I think it all depends on the design and color palate of the room.I like Brazilian Rosewood but would not put it in a room I wanted bright.lots of variables.

Well said. Ken. I can't agree more. There are way too many choices for home owners to choose from. We as professionals even have hard time to keep up with all the new lines and collections on the market. At the end of the day, what you and your family like matters the most. Stick with your first instinct!

I want beauty, durability, easy maintenance and classic appeal. I am NOT interested in trends! We're planning on replacing almost 700 square feet of carpeting in our great room with hardwood this summer. I'm just starting my research.

I like to visit homes and see things like flooring in place. We often go to builder association's parade of homes, remodeling shows, even open houses (especially of new homes). I like to see what is new and what people are doing.

The area being floored makes a huge difference....how the rooms flow together, the amount of light it gets, the color of the existing woodwork. I brought home several samples before deciding on a floor when we bought a home last year.

What I wanted was something with a hard wood that could withstand something of a beating, as I have three boys who like to play ball in the house and can do some damage. I wanted hand scraped to stay ahead of them if they did damage the floor (it blends in). I went with hickory because of the variance in colors and interesting patterns in each board. After a year of living with my hickory floors, I still stare at them all the time.

No salesman steered me, except in the debate between solid and engineered floors.

Looks like Mimi doesn't have problems. Vision does help, but trying to fine tune it can be hard. Heck, I'm having difficulties trying to figure of what to do with all the Hostas I'm dividing this year. I have a dozen different varieties of all shapes, colors, and sizes. The issue is limited space where they thrive. If they could only tell me what to do! It's frustrating really.

Classic appeal? I'm thinking you're implying something that will buck any trend. Traditional and natural appearances?

Stick with your first instinct!

I like that! It does simplify matters instead of being bombarded with more and more choices.

Yea, Hickory does have an edge of taking a beating with the graining, even if it's not hand scraped. However, it does lack stability in a solid form. Oh there I go, making it more difficult for some to make that decision.

Anybody dealing with any decorators? They almost always seem to make matters worse.

Designers and decorators can come up with some cool and interesting ideas. Working with them is the challenge.

Glenn:

My last experience as an installer doing a spec home in the Port Royal section of Naples, Florida was interesting to say the least. More like some experiment gone bad. It wasn't a McMansion but maybe $5M. Five different hardwoods styles, that included a 3/4 inch solid black stained Santos Mahogany upstairs mezzanine that for some reason connected to one bedroom with a 3/8 inch prefinished engineered? Natural Red oak.

Downstairs wasn't that bad, but the painting scheme was worse with bright Popsicle colors. A nice solid Brazilian Cherry herringbone in the library. A Hickory solid with an Oshkosh border and corners in the formal dining room. And for some crazy reason an engineered Mannington in the master bedroom closet. The downstairs itself also had 24 inch tiled floors that connected to smaller travertine tiles.

Yea, it was interesting alright. I wonder how much the home has changed since. If I recall, it did take more time than usual to sell.

That sounds really bad just reading it.I did a lot of the work on Pelican Bay north of Naples and know how those folks are.Did a condo on Marco Island that sold for 4 mil and when brand new they came in a and did 2.5m changes to it.Go figure?

Ken,

We're not seeing a reduction in hand scraped buying at all. It's actually the exact opposite on our end. There has been a definite sharp spike in wide plant (6"+) wire brushed engineered flooring in the last 6 months. This isn't limited to certain geographic areas either. We're getting orders nation wide.

We manufacture reclaimed flooring here in TN in every species and every configuration. I do not offer it online on our website because I find it difficult to show someone exactly what the finished product will look like. I like sending a free sample to someone and it matching the floor purchased exactly. That's hard to do when the raw material changes so much with reclaimed.

Alan Ward

Color was most important to us. We prefer darker woods, and wanted at least 5" width (just preference on looks, skinnier planks look more stripey to us). I wanted something very durable, and we chose a handscraped (I think there is some distressing as well) to help blend the inevitable scratches and dings. We like the random width look, but fell in love with the color (not too dark), grain, and it had the handscraped. We aren't very formal people, so wouldn't choose a very traditional floor, we just bought what we liked looks wise and durability wise.

