Thanks for the advice. Since I was recently diagnosed with Asthma I am very concerned about the irritants. At this point, I am pretty surre I am going to change my mind about the glue-down and go with an alternative. What do you think about a floating floor? I know my contractor is not a big fan of it..he says it shifts and doesnt feel that great underfoot. Is it much less expensive to install then a nail down? Thanks so much for your advice, it is greatly appreciated. Melanie

I think the misinformation was about screening and recoating a site finished and doing a board replacement. On site finished if you have a problem its much harder to do a single board replacement and have it blend. Most times you would have to resand the entrire floor to make it look good. With factory fiished a single board could be replaced without resanding adjoining areas. Either could be screened and recoated without sanding. Comments about factory finishes scratching are sometimes due to the fact that with multi coat products the almunium oxide is left off the top coat. It tends to look milky and the idea is to make the top coat easy to repair when scratches occur so its often pure urethane with the AO below the top coat.

There is always going to be a debate about this, but I'll say what I tell most of my customers. First, what's the look you want? Most pre-finished woods will NOT(no matter what the company tells you) have a perfectly flat end result, and you will have seams. Every wood company known to the flooring world will put a disclaimer on their 'instructions' that the "use of stains or putties should be considered normal practices". So if either of those concern you, don't get pre-finished wood. On site finished, those key things will be sanded down and puttied before finishing and resulting in less if no visibility of wider seems, putty marks and scratches out of box. Second, finishes they put on pre-finished these days are considerably different in many ways. In a factory somewhere(probably China depending on the company) they can put the harshest chemicals they want on the wood because of the fact that it's in a "controlled environment" which then can(and mostly does) result in a better and stronger finish. With on-site finishing you are restricted legally on what finishes you can apply, and depending on situations and products it can take anywhere between 3 days to 2 weeks for only FINISHING. That takes a chunk out of and slows down your building or living time. And thirdly, you cannot compare Apples to Oranges, EVER. You can't go to your neighbors house and see the pre-finished Australian Cypress they purchased from Lumber Liquidators for cheap that they installed themselves and then go to the local classy, and expensive, restaurant and see their on-site darkly finished Red Oak professionally installed, and come up with what you want in your house. And honestly people, 99 times out of 100 how much you spend will determine the end result. Meaning if there is a Oak that you're looking at and it costs $1.50/sf(yeah we wish, right?) and there is another Oak that costs $4.65/sf, the more expensive one WILL have a better finish, density, and/or overall quality(like i said 99 times out of 100). There's too much to go into but the basic aspects are different companies get different quality of wood- meaning grain tightness(tighter is better less chance of damage during sawing) grain pattern, finish chemicals(if pre-finished), etc. And just some last comments to help you out. What it really all comes down to is you. It's your house, it's your likes and dislikes that matter. Joe Shmoe can try and try to sell you this product or that product, but only go for what you want(remember most companies will give a kick back, or a spiff, to the sales person to sell their product even if the sales person says they don't). You have to live in your house, nobody else does. The installer only cares if you're happy and he/she gets paid, and the salesman only cares if you're happy and he/she gets paid, but you can only be happy if you get what you really want. Also, I used to love Bamboo. I like the look and most notably it is one of the fastest growing woods(it's actually a grass) in the world. I don't like it for floors anymore because it scratches so easily, because of the nature of a grass it soaks up any liquid very quickly including finishes. If your heart is set on bamboo, go with on-site and expect a lot of finishing days and in the future refinishes. I know there is another thread on bamboo floors, so check that out. Then, as with all floors, make SURE you felt all your furniture with heavy duty felt(in Oregon it's tan, but everywhere it will be very thick) and no, plastic feet will not do- knock off all old feet and replace with heavy duty felt. A pre-finished product that I really like is hand scraped wood. Couple reasons for this is- personal preference as i like more "rustic" looking design- and also because scratches and dings and bangs don't show as easily. I've actually installed a floor that had such a dark finish and was hand scraped that we accidentally cross-grained scratched it after it was all laid with an appliance and we took a sharpie(yes the marker) and colored the scratch with it and the scratch literally disappeared even to us knowing where to look for the scratch. So a dark stained hand scraped wood is excellent for scratches. And lastly, if you "think" you can install it- get a professional, it's harder than it looks and pros have the right tricks and tools that make the final product perfect(not to mention if something goes wrong you have someone else's dollar that will have to fix it). The only reason you should do it yourself is if you "know" you can do it. Hope all that helps. Good luck with your remodels or new homes!

As JLC said, you have nicely finished doorways ... the only time you will see both floors is when you have a door open. And with the difference in lighting, you won't notice slight differences. Here's how I match or blend finishes: Bring home some samples of the prefinished you are thinking about and lay them in the hallway, parallel to the existing floors. Stand back 10 or so feet and pick the board or boards that you have the hardest time spotting. That's your match. Or, remove the boards that stand out ... what's left is the matching color. If you carefully pick the ONE board that is just inside the doorway to be as close a match to the older one in the hall it will make the blend almost invisible. Here, in an 1880s adobe ... the door stops where the pale wood is, and I picked new boards with the brownish tones of the old floor (upper part) to make the new flooring (running side to side) less conspicuous. (there was craptastical 1990s carpet and some wierd sill arrangement to deal with ... nothing in the house is square, plumb, or level). By matching size and rustic-ness in the new flooring we got a floor that blends with the old. Cleaning and refinishing the old floor (eventually) will make oit blend better.