Floor styles

Pick the color and style that you would be willing to live with for the rest of your life, and that is compatible with your lifestyle -- if you're a no pets, no children, no shoes indoors sort of household, you will have options that would be foolish for those with pets, toddlers, and friends with small tip stiletto heels.

I personally prefer narrower width boards for rooms, but it's a matter of room size and proportion -- at some point the board width won't look right given the overall room width. Wider boards can be at greater risk of cupping as well, so attention to the quality of the wood and installation technique is a must.

There's a long tradition of people fitting our their modern box apartment to look like a rural farmhouse, ballroom at Versailles, 1920s speakeasy, medieval dungeon, or hewn granite cave, so go with whatever you want and enjoy the look on guest's faces when they see what you've created.

Thanks! ALL the floors for sale in the flooring store I visited had a wire brushed texture! I guess people are still really into modern farmhouse style.

I thought about the proportion to the room point. Most of the inventory in the store was 8" to 9" and that looked too big! Who is buying all these things? how big is their castle?
What range of width is typical for a regular size NYC apartment? does 4"-7" sound about right?

8" - 9" wide? I assume this engineered floors of some kind. The typical oak hardwood floors are 3" or even 2.5" widths. I suggest you shy away from the texture as it is hard to clean, and generally speaking can't be refinished. If you have huge dogs or a lifestyle that is going to beat up the floors, perhaps the texture suits your style as the scratches, dings and dents blend in.

Are you looking for pre-finished flooring? Solid or engineered? In any event, a "regular sized" NYC apartment is likely not very proportional to widths above 5". And, don't just focus on the width. You want long lengths so the floor doesn't look like a jigsaw puzzle.

Thanks. I was looking for glue down floors, that can go on top of concrete, engineered. Not sure whether it should be pre-finished or not. If I can find it in same lengths, I would like a herringbone pattern.

The trend seems to have shifted quite rapidly from dark to light - and yes, wire-brushed. Whether you follow the trend depends on whether you want someone in 10 years to walk in and say, "look at those light wire-brushed floors. This reno is so 2021. What were they thinking?"

Put down either oak or maple strips of a consistent width (I prefer narrower) and as long as you can afford, running with the length of the room (herringbone pattern optional), and with a 4"-12" (depending on overall room size) wide border running parallel to the walls. Decorative inlay of a different wood/finish to create a decorative border optional, but appreciated. All of it sanded and finished on-site. Floor should run all the way to the constructed walls, baseboard on top of the floor, attached to the walls. No quarter round trim tacked to the baseboard. Minwax Chestnut or Coffee (Honey Maple, if you must). 3 coats of wax on top.

Can engineered floor be sanded / finished on site? I thought the top layer was quite thin and therefore not recommended to be sanded? I have been told that I have to go with engineered floor based on where I want to put it.

I love the idea of herringbone pattern adding visual interest. I have seen it in both new construction and pre-war buildings. Timeless (maybe)?

I'm a big fan of the French chevron pattern. It's formal, classic, and shows craftsmanship. You even see it in contemporary high end new construction. It's like the elegant opposite of the hideous 3-finger parquet found in cheap buildings of the 1960s that are about to fall down.

Haha, I am going to replace cheap parquet with a fancy herringbone floor in a 1960s building. Hope it does not fall down any time soon :-)

Chevron has become more popular as layouts have become simpler with less irregularities. If you're going to go with chevron over herringbone you'd better really trust both the fabricator and installers.

Agreed regarding chevron. I am only considering herringbone, and might have to go with regular pattern anyway. The issue is supply materials availability. If you take a store, like Floor and Decor, or any other, there are seemingly soooo many choices. However, when I select lighter floors 4"-6" width in same length (needed for herringbone), not too distressed, less than $10 per square foot, engineered glue down, there are 1-2 choices and they seem to be out of stock everywhere in colors I want. Varying lengths I might be able to find. But 12-16 weeks lead time for custom materials is not something I can deal with due to carrying costs and the general desire to live in the home I bought.

I'd recommend getting off your computer and going to a flooring supplier. There are plenty in NYC; they will be able to advise on what will work best in a glue-down setting on top of concrete and is available in the lengths you need. It's also the kind of product that you really want to be able to see and feel in person before you commit to buying five figures worth of material.

Lead times for a lot of things are long right now... somebody might quote you 12 weeks but another shop might have a different source and get something the same or similar faster, so shop around.

Any floor supplier recommendations?

Have used Eastside Floors three times now, happy each time.

Thank you. By the way, do people have thoughts on baseboards? The contractor shown me some very very tall baseboard samples. Is that what is in vogue now?

Buy what you like. A baseboard switchout is pretty easy if the next buyer doesn't like it.

specifically, is 6" too high for a standard 8 foot and change ceiling? or is that the trend?

If I were doing my apartment over, I'd skip baseboards entirely and go for a 3/8" gap between the bottom of the wall and the floor, finished with a sharp edge, as you see in many modern art galleries. But, you don't say what style, period, or trend you're looking to have in your apartment, so it's really hard to say if 6" is 'right'. It also makes a difference if it's a solid block, versus one with a shaped profile. If your door frames have block bases, the molding will usually be nearly the height of the bases. Generally all the moldings in the room (cornice, baseboard, door trims, and windows trims, column plinths, blocks, etc., as well as door rails, stiles, and panels) will all follow a consistent set of proportions that also relate to the room proportions.

