hardwood floors

[robinmm01]

Recently my husband and I are shopping for floors. We are great do-it-yourselfers". I thought I was ready to buy laminated wood floors fom www.fastfloors.com and decided on a hunch to inquire about realwood floors. I currently have carpet no biggy. Pulled it back and removed the wood and tacks. The laminated flooring in a no-glue floating floor. Seems fairly easy to install. However it can never be re-finished and will eventually show its wear. Upon investigating the real wood idea I found that we would have to install sub-flooring 3/4 thick first. The wood I found is from a guy in Utah. It comes unfinished. My husband really wants the woodflooring, but we are talking about adding at least $1500 in sub-floor, glue, stain, sealer and renting a nailer (I am sure very costly). Plus I am not even sure if we can do it ourselves. I was happy to take on the laminate. Both of us are great at woodworking and have all the proper tools to make cuts and what not. Our wainscoating, wallpaper, and crown molding came out awesome. Can any one steer me in the right direction? by the way we plan on staying in the house for the next ten years.

Thanks,

"I can do anything I put my mind to!" Robin Mathews

[Troy]

I think if you can do crown molding, then you can do hardwood floors. Is the wood you found grooved? If so, then it just goes together like a puzzle. I would imagine that it is no more difficult than laminated floors.

Welcome to the forum! I have enjoyed reading your posts.

[emailprice]

You can do it. Here is a little help on hardwood floors

[pushkins]

I am a little confused as to why you would have to add 3/4" sub flooring before you lay the as you call it "real wood".
Under your layer of carpet you must already have a sub floor and this should be all you need prior to laying 3/4" tongue and groove "real wood". I fail to see why anyone would be recommending you ADD another 3/4" of sub floor

On top of that unless you have experience in the correct methods of sanding the floor once laid it can be quite a daunting task. The wood must be sanded at least three times from a course paper to an ultra fine grade of paper, each time being completely free of any dust from the previous sanding. Then at least one coat of stain (should you decide you want it stained) and then at least two coats of a polyurethane, with sanding in between the coats.

OR

You could buy very competitively priced pre finished tongue and groove floors. All you need do is to lay it over your sub floor once you have laid down a layer of red rosin paper (vapor barrier) and nail it appropriately. All done minimum mess and fuss.
I think once you compare the prices for finished and unfinished tongue and groove and take into account the extra costs of sandpaper, floor sander, edge sanders, stain, polyurethane and associated tools you might find the pre finished comes out ahead in the pricing department.

[GaryS]

When we built our home 9 years ago, we put real T&G oak in nearly every room. For installation on a slab, they first laid a vapor barrier and then nailed 1/2" plywood to the slab before installing the oak.

Commentary: I will never, ever, ever again have hardwood floors in a house! I hate everything about them. They are expensive; they develop squeaks; they are hard to keep shiny; the dogs leave toenail tracks everywhere and when the polyurethane finish wears, you have to re-finish the entire house in order to repair a few high traffic areas. More expense!

We are now designing a new house and all the floors will be tile or carpet.

Did I mention that I hate my wood floors?

[pushkins]

Sorry to hear about your bad times with your floor Gary.
The reason why they added 1/2" ply to the floor was to give them something to nail the hardwood floor to when laying it. One point tho. is that they never should have nailed the ply to the floor, the concrete nails will never hold the ply over even a short period of time and that may well be one of the problems that your finding.

One of the hardest things to always bear in mind with natural wood floors is just that, they are "natural", wood marks, scratches and dents. People will often sell for instance "oak" as a hard wood there are many types of oak and many differences in their respective hardness and therefor their wearability factors.
Polyurethane is another area that many people missunderstand, to get a good, high quality finish on natural wood floors there are many steps that must be taken and any short cuts in the process WILL come back to haunt the owners. Some unreputable contractors or home owners looking to cut costs might not use three or more coats of polyurethane on the floor, one or two coats is NEVER enough.
In my home I've have 100 year old oak and have added maple, we have two very energetic Australian Cattle Dogs, they give my floors a work out you wouldn't believe and we have no damage in any room (now my front solid wood door on the other hand is a victim of collateral damage )

I'm not saying you did any of the above, but there are many factors that dictate the worthiness of solid wood floors from the sales staff selling the wood to the contractors installing and finishing it.

[curveylpn]

Hardwood the easy way

It wasn't until my husband first mentioned redoing our down stairs family room that I started looking into the great many new and improved hardwood and hardwood alternatives. We finally settled on Lyptus Michelangelo Series that we found at FloorMAll.com. Lyptus is farmed on plantations very eco friendly as well as being very durable. I have two small children as well as the famliy pet to consider which was why we had to redo in the first place. In my local area Lyptus would have been way out of our budget @ 15.00 per sqft. but we found it online at FloorMAll.com for almost half that delivered to our door!! Now that it's been installed our new floor is like part of the family. In a high traffic area it has yet to let me down. I get the look and feel of old world hardwood that my husband really wants and the lasting durablity of some high tech gadget that makes me very happy. The kids just like that I'm not obssessing over them while they are playing in the family room. I have every confidence that my Lyptus choice will stand the test of my family over time. I hope that this post will help others explore all of their Hardwood Flooring Needs from the comfort of their own home.

[briannarae]

I have seen several houses that had that Pergo laminate flooring, and it has dents all in it from where furniture has sat. Even though it is firm underneath. We were going to do the Pergo, but one day our boys had wiggled the floor vent up, and when I went to put it back, I had to pull a corner of the carpet up to wiggle it back in and lo and behold what do I find? Real hardwood floor!! It had been stained but not finished. I called my husband at work so excited. I had the carpet ripped out before he got home!! It does need to be restained, as there was not any topcoat to protect the stain. I would go with the real wood, it's like what they say about tile versus linoleum (as what that laminate really is), it may cost a little bit more $$, but it sure is worth it in long run. Because when you have to eventually replace that laminate, theres the adhesive to remove before adding any more flooring, so there's that extra $$ spent right there. Good luck!!

[bdcool]

Go with the Real Wood

My wife and I put laminate down in both bathrooms in our house, (bad idea!). But laminate is easy, quick, economical and looks good for a good while.
We followed the installation and warranty instructions for putting it in bathrooms, i.e. use wood glue on all the joints and caulk around all the edges. What I'm getting to is that even if you do all the suggestions for areas of high moisture, these floors do not handle moisture well. One spilled glass of anything and there is a 50/50 chance that it will get into a joint and swell the fibers, and it does not go back to normal after it dries.
I highly recommend real wood floors. You will have to refinish at some point but the beauty of the wood is worth it. And as far as the squeaks and noises, well that just adds character to the house.
Good Luck with the job.

[mayesntn]

Just wondering if you had to remove stains from the wood flooring? If so, how did you do it?