We have wide pine floors in our addition. They may be reclaimed or may be just wide (mostly 16" and higher widths). I did not install or finish them but they've got a soft finish so my dogs (125 lb Newfoundlands) ding them simply by walking on them. And my fridge dug a large path in the kitchen floor when the movers slid it back.

If I were to finish these floors again, I'd try to find out about some sort of harder finish/protectant that could be put on them. We now have area rugs covering most of them to try to keep down the damage.

FWIW the rest of the house (built 1758) has Chestnut flooring and it doesn't show any marks from dogs, furniture, etc. Looks great after 250+ years with just patina and maybe periodic oiling. :)

Good luck!

I have Carlisle eastern pine floors that were installed by DH over a period of a few weeks. We laid heavy construction type paper down on all of the floors between install and staining.

We didn't do this at first and some of the boards that were first installed in the main walkway got verrrry dirty. It was so difficult to clean them that I ended up having to sand those boards before staining. I wiped all the boards with mineral spirits before conditioning and staining.

The floors are gorgeous but they're very soft and my heels do make slight dents in the wood (try not to wear heels in the house but when I'm rushing around getting ready for work in the morning it happens). We knew this but chose pine anyway because DH really wanted the Carlisle signature floor and 20" width boards. I don't think this width was available in the harder woods - at least not at our price point.

Forgot to add that when we're moving heavy furniture or appliances we use blankets in the walkways and/or under the pieces so they don't scratch the floor.

During install, we did have one mishap when DH dropped a hammer on an already installed board and it took out a chunk of wood. That board was glued down so DH cleanly removed the wood around it and repaired it with another piece of wood. Can't even tell.

There were a few other long boards that had one slightly splintered area but were otherwise perfect. If DH couldn't cut around it because he wanted the longer length, he used a sharp tool to cut around that spot and then sanded it smooth. I was worried about how it would look but I ended up liking the distressed look and wish we had done it in other areas :-) Here's a picture:

Heart pine, unlike white pine and other softer pines, is similar to red oak for hardness. However, any wood floor can be damaged by sliding heavy appliances.

A thin sheet of luan or other material should be on the floor in front of your stove and fridge when you slide those into place.

We installed our reclaimed oak floors when the house was tight and mechanicals were running, and let the workmen walk all over them unfinished. Sanding and finishing was one of the final steps before moving in.

We have 12 - 20 inch pine planks and we protected them with construction paper. In hindsight I wish I left them exposed, My patina is slow coming. I saw the same floors in another house and the workers were all over them, dropping tools etc. Eventually stained & oiled. I love the patina.

We had our floors covered in double cardboard during construction. we keep the cardboard in our main halls during move in. They were very careful during appliance tall but there is a ding by the range. Movers have these thick blankets that we use to move stuff around

There are so many dings it just blends in! There's one area that's really bad by our media console. DH was greeting groves in the floor as he was sliding it around. It not really noticeable unless you are looking straight down at it.

I do think your floors wont be as soft.

Juddgirl, the heels dings bother me the most!

Juddgirl, do you have a photo of your floors in your room? I'd love to see the darkness in a whole room shot. I can't decide whether to go more natural or darker.

pps7, why do you think mine will be harder?

My friend was talking about her heel marks in her floors the other day. It drives her nuts but her husband loves the character. Lol!

Omg, sorry for all the typos. My post hardly makes any sense! Shouldn't post after I've worked a night shift + auto correct. It's a bad combination.

babs - I have a few older pictures. Need to get some new ones. I'm sure everyone's sick of these :-) The first few are right after they were installed so there's no trim.

We used a custom stain mix of 4 or 5 parts Minwax Dark Walnut to 1 part English Chestnut. The tung oil finish resulted in a slightly amber color.

Love the dark floors but be prepared to see every speck of dust. Every afternoon when the light shines through my sidelights it drives me crazy!

The problem with my heel marks is that I have them only on the path between the front door and the kitchen. The wood floors in the other areas are mostly free of marks. I need to start walking around the rest of my house in heels!

We have random-width reclaimed heart pine throughout our new build. We have 4 coats of Waterlox on them. The floors were laid earlier in the building process then I was comfortable with. The builder covered them with thin luan. When most things were done, the floor guys came to sand and put down two Waterlox coats. Two weeks before we moved in, the floor guys finished up with two more coats. The floors look gorgeous. We only moved in two weeks ago, and I hate seeing all the new dings. We baby these floors, but life happens. Still, everyone who comes in comments on the floors. I wouldn't trade them for anything.