In each stylistic period, there have been some reasonably broadly codified 'rules' about the proportions between design elements of buildings and rooms. Pick a period/style and look into the rules of that period to come up with a preferred height (or to develop how you're going to break the rule to marvelous effect). The lazy answer, devoid of any real aesthetic value is: 7% of your total ceiling height. So: 8'6" ceiling = about 7-1/8" baseboard height.

Thank you so much!

Also, if anyone have additional flooring supplier recommendations, that would be much appreciated, as we did not find anything that works that is in stock at Eastside Floors recommended above, as well as Floor and Decor, Wayfair or Homedepot.
(Are we too picky or is this a manifestation of national shortages we keep hearing about? Not sure.)

You're looking at retailers. Since you seem to be working with a contractor, you should be talking to suppliers:

https://www.traditionalbuilding.com/buying-guides/flooring/flooring-wood for lots of suppliers.

Your contractor should know of some of these.

Despite the title, it's not all 'antique' floors.

Thank you, will check it out! I need something that is in stock NOW, so that is limiting choices in stores quite a lot.

By the way, for moldings, do people get versions that have room for cables and wires inside? the contractor has not mentioned this, but I see such options on some websites.

The style we are going for is "transitional", not sure if that narrows down any floors or moldings.

Krolik, If you want your job finished quickly, your best bet is to start with a flooring contractor and go for site finished floor. He will tell you what size of herringbone flooring he can get in stock from his suppliers. You can pick a shade from Minwax or mix any colors to get the color you like - there is no right or wrong color, just what you like. Usually, ~2 3/4 or 3 inch wide unfinished Herringbone is easier to find in stock. Equal length flooring is not enough as grooves and lips are different for herringbone. For base moldings, most people in NYC use Dykes molding catalogue which are almost all stock items . 4- 6 inch tall baseboard is plenty for a post war with 8 foot ceilings. You can browse Dykes' catalogue online for entertainment.

Something else your contractor can do is channel out a space at the bottom of the plaster/drywall for cables.

You don't have to limit yourself to available pre-routed channels in moldings. A channel can be routed into the back of most any molding shape if it's thick enough, should you not want to (or be unable to) put a channel into the wall for your low voltage wiring (phone, internet, audio & video). (110/220v wiring is another story. Consult your electrician.)

Krolick,

I would go to https://www.sotafloors.com and https://wideplankflooring.com.

You can get an unfinished engineered floor that you can sand, stain and poly.

Ask for Laura at SOTA. Tell her that Jeff from Prime Renovations recommended them, she will take care of you

Thanks for all the suggestions.
1) My contractor is indeed using Dykes catalogue for moldings. He initially pointed me to a 7" tall molding but I'll pick some other style form the catalogue for my postwar lower ceiling apartment.
2) My contractor uses general flooring stores for floor, like floor and decor and PC hardwood floors. Once you filter by plank width under 8" above 4", and species (oak), engineered glue down floors, wire brushed but not too distressed, with a thicker wear layer and under $10 per sq ft, there isn't much available in stock. :-( a lot of stock is super wide or dark colors or almost white and unfinished colors. I think all the popular widths and colors are sold out.
3) Tried calling and emailing Sota floors - no response form Laura or anyone else. Tried Wideplankflooring store, went there in person, they said they actually have NOTHING in stock, everything is 12 weeks to 6 months lead time. So that won't work cause I am already done with demo and need to do floor, paint, baseboard, move in NOW :-)
Turns out people order floors far, far in advance!

I found two options in stock:
1) Eastside floor supply has 8" wide plank natural looking warm tone light color oak, smooth with no gloss, not distressed
2) Some other store has 5" wire brushed not too distressed, but the color is cooler tone medium brown. Just not sure how that would look in my space color wise. Have not seen medium color anywhere. Is it out of style?
Got to decide if i go with the less preferred color or less preferred width. These are both prefinished which is for some reason what my contractor recommended.

Site finished will increase your stock options.

West End floor supplies on 100 some thing street and UWS for unfinished stock floors.

will check it out, thanks.

Lots of issues with wood supply chain still messed up.
Some jobs may need to be halted until that gets back to normal supply/demand

Any advice on floor direction?

My place has south and east exposures, so if I run it along the long wall to the window in the living room, should the floor will be same direction / perpendicular to the length of the other rooms, or change direction so it runs along the long wall to the window in the other rooms as well?

Floorboards generally run parallel to the longest wall, regardless of window configuration. Otherwise the room will appear smaller.

floor and baseboard installed. Thanks all that took time to educate me and share supplier recommendations.

Congrats!! What type of floors did you end of getting and from where?

5 inch wide random length engineered oak with thicker 4mm wear layer; wire brushed, but not too distressed; mid tone brown color that seemed versatile and was in stock from a smaller store in northern Manhattan.

I learned way too much about floors in the last few weeks, but will probably forget all by the time I am doing my next renovation in 7-10 years. Plus there will be new techniques and materials, and totally different style trends.