Thanks for the compliments. I can't comment on the recoating ability as ours are only a year old. I believe the newer factory applied finishes hold up to years of use and I am hoping not to have to address this while we live here.

As far as cupping, we have not had any shrinkage or cupping anywhere on our floor. We live in the upper midwest and have gone through all sorts of weather so far -- hot and humid in the summer and cold and dry throughout the winter months. No change anywhere.

As far as scratches -- BT will scratch if something hard is dragged across it. I assume this is true for any wood floor. We are careful to put felt pads on all the legs of our furniture and this has eliminated any scratching. I have dropped a can or two on the floor in the kitchen and have not had a single dent. This wood is hard! The few unexplained scratches that have come up become virtually invisible with a small amount of scratch cover.

Gardenchick1, thank you so much for responding. I feel like I have wanted to "talk" to you since I first saw your floors a few months back. If you don't mind, I'd love to ask you a few more things...Does your floor have micro-bevel edges? From the pictures it looks really smooth, but I'm assuming it does have the micro bevels. I prefer the square edge, but that's rare in prefinished. Also, would you say yours has a satin finish to it? The Mohawk I have is supposed to have a satin finish, but it seems glossier to me. Again, your pictures don't really look glossy. I have three little kids so the scratches and glossiness scare me a little. Finally, you do have some boards that are reddish, right? My samples definitely have some red boards that make me a little nervous (I am trying to work within the confines of my current honey-colored oak trim and am hoping it will look OK). Since you must have such a good eye for design (based on your house!), I am attaching a picture of our entry where I am wanting to put the floors (and paint as well) - how do you think they would look?

I know this is a lot of questions. Thanks alot for your help.

I am happy to answer your questions. I did weeks of research on this floor before purchasing and this is one of those decisions that I never regretted and even our custom home builder was impressed with my decision.

Our floors have micro eased edges. You would have to get on your hands and knees with a magnifying glass to tell that they are not squared. The bevel is not noticeable to the naked eye. Our finish is satin.

As far as the color variation -- this is an area that I would say not to worry. This floor really has almost every imaginable hue that literally everything matches it. We have quite a mix of wood stain in our furniture including black, deep mahogany, cherry, maple, etc. and this floor goes with all of them. I also wouldn't worry about the red boards. I looked around our 2500 sq.ft. of floor and only saw a couple of the deep reddish boards you are referring to. If they are a real concern, just have your installer leave those boards out. There are also a few boards of a deep, almost black. I personally love those because they pull out all our black accents, but you could have those left out too.

As for your entry, I think the BT would look great. You already have a variation in the woods there with the addition of the darker cabinet and the floor would pull it all together. The rug would also pick up the red boards if you choose to include them.

Here is close-up picture of the BT with a maple colored cabinet to show how well it works with it. I am having a hard time capturing the true character of this floor because every picture looks a little different.

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I hope you ladies don't mind my jumping in here, but can you direct me to your other pictures, Gardenchick? I'm looking at Mohawk right now and love the look of your Brazilian Teak! What's the finish or color? Do you know what the hardness level is? Also, is it engineered and pre-finished or what? There are so many types, it gets confusing. Last question, where did you buy it and did they install it or did you have to find your own installer? I'm trying to find the best price on this.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

Here's the pic that I posted before. My floor is from Wood Flooring International and it is pre-finished. You do not chose a stain or color -- what it is is what you get. I would say the basic tone of the wood is honey to deep brown (versus Brazilian Cherry which is reddish). You can get a good example by going to the WFI website and pulling up a picture. BT is the second hardest wood available with a Janka rating of 3540 (only Brazilian Walnut is harder). Don't assume that a high Janka rating means an indestructible floor. All wood will scratch to some degree. My BT though has handled a can dropped on it without a dent.

We purchased our floor through a commercial flooring contractor that my DH knows through business, so I can't give an accurate account of cost. I believe when we were doing some research, BT ran about $9.00/sq.ft. or less depending on the quantity ordered. This is not installed. Our builder did the actual installation of our floor. The only real trouble he had was with the installation of the shoe moulding. He had to predrill the moulding because he couldn't get a nail to go through it and the floor both.

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Thank you, Gardenchick for the details and picture. Beautiful room and the flooring looks great!

I'm concerned now about going with Mohawk. Nothing I saw had that high of a Janka rating, but then, not all samples had ratings.

Gardenchick, thank you very much for your response and for the picture. I really appreciate it!

Mareda, I am actually looking at the the Mohawk Brazilian Teak too (and have looked at others brands as well). Any BT would have the same janka rating. Good Luck!

For what it's worth, before we bought from our friend through WFI, I had samples from Mohawk and it looked exactly like my floor. In fact, in order for me to get a good idea of how the floor looked, I had samples from Mohawk, Somerset and two other manufacturers. I remember they all looked exactly alike.

Gardenchick, thanks for your last post - it's very reassuring to know.

Polkadots, thanks, and good luck to you, too. I go back to the store tomorrow to see if I can further confuse myself...lol.