When I mentioned traditional I was referring more of a smooth surfaced hardwood. That was basically the choice 15 years ago except for Bruce who had a few lines. Anderson didn't get into the hand scraped/character marking game until about that time. If memory serves me, they started the wave we've seen the last 15 years with Virginia Vintage

Alan: Yes very familiar with the popularity of wider plank wire brushed, but I was asking more along the lines of the smooth scraped hardwood. Higher quality, rather than all the imported birch stuff for example, that so many sell for price point. Interesting about that Elm you offer. Kind of soft, but for a distressed I guess even poplar would work

Naturally finding a consensus here is going to be difficult, unless the thread sticks around for a few years.

Ken,

15 years ago smooth was "the choice" because it was pretty much the only choice.

Our Elm is 2x harder than the Elm that grows here in the US. It is by far our best seller. Hardness really isn't a factor in the distressed product. It's already screwed up when you buy it - more dings and dents just adds more character to the floor.

As we have discussed in the past on other sites, imported flooring does not equal low quality. You receive what you specify. Some companies specify junk and feel comfortable selling it - I don't.

Alan Ward

Concrete slabs predominate the foundation world down here, so the vast majority of folks who don't have wood, and want wood, go with a pre finished engineered. You still have the occasional purist who will put down felt and sleepers with ply and do solid finish in place on top of that, but the home has to have the higher ceilings and be in a certain price category to make all the extra effort and expense "worth" it. Then there are the older homes on crawlspace, where they want a match to the existing. Those jobs go to the artists.

Our best seller is Bruce Frontier Hickory. Partly because we have 3 colors down in our showroom, and partly because we have an outstanding price on it because of the volume that we do. It's a handscraped, more rustic look, and yes, people do find the "pre-loved" look attractive because it means that they can live their lives without fearing that it will show up in what their floors will look like. They feel that it protects their investment down the road when they go to sell.

Not surprisingly, other floors that we physically show installed in the showroom are strong sellers as well. You show it, you sell it. Some of those include a natural acacia, with all of it's glorious wild variation. It's a traditional smooth finish, as the colors speak strongly for themselves. We also show a natural traditional smooth looking oak in a 2 1/4", and that's a top seller for the remediation companies attempting to match existing installations in older homes.

We find that most of our customers do have ideas about colors, and perhaps plank width, but little else. The idea of a dark wide plank is still strong here, so we do make sure that we show them the realities of living with floors like that. We also get requests for bamboo, but once again, the idea of it tends to clash with the reality. We always do the show and tell education, and people either confirm their pre-visit ideas and are OK with a little extra time spent, or they ask for something easier to take care of and live with. And that's where the handscraping wins.

One BIG emerging trend though is not wood. It's vinyl. A lot of the products have become so realistic that even touching it won't give up the secret. It's astonishing how durable some of the UV cured resin topcoats can be as well. It's what customers who used to choose laminate as a budget alternative to wood now choose.

I'm getting set to build and what I want is something that isn't going to look dated in 10 years and is durable. No white wash, grey, hand-scraped over here.

Thanks for your input Mama. I suppose there are quite a few like you out there.

About wire brushed. It's been around (Kahrs was one of the first) for while and maybe it won't get that dated stigma because it has more of a natural feel and look. I've always liked it, and some of that hand scraped with deep bevels are beginning to look ugly in my opinion. Especially those real wide planks with short lengths. Talk about a checkerboard look. Bella Cera, although it's a hot seller, falls into that category.

I agree Mr. ProSource, Vinyl has been making big statements. I wouldn't hesitate to use it somewhere. LVT has also hit acrylic engineered quite hard as well.

Looking forward, I feel the next floor buying generation is going to be a bit more careful. They're probably already making some kind of impact? Those that saw their parents go overboard with stuff in the last decade. More frugal while choosing something that won't be dated and costly to change. I probably don't have the right words, but...

Any younger folks seeing things that way?

