Must be a regional thing. I’m in Georgia and I see almost no wire brushed in the showrooms. Where are you looking?

Matt lacquer looks more like an oil or wax finish, but is more resistant to scratches. Check it out.

As for what you are looking at and only offers "wire brushed", then move on to other products which give you other options. If there is a "wire brushed", I have never seen that application. I am familiar with "hand scraped".

In your search, take a look at Hickory.

This 7.5" wide Engineered Vista Maxima White Oak with smooth finish(non wire-brushed) and 2 mm slice veneer.

Vista Maxima · More Info

Fellow Houstonian here! Take a look at Kährs, Kentwood and Porcelanosa. They were top of our list when we replaced our floors a few years ago (Harvey). We also did not want wire brushed.

I have a french oak that are 'lightly scraped'. I don't have any issues w/dirt in the grooves. they have a nice lacquer finish on them that hold up really well and clean up pretty easily. The are smooth on the feet too. beveled edges so that dirt won't get trapped in the joints.

this is the Granville color. I love these floors.

comes in a bout 15 diff shades

https://californiaclassicsfloors.com/hardwood-flooring/mediterranean-hardwood-flooring.aspx

The ageless antique allure of Mediterranean floors has been lovingly reborn. Artisans begin a meticulous process by hand-selecting fine French Oak, milled into precise planks of 8-inches wide and 75-inches in length. An unprecedented, signature double smoking technique is then used to age the natural Oak grain and lock in heirloom-caliber colors. Surfaces are then lightly scraped, and edges and ends are carefully hand-carved.

@HALLETT & Co. - Interesting! We visited the small, local showroom that our builder uses here in Houston and have also been looking online.

@elcieg - thanks! We did see some Hickory in the showroom, but my husband is set on Oak. Perhaps worth another look though.

@Unique Wood Floors - Thanks! When I look at the Vista Maxima from a search on your site, it says the texture is wirebrushed. Is there another one that is smooth?

@Jennifer Svensson - thanks! What did you end up going with/can I ask where you purchased from? I didn't even realize Porcelanosa does engineered wood!

@Beth H. : Those are beautiful! It doesn't look like we can get them here in TX, but I see Bella Cera is a related brand. :)

We ended up getting our floors from Porcelanosa when they had their 40% sale. It’s been installed for a few years now and looks good. The downside, depending on your timeline, is that they sometimes won’t have enough in stock so then they’ll need to ship it from Europe which understandably takes a few weeks. We customer ordered stair treads and risers in the same material and finish and that took about 8 weeks all in all.

@ashleyhtx

Yes you are correct. It says wire-brushed on our site. It must be very light ones, Sorry, my bad. But I can barely feel any compared to other European White Oak collections.

I like to point out to other potential homeowners who consider white oak. Wire-brushing is a process to brush off the soft parts in white oak grains. It not only helps to hide small scratches but makes wood look and feel more natural to your feet. I wouldn't worry to keep your wire-brushed floor clean in a residential environment.

ashley, are you in W. Texas? like Amarillo? Alburquerque isn't too much of a drive to get them.

If not, they do say this on their website:

Help! - I don't live in the Southwestern region

Not to worry. Chances are a related brand is available in your area. The map above shows the distribution territories for California Classics and its related brands. If you are outside the Cal Classics territory, click on the appropriate region to visit the website for that region. The areas with lines through them, including Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia, are served by more than one brand. If none of the above brands are available in your area, please contact us.

https://www.bellacerafloors.com

here's that bellacera brand. These are very nice looking

https://www.bellacerafloors.com/hardwood-flooring/villabelize/french%20oak/licata-flooring.aspx?id=2062

the Butera color is very similar to what I have

this one is the Licata color. It's almost identical to the calif classics mediterranean. I'd see about getting some samples of this. look for a Texas store where you can see them

https://www.bellacerafloors.com/hardwood-flooring-stores/Texas-hardwood-floors.aspx

If you want really smooth floors, you can look at Lauzon, they were at the upper end of your budget when I priced them out about 2 years ago.

A smooth floor will show scratches more easily than a floor with some character.

