Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Engineered vs Solid hardwood and questions

We have decided to remove all of the carpet from our house and replace it with pre-finished hardwood. While shopping around, I have been presented with a dizzying array of choices and am thoroughly confused.

What are the pros and cons of engineered and solid hardwoods? We intend to install it on top of the existing subfloor which is 23/32 tongue in groove OSB nailed and glued to 10" joists on 16" centers. The floor is quite solid.

Since the majority of the trim in the house is cherry, we wanted to use cherry flooring. But, I was told it is too soft and very light sensitive. Suggested that I use Brazilian cherry since its harder, but its still ight sensitive. Is the light sensitivity really that big of a problem? What species would be a better alternative?

Since we do have 2 dogs, I am concerned about the durability of the finish. Are the warranties just hype? Does the Bellawood 50 year warranty mean the flooring is any better than, say BR-111 that only has a 25 year warranty?

What manufacturers are better than others. I know this is pretty subjective. The local lumber liquidators is pushing Bellawood Select 3/4 solid. Rush and Bob V have it in their houses, so it must be good, right? :rolleyes: Another local flooring store is pushing BR-111 indusparquet 3/4 solid, which I never heard of and can find almost no info on. Any thoughts on these products?

I want something that is going to be very durable and look good with the existing trim. Cost is not a big consideration, but since we will be installing over 2000 sqft, I dont want to get ridiculous on price.

Any suggestions would be very appreciated.

Thanks,
Tim

My uncle brought some bellawood from liquidlumb.. it's not bad.. I'm in the process of installing br111 brazilian cherry.. the color is beautiful, cant say much else to it since i haven't faced light problems or durability problems yet. Br111 is a big company though and you should be able to get lots of info about them.

If you have two dogs then your floors are gone hehe, unless they're tiny and you take care of their claws religiously.. or put lots of rugs where they hang out at..

"Rush and Bob V have it in their houses"

Which house? Those guys must have at least three of each. I would be leary of the Bellawood product(far too many consumer complaints) and go after a name with a good track record. Throw the finish warranty out the window. I had one guy call me the other day and we talked about finish warranties. He concluded "after reading the warranties out there I've come to the conclusion there is no warranty"

I wouldn't rule out American Cherry, however it is soft- has to be taken care of like anything else. Brazilian Cherry undergoes a drastic color change and has been known to be unstable in some cases. Marco I hope you are reading this. Incidentally, as I've said in the past watch what you say; I do have eyes.

Have you looked at Santos Mahogany?

I am by no means, at all, whatsoever an expert, but I have found this page helpful when comparing manufacturers: http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwoodinstaller/manu.htm

I can't speak on the accuracy, but it is nice to see something so spelled out.

From ALL that I have heard and read, stay away from Lumber Liquidators. That is as much as I know on that since I stopped considering them early on.

I have been researching for a long while and I went from laminate to engineered, to hardwood. Hardwood is the final choice for us. I can't speak to why engineered versus not, but from what I have read, it really depends on where you are installing it (ie. level and subfloor type). The site I linked above should have more info on that.

In order to decided on what species, I just had to see them in person. In the end, we kept coming back to the incredible richness of the Santos Mahogany. It will scratch, but all wood does. It is much harder than oak, but oak tends to hide scratches better because of its grain.

I found all the choices overwhelming as well, but after so much research, I am so pumped to actually get the floor installed. I hope you get to the same point soon!

Laura

I'm in the same boat as you -- trying to figure it out, and I have many of the same questions.

After reading the fine print in several product brochures, I have a comment about those "25 year" finishes. When you look at the warranty detail, there are so many exclusions (sun damage, scuffs and scratches, high heels, dropping things, furniture indents, etc) that they aren't very meaningful. The finish might well last 25 years in a room with little light and little traffic and little exposure to real life, etc. I asked one salesman about the ~reality~ of the life of the floor finish in a normal household and he said, probably 10 years. Expect to re-coat or refinish the floors every ten years in normal household usage. It doesn't necessarily need to be completely resanded and finished as they can sometimes just add a new coat of polyurethane. But the finish isn't likely to look spanking new after 10 years of heavy usage.

Also, light sensitivity is important if your new flooring is near windows with direct light. In a previous home, I got big dark spaces under area rugs and furniture due to fading in the surrounding areas. This is a problem if you want to change your furniture around or for the next occupant. If I go with wood in the new place, I am going to be much more careful about keeping direct sunlight off of the flooring. Of course, other types of flooring are also adversely affected by light, so that's not only a problem with wood.

Anyway, I'll be interested in reading the answers to your questions by others who are more knowledgeable than me.

Thanks for the replies. They have been pretty helpful.

Tim

if you have the low-e glass (I was told) because the Argon gas reduced UV transmission. Now the finishes, through my studies I found a draw back to prefinished floors is that they have a limited sanding of 3 on the thicker brands of engineered woods. Prefinished wood is unmistakeable to recognize 30 feet away. They have that teltale line between the boards that a sanded and sealed floor doesn't have. The finish is supposed to be much harder than a sealed floor. The glossier floor is the sanded and sealed one. Stability goes to the engineered floor, as well as ease of installation. Hardness on a floor if you have dogs, you might consider rock maple or Bamboo. HD has a large selection as well as Lowes. Lumber liquidators advertises $.99/ft or something like that..... I saw the wood for that price and it was OK for a shop floor in a garage only, with huge knot holes, this is the stuff they were gonna thow away but said, "I'll bet someone would buy this stuff" and I imagine some do, but its more like a bait and switch deal for me.