Hi Ken

I am a relatively young first time home buyer and yes I am looking for something classic and timeless, fairly priced, durable, stable, climate appropriate, and will help me sell the house in a few years. I have a clear idea of the look and function I want but my problem is that i have not found someone who will take a consultative approach, be an expert, and tell me what is the best fit for my needs. They tell me to do the research but frankly i keep finding conflicting information and too many choices which only adds to my indecisiveness. I have a budget of 5k for 800 sf for the wood alone (more if it can be justified as worth it for durability and stability) but still not sure of who to place my order with but plenty of people who will install as soon as i make my decision. Help!!!

You mentioned Orange County, CA in another thread and concerns over humidity. I lived in the city of Orange in my early twenties and don't recall anything excessive. Prolonged periods of high or low humidity is what can cause issues and not four or five days here and there. Looking at the past year in Orange itself doesn't ring alarm bells. Averages are in the 60’s from my glance. I didn't see 80%

I did most of my work in SW Florida where humidity was much higher. The work was anywhere from beachfront, island, to twenty miles inland, but before the days of five inch wide solid planks. Then it was more three inch solid. Yes there were a few issues here and there especially with stilt homes that had no climate control underneath (open to air). That’s all changed now with nearly all homes using those areas for game rooms, guest bedrooms and the like.

As far as concrete slab sub floors, which I’m guessing you probably have, engineered floors are all over the place. No issues. Be careful with the reviews you read. Many are probably a matter of installation related failures and lack of awareness, especially with DIY’ers and inexperienced installers.

Think about these three M’s

1. Moisture testing - material, subfloor
   
2. Moisture awareness - in, and around the home. Before and after
   
3. Moisture control - barriers

I'm confused. I thought handscraped wood is difficult to refinish later. I love the look of dark handscraped, but wrote off the dark because it shows all the dirt. Our builder is suggesting oak for its durability. We thought of going with 4" wide planks for a little more modern look in a medium tone. Thoughts?

Handscraped can be difficult to refinish just because you have to pay closer attention to what your doing and making sure you get it flat and even.

Heck...I'd just give it a good cleaning and treatment ...and then recoat the thing.

Refinish it? That's the whole reason for getting a hand scraped floor - it's all boogered up when you get it. If you sand it flat, you don't have a scraped floor anymore.

If you're walking through an aluminum oxide finish, you may want to look into ways of being less abusive to your floor - Rugs at entrances, cleaning feet before entering, sock feet as much as possible.

glennsfc is correct... if a re-coat was necessary you would scuff the finish prior to finishing.

You are right, but eventually the floor can get in rough shape, or if there was water damage to the floor, or if someone bought the house with handscraped floors and didn't like the look, or the dog scratched it to hell, or if the kids beat the hell out of it for years, or if someone just wants a fresh start, or how about if they decided they didn't like the color anymore. Not everyone treats a wood floor with the care that professionals would like them to, and part of our business relies on the fact that these people are rough on their floors. There are plenty of reasons why someone would want to refinish a prefinished floor hand scraped or not.

"Refinish it? That's the whole reason for getting a hand scraped floor - it's all boogered up when you get it."

I had to laugh as this is why we are getting the handscraped floors, I can't worry about perfection. However, some are a lot more 'wavy' than others and can be too much for our preferences.

The cost factor too, its cheaper to refinish 2000sq ft of hand scraped floor then it is to rip it all up, buy 2000 ft new and then install all of it.

gregmill_gw If you have water damaged wood, you are already hosed .

The best way to repair a prefinished hand scraped floor is to buy a few boxes extra of wood to begin with and do a board replacement if you have a leak or just have some random damage - not sand the whole thing down.

Aluminum oxide finish is a heck of a lot harder than anything you're going to recoat it with on-site too. It should stand up many years, especially on a scraped product.

happyallison-

Usually that "wavy" means a machine is scraping the floor and not a person. We sell it in all different levels - from lightly distressed to hand chiseled edges with tons of chatter marks. We sell it in both Solid and Engineered. Have you considered wire-brushed? It's a hot seller right now.

The first thing you should purchase when you install hand scraped hardwood flooring is a touch up pen in a like color. That way when grandma's old rocking chair get dragged across the living room floor and scratches it - you can color that gouge. You can then pat yourself on the back in congratulations - you just added another 100 bucks worth of character to your floor!