I love my prefinished hardwood. I don’t like how laminate sounds when you walk on it. PF hardwood is also better for resale in my opinion

Prefinished hardwoods hands down. It's super durable and will look great!

Prefinished hardwood. Why is he trying to change your mind?

There is really no comparison between hardwood and laminate. Real hardwood (as opposed to something like engineered) does wear really well and can be resanded at least a couple of times before it has to be replaced,. When you only have to resand every 15-20 years (or more) that can give your floors a very long life span. The most important thing IMO is that you pick a prefinished brand that has proven durability. For example, the Brazillian Walnut we installed in our kitchen and dining areas is the Bella Wood brand from Lumber Liquidators; it has a low gloss type finish to it and after 10 years is starting to show some wear. We have a dog but no kids so I would probably not recommend it for a family with lots of kids. However, as oddly as it sounds, the prefinished oak we installed throughout the rest of the first level is Bruce Plano Marsh and it’s the cheapest flooring available at Home Depot! It has a thicker higher gloss finish to it and it still looks brand new even at the entries where it’s exposed to salt and snow. Oak is a classic, extremely low maintenance and it’s pretty; I get compliments on it all the time. Also, as some have already mentioned, if this is not your forever home and a move is at some point in your future, real wood will definately make for a good selling point and add value.

Thank you everyone for your input. Our contractor's argument is that laminates have come a long way in terms of looks so they mimic hardwood to where you can't tell the difference but for alot less money and will still look great for many years. He says hardwood needs to be babied and shows wear much sooner. I hope this will be our forever home, but I don't see us replacing flooring again ever. I want to make sure I make the correct decision.

Well, the hardwood (oak) in my 75 year old home has certainly never been babied! It has been 17 years since I refinished it and has survived a large dog, cats, having dirt and mud tracked through, constant traffic (it is only 500 square feet on the main floor) and so on. Okay, so my daughter never roller skated on it, but still I don't think a laminate will ever match its durability, and I still think most laminates are obviously laminate.

I have site-finished red oak floors that are 10 years old. No kids, but two indoor cats who race around and take corners at high speed. Here and there, if you look closely, you can see some tiny scratches and claw punctures. But overall, it still looks beautiful. I don't baby it at all and use a damp cloth to clean it when necessary.

Although most people will say a site-finished floor is best, it's a messy, time-consuming process. Half of my house has old carpet that needs to come out and I think prefinished is a very appealing option.

Laminate has a 'scene' picture of wood grain that the pieces are laminated with. You get 4 or so different pieces from a scene. Unfortunately no manufacturer feels it necessary to create multiple scenes to produce more than a few different looks for the individual pieces. This is the major downside, imo. But also make sure your flooring contractor uses the right techniques for those 6" wide pieces.

prefinished hardwood

(unless you're on slab foundation; then engineered wood is generally recommended; but it sounds like you're not)

it's the most durable option, and even if you'll have some minor dings and scratches they won't bother you; it's wood, it's a live material, imperfections will read as patina, as opposed to some harm on laminate for example, and the floor still will look great; you can also refinish it as opposed to laminate, and not once.

but I don't believe you'll get many especially if you go with harder species

it doesn't really need to be babied; it needs appropriate maintenance as any other kind of flooring. don't spill buckets of water on it, or let water stand. sweep it, mop it..it'll be just fine. depending on its finish it might need something more extensive but it's so once in a long while I would't sweat it. if you don't intend to change your flooring, and your climate where you live supports going with wood-go with your preferred choice as opposed to laminate, and I don't think you'll come to regret it.

well, I am going to be opposite today. I had prefinished hardwood in my last house and I hated it after about 3 years. the finish rubbed off, it had scratches. YUCK. First time I had ever had it. always had site finished before. In this house there is laminate in the sunroom and family room. looks brand new. We are taking out the 30 yr old carpet in the bedrooms and putting the same laminate down.

Whether laminates have come a long way or not, IMO, there is no question that prefinished hardwood is a superior product and for many different reasons. HOWEVER as I said above, not all the finishes or even woods will wear the same, so you have to do your homework. We installed our floors ourselves without any experience, so I studied this stuff for months and learned all I could before settling on our choices. Of course there will be pro’s and con’s for any option you go with, but hardwood floors aren’t as popular as they are because they’re fussy and/or hard to maintain.

There is no question that regardless of the finish type, hardwood floors are the hardest to install. While the finishing on some brands can be fussy or even not very durable as Boop noted with her floors, others are super durable like ours have been. However even though the prefinish was not ideal on her floors, she still had the option to resand them available to her and that would have been an easier fix then say replacing them. You can’t do that with Engineered or Laminate flooring. And the same would hold true once the need presented itself in your home. Also, some woods wear better than others or the wear can give them a patina that is pretty; it’s really all about the wood and finish you choose. That’s why in part that the oaks and cherry woods are so popular.

Engineered flooring is less expensive and easier to install but it is not as durable. It’s actually just a thin veneer glued to an under board so it doesn’t have the life expectancy of real hardwood. It’s also so thin that the veneer can’t usually be resanded. Depending on the brand and/or thickness of the veneer, it may have the option of one sanding but that’s often not the case.

