Thank you! I will check out your website. Oak is definitely an option. I had not considered an oiled finish, I've only been looking at the pre-finished products. Can you tell me about the oiled finish? Is it a stain? How well does it hold up? Thanks!

Whatever you do, just pick something that has color variation or is somewhat light. We had BR-111 engineered floors in Brazillian Teak and they showed every scratch, dent, foot print, dropped crumb, stray hair... it stresses me just thinking about it. The finish was a smooth, shiny finish too which didn't help. A distressed finish will help hide footprints.

An oiled finish won't be as glossy. It will help to hide marks and nicks. Its also easier to repair. It does have more maintenance than a poly floor but its much prettier.

We were seriously considering engineered hardwood but my husband felt that the grooves we too deep were the boards come together in the distressed look, and that our dogs would catch a toenail in there, and we've already had a dog that had to have surgery for a torn toenail.

The one thing you want to do is to make sure you buy from a reputable dealer like Oak & Board or your local floor store, not a big box store where they sell the ends of boards, rejects and seconds. If you want to see the quality of flooring from a place like Lumber Liquidators, google them with the word 'complaints' and you'll find a dozen websites with people recounting horror stories about their products.

Good advice Hayley. For about the last two days there has been a fellow on Houzz blasting LL for a defective floor. Its been pretty epic. Dozens and dozens of posts.

I'm going to try to post a couple of photos of the bedroom. The first shows the new light blue wall color, with the adjacent wall still the dull wet-cement grey. The second shows one of our cabinets/chests in the medium maple color. The bed and night stands are similar but slightly darker, and have wrought iron accents in the headboard, foot board, and the door of each nightstand.

I'll try to take more photos tomorrow, now that the bedroom is fully painted and we can put things back in place. The main room with the sitting area has four windows allowing good light all day. There is a short passage, about six feet, that opens on the large master bath, also with large windows that bring light through the hallway and into the main room.

Oak and Broad, I'm going to have to keep my eye out for that thread.

We have been debating what solid wood flooring to go with, and because we're paying for your renovation as we go, we're trying to control costs so we went to LL to check out their floors. We were very impressed, got a lot of sample and were very seriously considering them except for the fact that they're hard to get it through very heavy traffic, and I HATE the freeway! We were then considering a Millstead maple but the reviews were sooo bad that we kept researching it. I got some great advice from Cancork as well as from the guys over on theflooringpro.com's forum. In going through posts over there, I came across threads talking about LL having 2 class actions lawsuits against them so I researched it, and spent the better part of an afternoon reading horror stories from people who wasted thousands of dollars on inferior floors. My two favorite comments were the guy who suggested that if you were thinking of buying from LL to just flush your money down the toilet now, and the guy who tore his defective floor out, threw it in the front yard and tells everyone about it.

We ended up going with Mohawk 3/4" 3.25" white oak from the local flooring store. We picked it up yesterday, and since we don't have anywhere to store, I guess we'll be starting it in the next few weeks. My husband is an avid DIYer, and is reading everything he can about prepping and laying it.

Many thanks for the heads-up on LL. o-0 We've found excellent vendors for our other needs, and we know the floor is an investment for decades.

@MicheleP, is that your floor? it is gorgeous! We just bought a teak dining set for our kitchen, and also have a teak set as our dining room set. Unconventional, but suited our tastes, and maintenance is minimal. Probably not in flooring though, from what you posted. Was yours a flat surface, or hand scraped/distressed in any way?

Yep-that was our kitchen. It was a totally smooth surface. It was beautiful. However, just not practical because it showed everything. Literally! I couldn't even walk through the kitchen with bare feet if they had any trace of lotion on them.
My brother in law just installed a similar look in their house. Same smooth flat wood with a dark finish and they are cursing it the same. They have a beagle/jack Russell mix and his little footprints are unmistakable. Again - beautiful when clean, but who wants to clean it daily! Or, be embarrassed when company shows up when you haven't cleaned it.
I'm not totally turned off by wood though. We're building house #2 now and we're doing a natural hickory wood floor. I'm figuring the light coloring plus the major color variance will disguise crumbs/hair/ footprints.

This is one of my favorite threads this week. Thanks everyone for contributing.

Going over to look at thefloorpro forum, thanks for mentioning that, haleydaniels. Oak & Broad, I did see the posts from that person you mention. He must have found every photo from LL and posted in the comments. LL always posted the same message in reply. A good warning!

I found the posts by jimbobreeve in the photo forum, and commented on them. I hope the word gets out about LL and they go out of business!

Yeah, just read a few threads over on thefloorpro forums. So it is safe to say that we will NOT be using LL. Instead, we have to wade thru all the options, brands, colors and construction.

So I present a challenge
Who can find me:

a hand scraped/distressed engineered product
with the tight grain of maple (no hickory, please),
reddish brown (need to add some warmth in the room),
Thick species wood layer to be able to refinish if needed
Not shiny
Tough and durable finish
Will consider all price points
Will be on grade on cement slab

Ready? GO!

:D

Pshhhhh! That's easy! ;-) it will be custom. Joel@oakandbroad.com

That is absolutely a possibility we would consider! :)

Update: we have not made any choices yet. Desperately need suggestions. We will be ripping out the carpeting. We looked at Hallmark Hardwood. The first photo is the Chaparral Collection in Walnut, color Saddle. The second is the Monterrey Collection, Hickory, color Casita, which has some blonde in it.

None of them really thrill me. We looked at the samples in a showroom, not in natural light, and in our summer home up north. I think they will look completely different in the light we have in Florida.

Ideas??

Oh, and personal preference: I just don't really care for the graining/contrast in hickory, although I know it is a very common wood for flooring.

Florida presents a scenario requiring "special consideration"... in hardwood flooring.
We're currently working with a Client (& their builder) on a project near Naples, FL.

The choice is our engineered WALNUT in a specific style & texture desired by the customer.
Great choice for that application!

As they had noted... having shopped extensively for a substantial period, they concluded that they simply could NOT find what they wanted "off the rack" because all of the mass produced products (one of which you mention) were too limited in selection, looked "plastic", had very thin top layers, or all of the above.
When they were able to see the difference "up close & personal"... it became obvious that there ARE differences which aren't always apparent when hopping from showroom to showroom and listening to the various "experts" ply their trade.
We're happy that they made the choice to work with us... and I'm confident they will be more than satisfied as well!

^^^^^Thanks so much for your post.

Yes, we are finding slim pickings for what we want and what we've seen. My other half was just out again today and looked again at the Casita Hickory I mentioned above.

It seems there are no vendors for Hallmark in Florida, but we could order it thru the shop up here and have it shipped. I'm still not crazy about hickory, though. And I would much prefer a local contact for us; it seems a big risk to order here, ship there, hope the floor is still what we want, and find an installer.

Funny you mention Walnut, because that is one of the species of wood that I DO like for both the grain and appearance. I'd love to see what your client chose in the Walnut, if you can share that.

I'll be looking at your website! :)

@keysfins...
Actually it was YOU who had mentioned Walnut in your earlier comment above... one of the 2 choices you had listed.

If you'd care to drop us a line at: david@selecthardwoodfloor.com I'd be more than happy to email you some pics & additional info on the choice made by our Florida Client, as well as some other options.

re: the risky business of ordering vs. receiving what you want... sometimes that's a problem in working with the "mass production" products.
What they put out as "samples" doesn't always coincide with what they are actually PRODUCING at a later date.
We hear it all the time.
As I say... if you'd like to converse at greater length on the subject, feel free to drop me a note...
Thanks & good luck in whichever direction you take!