovation & part of it in putting in hardwood floors...

Got a contractor, but we supply the materials. Where is the best place to get the wood, should you buy it pre-stained or is it better to have it stained after the fact?

Don't want to spend a fortune, but at the same time we want good quality. There are the HD / Lowes, & I've heard of a place called Lumber Liquidators...

Also, any suggestions as to wood types - contractor said red oak, but that may just have been bc it's the most popular.

Went to a place & felt overwhelmed by all the choices - seems really easy to make a bad choice...

 

[whaler11]

I've been to lumber liquidators but I knew what I was buying.

They could probably help you - has to be better than the Home Depot types.

I've done it both ways - when the contractor included the material I felt I got a better deal - plus moving the materials sucks out loud.

 

[noeynox]

Lumber liquidators will have a broader selection . Their website is great as it shows you what is currently on sale and they do have good deals from time to time. I was in house a few years back where the people had put down bamboo hardwood and it did look great.

 

[Bill Sussman]

The big knock on Lumber Liquidators is that they have a bunch of health and safety violations being risen about them. There was a 60 minutes piece a while back and the fall out is still going on. The basics are that there is formaldehyde in some of their products which is known to cause cancer.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lumber-liquidators-linked-to-health-and-safety-violations/

 

[GlastonTim]

I'm not a fan of the pre stained beveled variety. Solid strip oak for me at the very least. Make sure you let the wood acclimate to your house. I think you'd be better protected by having him supply it also

 

[Husky Dad]

Having redone 3 homes and about to do another I prefer using a really seasoned flooring guy and then working hard to get right price on good materials. Lumber liq people don't have any guidance to provide and it's a big purchase. I use Mark Marhefki from Heritage Floors in Torrington. They are inexpensive. He has done his own installations for 25 years. They do work all over the state.

 

[sledog]

Be sure the wood is 'dry', or you're going to have buckling issues.

Stick with the oak, unless you want a more exotic look. Pine is too soft. We considered cherry, but it was $$$.

 

[8893]

I recommend using pieces of the four courts on which we won our National Championships.

 

[jibsey]

I'm really glad this thread started because I'm needing to refinish hard wood floors that were recently installed 2 years, not pre finished, and the water based urethane did not hold up is wearing badly. It was a lousy job by an Angie's list top ranked floor guy. Recommendations for a good floor guy, and what to use, in central Ct. Would be appreciated.

 

[Taco]

Great suggestions - very helpful ideas. Mrs Taco has an idea of what she wants the floors to look like, but it seems like there is a lot to study up on so that you don't spend the next ten + yes lamenting why you didn't do a little more research when you had the chance...

Went to LL, and I came away feeling I wasn't dealing with a serious floor person.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I'm kind of partial to this one.

 

[B1GEast]

Don't go cheap on the padding, makes a huge difference.

Check out the clearance sections at home depot and Lowe's sometimes people cancel big orders and they reduce quality flooring, good luck

 

[Scot-e]

I am an ex-builder and you really can not go wrong with oak floors. I like white oak more then red but they both can work and there is only a slight difference. Avoid laminated flooring unless you simply can not afford a real hardwood floor- they really suck- in particular if you have a leak or they get wet for any period of time.
If your flooring is pre-finished (most are these days) you do not have to worry about putting poly on them. Oil based poly is more durable but water based drys faster and what they use on basketball courts. Water based can also be lighter if your place is modern ext....

 

[methodology]

Don't go cheap on the padding, makes a huge difference.

Check out the clearance sections at home depot and Lowe's sometimes people cancel big orders and they reduce quality flooring, good luck

You don't put padding under hardwood floors. You use red rosin paper or builders felt. You can also buy something called soundeater but for the most part if you use at least 3/4" hardwood the flooring more or less absorbs the sound.

I wouldn't buy from lumber liquidators. As has been mentioned there is a class action suit because of high levels of formaldehyde in some of their flooring. I believe it's probably the flooring that comes from China. But either way I'd go to a different flooring company.

You can get good deals from Canadian companies but they carry a risk. If you order and get delivery and something is wrong you are SOL for the most part.

Oak is the go to because of durability but there are plenty of other great flooring options. Just do your research and choose something that fits your needs. Will it be in a high traffic area of the house? Dogs or animals? etc

I don't see any problems with or prefinished flooring either. Just stay away from laminated flooring.

Stick to hardwood from USA, Canada or south America. Stay away from anything from China it's crap

 

[Chuck]

A bit off topic but I just ordered ceramic tile for my basement that looks like wood. There was a big difference in pricing ($1.90 to $8.00). For anyone that knows, is the primary difference the look of the finish?

 

[B1GEast]

You don't put padding under hardwood floors.

