nathendo, what did you discover about the Johnson Brazilian walnut?? We are looking at the same floor, also the American Walnut. My experience is that the Johnson website photos are horrible! Even the salesman in the store said you definitely could not choose your floor from their website. This store happens to have a large installment of the BW in their store, and it is much closer to what we are looking for...a bit more warmth, good color variation, but some greenish tinges (which we are not sure if we like). Theirs has only been in about 3 months, so I don't think it's only age that adds the warm tones. We may be ordering a sample box as soon as tomorrow...but would love to hear what you learned. Adding photo of their installment--sorry for the glare of the overhead lights.

MY HORROR STORY!! Do not get any exotic floor from LL, they use inferior grades and they 1) cupped, 2) split and 3) buckled all within 6 months of installation. The installer got stuck with the re-do (complimentary) and he wants to install domestic woods only from this outfit (to whom I am still obliged if I want this re-do complimentary). Home, humidity, were not issues-- the product we believe is milled too quickly and without time for drying and curing. So stay away from Brazilian, teak and other imports. We are going with white oak and staining it.

I add my vote to solid wood flooring. We installed 3 in x 3/4 inch planks ourselves and love everything about them. We did oak in the main living areas, and solid brazillian walnut in the kitchen. Two very different looks and different benefits but equally beautiful. Obviously, the oak hides dirt a little better. It's prefinished and is wearing beautifully. We take the necessary steps to protect it by removing our shoes at the door and using soft pads on the feet of our furniture. The Walnut is in the kitchen & dining area and is amazing. We get compliments on it all the time because it's different. It's not stained, that dark color is completely through the wood, so scratches don't show very easily and when we do have to refinish it, all we'll need to do is put some poly on it and it will look exactly the way that it does now. It's one of the hardest woods there and very durable. The reason we went with the solid flooring is because we felt it would be more durable, it will last a life time and it can be sanded several times. I have family members who have laminate, and with all do respect to those who have it, it looked fake to us, we could see the repeat of patterns and hated that fake sound when walking on it. Although many will disagree with me, engineered (which implies man made) wood seemed flimsy and fake as well. I know it has "wood" veneers but we didn't want to pay so much money for a thin piece of wood glued to a cheaper piece of wood. That just didn't make sense to us. Especially because of it's limited life span when compared to the solid wood.

Well due to a final deadline and lack of a better alternative free of other issues, we decided to go ahead and order Mirage's Knotty Walnut Savanna. We had to submit it today so here we go, hoping for the best and fingers crossed we'll be happy with it! It won't be installed for a month so I'll try to come back and post pics and follow up on things. Our decision was largely influenced by Mirage's reputation for their high quality wood and preparation, although another poster with Mirage Walnut Natural did mention after a year she had some fading by a window, but minimal and nothing objectionable. Also taking into consideration most with fading issues seem to have Natural rather than stained Walnut, so I'm wondering if stain might be protective in some way? Mirage also has UV protectant in their finish and that's supposed to delay/reduce any color changes. All our new Milgard Tuscany windows also have the latest 'code required' Low E glass so that might help too or we can consider additional UV window film if needed. Honestly, we hope to be enjoying rather than worrying about all this so much, the fading issue has already made me forget my early concerns about denting or wild color variations lol! So all the above factors plus mainly Eastern and not Southern daylight exposure we're really hoping we'll be OK. We do have one small room that will get lots of SE sunlight so it will be interesting what happens there. ALSO does anyone know about the 'rug' rule? I think I've heard one shouldn't cover new hardwood at all for at least something like six months, anyone know about this? Isabel - Thank you for posting photos, your floor is beautiful! If the fading is mostly by your French doors have you considered covering over that area with a runner type rug or even even removing the faded wood and doing a beautiful tile inset in its place? I've also been told that although pre-finished flooring is harder to sand and refinish, it's not impossible and is doable for usually about $1 extra per sq ft than if re-doing a site-finished floor. They just need to use stronger 'sandpaper' type stuff. Hard finishes are so common these days I'm sure it can be done these days. If handscraped maybe not but your doesn't look handscraped. If you have the fading under control with UV shades it might be worth considering! Btw, whereabouts are you in Northern CA? We lived there for sixteen years both in Sacramento and Sonoma County so you're making me nostalgic! If your Walnut has ever been exposed the the sizzling sun of Sacramento valley then your fading issues wouldn't surprise me! We're in a lovely area of the Pacific NW now. mdln- thanks for the pics of your beautiful floor and cute little dog! Romy718- thanks for your feedback and the UV film idea :) Sorry my post is so long, probably putting you all to sleep! I'll try to do Walnut flooring updates as things progress here!