@Angela Zuill the simple answer is: usually floors with matte finish or low-luster finish, generally hide scratches, dirt and other imperfections way better than glossy floors. It is also child and pet friendly than a glossy finish because they don't show as much dust, dirt, or footprints. Hope this is helpful.

I thought whatever floor finish you choose, it ends up being matte eventually.

Matte actually shows oily footprints, and all kinds of things far worse than satin.

Satin is the best hiding finish of them all. Glossy shows more, but so does matte as anything shiny will show up. it is also slightly harder to use bona than my previous satin floor.

My high gloss floors are bulletproof. DD’s satin show wear

@livewireoak that is exactly what I'm concerned about, footprints that are shinier than the surrounding floor showing up.

livewireoak is telling the truth. The BIGGEST complaint people have is matte makes oily prints look SHINY. And you will need to know that MANY matte finishes look 'hazy' at certain times of the day. And if you are a 'shiny clean' person (you personally feel better when you see a shiny surface because it says 'I'm all clean now!') then you will HATE a matte finish.

Satin and semi-gloss (the two 'middle of the road' finishes) are the easiest to live with. The two extremes (matte and gloss) are harder to live with.

We love our matte flooring. We have three kids and a dog and I adore the floor. I guess occasionally I see the shiny issue but it is a reminder to mop/clean. Matte is awesome and I much prefer the look.

We just put matte floors in our new build and love the look so far. While we haven't moved in yet, even with tons of construction dust, they look decent still. We have a dog and are excited to move away from the shiny finishes that tend to show scratches easily,to a matte finish and see how it goes. Plus it has a more European/Scandinavian look we like.

It depends on what kind of "matte" you have going on. Finishes like Poly contain a "mattifying" agent that knocks down the gloss. You can see it when you open a new can and stir it. This is what causes the "haze" reported on some matte floors.

OTOH, a hard wax oil finish, because it's largely soaked into the floor, rather than sitting on top of it the way lacquer type finishes do, doesn't cause this effect. I would also expect less of an issue with "oily" marks.

Pallmann is a good finish. Do the satin. The matte is almost plastic looking.

It’s exactly the opposite. Oil finishes have the most issue with oily footprints. And with maintenance. UV cured poly finishes in a sheen around a 15-20 “soft glow” give a less glossy appearance, and great durability, with easy care. Anything less than a 15 shows everything, no matter what. 30-40 for a satin finish is also a good choice. Anything under 70 is really OK to live with. Above 70 gets to be more of a pain.

A S - what sort of finish is that?

Holly sorry I'm not sure what you mean. They are listed as matte finish. This is Pravada Artistique Collection - Chanel.

https://www.pravadafloors.com/chanel

Based on what ProSource Memphis has said, assuming I as a laymen can read the comment correctly, our experience has not been the same. Our flooring says 5-10% gloss and we don't "see everything"???

Oh, were yours prefinished? (It looks a lot like a lye bleached/white oil Scandinavian finish)

Sorry yes I missed that this was about site finished flooring. Regardless our experience with matte has been excellent.

Our floors are Castle Bespoke from their Mainstreet Collection. Pre-finished. Super happy with them so far and they have been very accommodating to work with. Of course we haven't lived with the floor yet but, thus far anyway, I couldn't be happier. So much so we used every bit of it that was overage to do a couple small baths as well.

We also have matte floors and love them - they ones we have do not show anything! Our glossy floors we had before were not as easy to keep looking nice.

We just had Fuzion matte finished hardwood floors installed and I am very unhappy with them. When you walk on them in slippers or barefoot they make a scratchy sound, almost like sandpaper walking along. I was told by the company that I bought them from that it because of the matte finish and it can't be helped. If I could turn back time, I wouldn't have done matte.

We have beautiful matte French oak floors and when they first were installed, I thought they were unfinished.... I didn't remember the sample feeling so "raw." We moved in in the summer, and my kids were barefoot a LOT. The oily footprints were out of control! But honestly, even though I absolutely love the LOOK of my floors, I just can't handle how they feel if I'M barefoot. I always have flip-flops on because they're just rough.

Does anyone know if there's a product I could put on to smooth/shine them up a bit? Or do I need to get them completely sanded and refinished?

@ heather...you probably have 'wire brushed' finish as well as a matte product down on the floors. Do you know if you have oiled floors or matte polyurethane?

To get a smoother floor you had to stay AWAY from wire brush. To get a shinier floor you had to start with a shinier finish.

At this point, you are unhappy with the roughness AND the gloss level. Other than a full sand and refinish, there isn't much you can do about either issue.

New build as of last yr our floors are more matte and show hundreds of footprints! We are replacing king the floors bc they are SO much maintenance

@ lesleyjwolff Do you have to rip them out? Is it possible to do a 'buff and coat' with a higher glossed finish? If you have regular polyurethane on the floors, it is entirely possible that a good/thorough buff and coat can be done.

A refinisher *might (many refinishers know how to do this...but the good ones will be very cautious) be able to scrub the floor (screening) and then apply a SINGLE coat of polyurethane to the finish. It is possible to increase the gloss level to a more livable 'satin' instead of super-matte.

The cost of a buff and coat = $3 - $4/sf depending on the effort needed to get the surface scrubbed up and ready for the recoat.

I have red oak floors that were finished with semigloss polyurethane by the builder, many years ago. The floors on my recent project are slightly warn in some places. I decided I wanted a matte finish, and I also decided not to sand to raw wood and refinish the floors. I lightly sanded with 180 grit and then applied 2 coats of Varathane water based Matte finish as a top coat. I finished the job 3 months ago. I am happy with the result.

Walking on the floors with shoes is not a problem. However, I have noticed that great care must be taken when moving furniture. I have always had furniture pads on all of the furniture legs. However, when I moved a dresser across the floor it left shiny marks in the path. I believe that the legs "polished" the matte finish. This can be avoided by putting the furniture on a face-down piece of carpet scrap and then sliding the combination across the floor.

I have not yet figured out how to correct the glossy trails that I made by mistake. I tried dulling them with 400 grit sandpaper. This is too fine, and it actually polishes the matte finish. I tried 240 grit. That is better, but the resulting sheen doesn’t quite match, so the trails still show. I have not yet tried applying a "patch" using the matte varnish.

Varathane does not recommend their Matte finish for floors. When I inquired about using the Matte finish anyway they just said that it would wear out sooner and I should use their floor varnish. The only varnish that they recommend for floors has a semi-gloss sheen. Minwax sells a water based Matte product, and an Ultra Flat product. Like Varathane, Minwax does not recommend these finishes for floors. Also like Varathane, the only varnish that they recommend for floors has a semi-gloss sheen.

The best method of getting a matte finish that I know of is to sand to a raw finish and then apply tung oil. I am happy with the tung oil finish on other floors in this house that I did 2 years ago. But I wasn’t willing to do this level of refinish work on the recent project.