Laminate is very easy to install but I’m not on board with the claim that it is more durable. If you research it, you will see there are lots of ways it too can get damaged. I have two family members that went that route, one had a leak from the dishwasher and the only thing it ruined was the laminate flooring; the entire room had to be replaced. The other gouged a plank while moving a heavy piece of furniture. Our fridge leaked once with a comparable amount of water. The walnut was definately wet, but it dried out in a few days and looked as good as new once it did. Their laminate is also not the cheapest or that old and I still hate the way it feels and sounds underfoot. It looks fake and it feels fake. Fake is ok for a lot of people but I’m not one of them. I guess I’m a fake snob because that’s held true for all the stone and wood elements we’ve used in our house, not just the flooring.

After we first installed our floors I admit I was very picky about their care and how we treated them. They weren’t cheap and it was a lot of work to install them, but eventually I calmed down and now the only thing we do to help to keep them nice is we don’t wear shoes in the house. We live in snow country where salt and water get tracked in all the time so it was something we did before having the wood floors as well. I also have an accident prone DH, a larger sized dog and 2 cats but that hasn’t made too much of a difference either.

If you want the look of wood and 100% guaranteed durabiity for the kids, you may want to consider the wood looking tile. It’s the only wood looking non wood product I’ve seen that can offer the same kind of warmth that the look of hardwood offers with a good life span. I’ve seen a lot of installations that were very pretty.

I don’t have great pictures of our flooring, up close, our oak is similar in color to Jakebedy’s pretty floors and the other is the walnut which is more finicky. Both are prefinished.

To confuse matters....Another option is luxury vinyl planking. Really beautiful, quiet and water resistant.

I absolutely hate prefinished hardwood. I have laminate installed (not by me), and it has worn GREAT. Not fond of the look, but like it better than prefinished.

Don't do either! Have site-finished hardwood floors installed and have a high gloss (gym floor) finish put on them. They will last far longer than you will likely live in this house and they can be refinished if necessary. I have had multiple cats and dogs on mine over the years - only two children, though! They are still the very best floors for wear and longevity. And they will add significant value to your house.

Yes, you WILL have to move everything out of the house to have this done, and you'll have to leave as well, but it's only for a very few days - you may be able to just move everything into the basement or garage. If you have neither, rent a POD. It will be well worth the inconvenience. You'll never regret it.

Anglo, ours are prefinished and high gloss and beautiful. Some people don’t want or aren’t in the position to go through the hassle and there really are good prefinished flooring options out there.

BTW, we had a fridge leaking on our laminate for a year. You can feel a slight raised spot with bare feet where 2 boards come together. No visible damage. None.

Engineered hardwood can have a wear layer as thick as 3/4" regular prefinished. The thickness of solid wood under the top of the tongue doesn't matter. When you reach the tongue with sanding, your floors are a tear out, engineered or not. I would rather have good engineered finish in place than solid prefinished any day of the week.

I'm also in the pre-finished hardwood camp. Do some research on the finishes, as others have said, some last longer than others. I used some locally produced (Maine Traditions) in my rental property and it is wearing very well. Hardwood is renewable and refinish-able. My 1880 cape had native ash floor in the original part of the house and it wore like iron. We refinished ourselves after living there 10 years, and it looked great. Just remember, it is a floor. Embrace the patina!

This is such a personal decision - it all goes to what "looks good" to each individual person.

I've had site-finished, engineered/pre-finished, and laminate wood-look planks.

Honestly, for me personally, I rank engineered/pre-finished last in the cost/benefit analysis. It scratches more easily than my wood-look laminate did. Plus engineered still can look like laminate when it is installed - you see each individual board, if that makes any sense at all. Site finished is finished on-site (thank you Captain Obvious!), so there are seamless coatings over the entire surface. Engineered boards if they start to move on you, even a little bit, show a bit of the rough/cut ends.

If I had to rank them, for me - I'd pick site finished and I will pay a premium for any home which has site-finished floors. (It was the deciding factor in my last home search.)

I had a good quality laminate floor (wide planks) and I loved that floor far more than my current engineered wood floor. I personally will never again chose engineered.

But obviously different people have strongly different opinions. Which is why this is such a personal choice.

Do what you have to do to get a site finished hardwood floor! Best investment ever. We have one in our year round home, and just installed vinyl plank in our beach house. The vinyl plank was chosen for its practicality and low maintenance, and for its ability to withstand moisture. We live on the water there and it's definitely a factor with wood floors; have to seal them more frequently, etc. The vinyl is nice looking, but no one will ever confuse it with real wood. It has a different feel to it.

If you do laminate, don't get the fake wood laminate. It looks like fake wood.

I think this may be highly dependent on your budget. I temporarily had a house with beautiful laminate wood-look floors - the previous owners looked a long time to find it. It was very rich looking and sold the house not long ago. If you can afford pre-finished, I'd probably go that route, again, over laminate, if it's in your budget. My absolute preference is site-finished hardwood. I've seen enough to know it just looks better. Check into prices, stay within your budget.