Pretreated wood vs onsite treated vs engineered

When you say treated are you taking about the finish?

Personally for a townhouse i would go with regular 3/4" white oak and stain it any color you want.

Primer - When I say treated I mean the contractor will buy unfinished wood and sand/seal/poly onsite. Compared to buying prefinished wood.

I have prefinished, I prefer finished on site. You end up getting gaps in the prefinished eventually, and if water gets in... great that you can swap pieces in and out, but it isn't that easy, and if you got moisture on the padding below, not good.

The most "hearty" finishes I've seen are the ones finished on site.

Virtually all prefinished wood floors have beveled edges on the planks to mask imperfections in the floor thickness, which I at least find terribly unattractive.

If you want it to fit with your "townhouse-y" feel, i think you have to go with finished on site. Prefinished always screams "new construction" to me, but i may just be thinking of the medium brown beveled edge stuff... there may be different options.

Somewhereelse, wood finished onsite will get gaps too, depends on how good your floor guy is and how well aged the wood is. I had gaps big enough for a nickel to fit into my first winter with a new floor, when the boards contracted.

Prefinished, unless you go for uber-$$$ custom stuff has those afore-mentioned beveled edges. In a TH, I like the prewar parquet look with borders, or herringbone or strip plank. I like a little movement, with some quarter sawn mixed in.

I agree -- that little bevel ruins what otherwise might be something to consider.

My personal choice is close to Primer's suggestion: 3/4 thick, 2.25 (or something like that, a standard) wide white oak ... but with no stain, and with water-based non-yellowing "poly" (many many many coats, applied onsite at the recommended intervals and no closer.

Other things I like, though, are the "character" grades of white oak, and certain other woods with a lot of visual activity going on, like mesquite.

Be sure you get the exact grade and type of wood you've agreed to get, and make it clear to your contractor, vendor, etc. that you want what you want. White oak and red oak are completely different species, and both are graded into various categories by grain and imperfections/character like pinholes.

Lastly, if it's a townhouse apartment and there's another apartment below you, now is the time to learn what you can do to mitigate sound transfer from your place.

if you are matching the wood to another room (eg, i installed oak floors in my kitchen and wanted to color to match my pre war oak floors), then on site is better. note that they need to let the wood sit around the apartment or somewhere with a similar climate to acclimatize so it doesn't expand/contract too much after it's installed.

the pre-finished wood looks really modern - if your townhouse has a pre war feel, you should consider the mismatch if you went that route.

nyc411 has a very good point. It is very important to let the wood acclimate for at least 72 hours. If at all possible it doesn't hurt to let it sit longer. If the wood is installed soon after it is delivered without acclimating once the weather changes you will not be happy as you will have gaps in the floor.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned. I like the traditional way. I know it. It's withstood the test of time. All plusses and minuses are well known. It's "authentic." For a down and dirty reno of a studio I wouldn't get too hung up. But for a real reno, go with real wood finished on site the traditional way.

I also prefer onsite treated, it is harder to scratch, easier to refinish and I kind of prefer when the floor doesn't have uniform pattern.

Primer/KyleWest/Other experts, Will appreciate your opinion on this. How messy is the on-site finishing if you still live in the apartment? Is dust-less sanding truly dustless? How soon before you can move furniture after on-site finishing?

Also, do you know if most new high-end new construction uses site finished or pre-finished floors?

Thanks.

300, In my opinion, you do not want to be there when they are even lightly sanding your floors. The dust goes everywhere. Cover the AC vents, cover the stove, cover anything with a gap because otherwise you will be cleaning dust out of there. Then it does take some time to truly "settle" and you should be prepared to do some thorough cleanings in the following days after the finishing. Just my experience. On the other hand, it's nice to be able to see the stains in the actual apartment light, which can make a difference in how it appears in real life.

You don't want to be in there while they are doing the floors. They have to do numerous coats over many days & when the people downstairs recently varathaned their floors, my head was spinning & I was nauseous & I slept next to an open window for a number of nights ~ luckily it was October & not February.

300 Mercer,

You cannot be there while they are finishing the floors. In theory you can be there during the sanding but at would be a nightmare. You cannot be there while they stain or apply the poly and the poly is a process that takes two days.

I really am finding a 50-50 split in regards to engineered compared to regular oak flooring that gets stained and poly.

If you want a more detailed answer give me a call tomorrow. There are pros and cons to each.

646-436-3942

Jeff

Thanks a lot. It seems pre-finished may be the way to go as we do not want to move out furniture and have dust all over clothing and in flatware. It seems that the dust will certainly go through the closet cracks etc.

300Mercer

If you do not want to move furniture you should get engineered wood floor. There will be some dust as there will be cutting.

You can also live there during the process but would be a great time for a vacation. I would also invest in a decent floor, at least $6-7.00 a sq ft. I find some of the less expensive floors have too much moisture in them and they tend to shrink.