@Unique Wood Floors - all good info, thank you! (And a good point that not all wirebrushed is the same!)

@Beth H. : Ah, no we're in Houston. A little far to drive to Albequerque. But we'll keep Bella Cera on the list.

@chispa - thanks! Good point on the scratches.

@lucky998877 - huh! Perhaps the issue is specific to certain floors. Do you recall what yours are? Sounds like they might be worth considering!

https://www.tropicalflooring.net/engineered-hardwood/ubud This is my exact flooring but it looks much prettier IRL than their online images. The price is going to be above your range, I bought 2,000 sqft and my husband is a GC...so we got a deal...and it wasn't in 2022.

If you steer clear of the trendy hardwoods, smooth finished products are out there. The majority of showrooms have all the movers and higher profit margin product up front. That includes wire brushed (which I favor), hand scraped and other textured surfaces.

My products are out of your price range, but I do things different than the mass producers. While the website may say wire brushed on some selections, I can customize. Don't want the wire brush? Fine. We'll finish it smooth and bring the price down.

From the home page.

We are not a buy off the shelf company. Each and every order is custom made. Nearly all products we offer can be customized. I’m sure many have heard these store comments.

□ We can’t do it that way.

□ It only comes in one plank width

□ It only comes in one grade.

□ We can’t change the gloss level

□ That’s the way it comes. We can’t wire brush it.

□ It comes wire brushed. We can’t make it smooth.

□ And plenty more.

Ken Fisher

Uptown Floors

You can always use site finished floors. When sanded super flat (hard plating all the way to last grit) and smooth (no skipping grit) the grain will pop on oak floors. It almost looks like it has been lightly wire brushed. The challenge will be finding a finisher that can do that within your flooring budget in your area.

I have Triangulo Engineered Wood floors in Florida. They have held up very well despite the heat and the humidity here. They have gotten wet when we come in from the pool (wipe up reasonably quickly) and they have survived two dogs.

Triangulo has a wonderful assortment of engineered woods in a variety of colors and widths. I like that the boards are variable length. The installer can make all the difference in how it looks regarding color and length.

• Engineered – Triângulo (triangulo.us)

@Louise Smith, Thanks for sharing your experience with Triangulo brand engineered floors, we do really well with them in our great state of Minnesota as well. They are mostly South American exotic wood species.

I know this is an old post, but to the original poster, what did you end up with? We are looking at some of the same floors right now.

@choyttx - We ended up with Laguna Natural from ADM Flooring. It's been long enough and enough decisions were made since then that I couldn't tell you anymore 100% why we went with that one, but we've been very happy with it. Two years of living on it and it does have some small dings in a few spots where hard objects have been dropped but I think they're really only noticeable to me. We are not as diligent as we could be about wiping up small drops of water from kids/wet hands in the kitchen and it hasn't been an issue. (Big spills definitely do get wiped up right away.) We still get compliments on it. :)

Thanks so much for responding after all this time! I just ordered a sample of the Laguna Natural. The other samples I received all said "wire brushed texture" but felt smooth to the touch. I prefer to have a slightly more prounounced grain and texture. Is your floor smooth to the touch and do you see footprints, etc. when the light hits it a certain way? Thanks!

Yes, I would say it's fairly smooth. Not smooth like tile, but not textured like wire-brushed either. I see the grain and can feel it with my fingertips (just for curiosity while responding here), but don't notice it with my feet. Late in the day when the sun hits it just right - yes, you can see if it's freshly cleaned vs. walked on (though not so clearly that I notice individual footprints!), but I don't think it's any different from any other wood floor I've seen and I don't notice it that often. (I also think I would probably notice it more than anyone else since I work from home so see the floors all the time. LOL!)

okay thanks again! If you were willing to post a picture of what your floors look like here or send to my email choyttx@gmail.com, I would really appreciate it. We are in the midst of a huge remodel due to hurricane Beryl damage and I am having the hardest time picking floors.

Ooph - so sorry to hear about the Beryl damage. Not sure if these are helpful, but here you go!

Thanks so much for sending these. Your floors are beautiful!