I meant for laminate flooring, if that's what the op was inferring

 

[Jerry1714]

Go anymore BUT Lumber Liquidators.

 

[Taco]

We're going real HW - it's the upstairs, and will be primarily us as the kids BR are downstairs. Will start researching this week & will stay away from LL! Thanks all for the help!

 

[UC313]

I just bought 500 square of #2 red oak from LL. They offer 2 manufacturers, builders pride and bellawood. The bella is a much better product imo. Id have no hesitation buying solid harfwood from them. The formaldehyde showed up in their laminate stuff and it only exceeded california state standards so there is some skew to that study.

Theres a couple of different grades to flooring, and lumber in general. Select, #1 and #2. Different manufacturers use different grading terms all though. Prefinished floor use an aluminum oxide finish which is damn near bulletproof but that same finish cannot be used on unfinished flooring laid inside your home so youd be either oil or water based. Oil is more durable but slower to cure.

Prefinished floors are all bevel edged. Unfinished can be found unbeveled or beveled.

If you want to find the hardness of the material search for the janka scale. Domestically speaking theyd show up something close to hard maple, white oak, red oak, doug fir, walnut, cherry, pine.

Im not a flooring guy per say but i woodwork and have a decent knowledge of lumber in general. If i can help out msg a brother.

Edit:
Your ccontractor will probably tell you and it was said above, but you want to open up the new boxes of flooring inside the house at least a week before you install. You want the moisture content if the wood to match whats in the house. Wood expands as it gets more humid and you dont want your flooring moving around on ya once installed.

 

[sledog]

soily

A bit off topic but I just ordered ceramic tile for my basement that looks like wood. There was a big difference in pricing ($1.90 to $8.00). For anyone that knows, is the primary difference the look of the finish?

We put ceramic tile in one basement room last summer. I painted rest of basement floors with 2-part water born epoxy paint (Murello), and it’s great. This room had wall-to-wall carpet, but the hurricane Sandy flooding (2” came through the foundation wall in the 12” above the floor in the old part of house whose foundation walls were not waterproofed) ‘sponged’ the old carpet , so we removed it ( an haleluyea moment for my wife) only to find tile which was probably old and asbestos. It had been loosened from the water and removed easily.

So I was to paint this floor as well and perhaps use a few scatter rugs. The room is paneled in original old pine and has a fireplace - typical of the ‘50s. But removal of the old black tile adhesive proved to be a challenge. I tried some environmental solvents, but this worked only 6 sq ft as a time – big / long/ messy job. Grinding it was messy, etc. And if the tile was really asbestos, we still had an enviro issue. Since we couldn't find anyone that wanted to remove the tile cement, the job was mine.

So we placed a white-ish Florida tile that we found at a tile store on sale. The tile 'mud' sealed the floor / adhesive. We did consider the wood floor-like tile which was attractive, but it clashed with the original pine paneled walls. But it is tile, so not to worry. We also excavated the foundation walls of the original part of house and waterproofed.

 

[WillB4]

30 years ago I installed a Bruce 5/8" prefinished oak laminate,glue down, looked great then. Just had the kitchen/dining room renovated, everything except the Bruce floor went, floor still looks great. Good luck.

 

[mauconnfan]

Thought you wanted to get schooled on the hardwood.

 

[pnow15]

I

A bit off topic but I just ordered ceramic tile for my basement that looks like wood. There was a big difference in pricing ($1.90 to $8.00). For anyone that knows, is the primary difference the look of the finish?

I believe, but this is just a guess, that the primary difference is that one is made of wood and the other is made of ceramic. Wood, if my memory serves me, comes from a tree; ceramic is some form of dirt. But I could be wrong here.

 

[Chuck]

I


I believe, but this is just a guess, that the primary difference is that one is made of wood and the other is made of ceramic. Wood, if my memory serves me, comes from a tree; ceramic is some form of dirt. But I could be wrong here.

You're actually wrong... I went with petrified wood. Very rare. More of a mineral than dirt. Had to steal it from national land, but f' it. It's for my house so screw everyone else!

Good pick up on my vague post. I meant that there is a big difference in pricing on the tile version. The only thing that seemed different was the cheap ones didn't have the same wood look (looked almost like it was printed on a dot matrix printer) while the best were hard to tell they weren't wood unless you turned the piece over. For 700 sq. ft. in my basement, I went with a $2.80 version that was regularly $4.99. I was just wondering if there are a bunch of other things I should've verified.

 

[ktuck911]

The big knock on Lumber Liquidators is that they have a bunch of health and safety violations being risen about them. There was a 60 minutes piece a while back and the fall out is still going on. The basics are that there is formaldehyde in some of their products which is known to cause cancer.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lumber-liquidators-linked-to-health-and-safety-violations/

Yikes