Theres a fair share of problems with prefinish in new construction.

Subs will ding and scratch the floor before the HO moves in. Then what do you do? Replace a lot of boards?

Not saying it cant be done but it has its headaches too so its not a solution to sitefinished completely.

Do you currently apply the last coat of finish at what point during the build?

There are numerous brands of prefinish that are quality. Problem is some brands are hard to keep in stock and colors can vary from batch to batch. So if you install one brand and then 2 months later you havevto replace some boards you might be waiting until it comes in stock again and the color might be off.

Just some things to keep in mind.

I like Hallmark, Owens and some of the locally produced stuff around my area. Theres other brands too. And thats not to say every bundle ive gotten is 100% problem free. Ive had the least issues with them.

There are lots of problems with prefinished and engineered flooring. They are a poor choice, imo, unless necessary for some reason. They are fake wood floors, involving replacement costs. There are other finishes like monocoat or swedish oil that are supposed to be easy maintenance and repair. Choose something your buyers won't be cursing their cheap builder for. And that is not to say the cost of the material was cheap.

Ramboard won't work any better on prefab.

This post was edited by snookums2 on Tue, Mar 18, 14 at 20:17

Thanks Greg and snookums. He is really divided about this and doesn't want to deal with the downside of either, but it seems site finished is still the way to go I suppose.

Can you get a flooring product which isn't necessarily pre-stained, but does not need to be sanded in the house? Thanks!

Yes, you can buy unfinished flooring. They even sell it at the Home Depot. It still might need some sanding if the edges aren't beveled to fit flat, or otherwise. There are sanding machines with good dust containment.

Good to know about the dust containment! I will ask our flooring company about that. I am concerned about all the dust with a child who has a lot of allergies, and I was originally considering prefinished floors because the sanding and staining/sealing are done offsite.

I have read they can sand with virtually no dust. Just make sure to find a company that can do this. Google around for details.

We have used Dansk and Kentwood brands before and are using Kentwood again in our new build, we really like our engineered floors and have no problems with them as we did with our previous solid hardwood foors.
There are also many pros to engineered floors, more stable, can be used in basements, harder factory finish, cleaner install as there is no finishing of stains or sanding on site, no fumes..... All materials have pros and cons, and there is nothing wrong with engineered floors IMO.

There are numerous quality brands. Our #1 brand is Mirage. They make a nice product and have a fair amount of variety. That said, I don't see much in the way of truly bad flooring. In prefinished we carry Harris, Anderson (some recent reports of lower quality), Mannington (ditto), Armstrong/Hartco, Kahrs, Ark, Homerwood, Johnson, Bella Cera, Navarre, Garrison, Hallmark, Triangulo and Columbia. Each has decent offerings.
My feeling is that if one can find an ideal floor that's prefinished, it has valid advantages.
To be clear, we also do unfinished floors and refinishing.