Handscraped wood flooring is a relatively new idea which blossomed quickly. The sales is right in saying handscraped will hide scratches from kids and pets. The good news is you can always refinish handscraped wood to become smooth if it has a thick enough wearlayer. Whether or not handscraped is a temporary fad or here to stay largely depends on the direction designers and publishers will take us. In this industry designers can really drive demand. Personally, you should first consider what you like before stressing out too much about scratches showing or appearing too outdated. Good luck with your search. Regards.

We had hand "sculpted" solid hardwood floors installed three days ago (Manchester Apricot 5") and we love it. It's 700 sq. ft. of wavy hand scraped flooring and it looks fantastic! We have had a lot of compliments already from contractors and visitors. We will be getting some area rugs, as this is a huge area. The dining room/foyer and great room all are open to each other and we went with 5" planks for this reason. The 5" planks look great in a larger area. After we saw the hand scraped flooring down on the sales floor at one of the many flooring places we visited, we knew we wanted it. Maybe you could find a flooring place that has it on their floors and that will help you make your decision.

Our salesman told us that if we ever decide to change the color or it needs resanding, we will lose the look of the hand scraped. At our age (both in 60's), I don't see us ever needing to resand.

I wish I knew how to post a picture with my message. I did set up a photo bucket account and I'm trying to figure it out. I did figure out how to include a link, but I want to learn how to include the picture with the message.

Call around and ask some of the flooring companies in your area if they have hand scraped flooring installed at their store so you can see how it looks.

I think it's a fad. Real hand-scraped floors are one thing, mass produced "hand-scraped" (by machine) engineered floors are another. But it's a personal choice. I don't like new furniture that's put through a 12 step process of painting and sanding-off to look like the paint is old and distressed, either, but plenty of people do like it. In the end, if YOU like it and plan to have it a while, then go for it.

I got distressed and hand scraped engineered walnut floors which I love. They claim my 4mm wear layer can be refinished up to two times. When and if I do refinish them, they will lose their hand-scraped and distressed look. Good way to outrun a dying fad when it ends I'd say.

Vestirse - What did you install? Any photos? I love walnut - I'm just worried it is too soft for kids and pets. 4mm sounds Great - best of all worlds. :-)

Hi Jeri, no photos yet. Installation is slated to begin Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. I've linked to the website of the hardwood I chose below. It's Walnut Carrera RW.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garrison DaVinci Walnut Carrera RW (bottom right)

Gorgeous! Drool-drool

May I ask what you are paying for that?

I'm getting it from a local hardwood store for about 5.54 per sq/ft. We shopped around and it was on sale at the store we chose.

That sounds like a Great price. I can't wait to see photos of it installed. Good luck with the install! You must be so excited. We are installing our Central Vac and Hide-a-Hose this weekend. Who knew one could get so excited about a vacuum? :-)

Jeri the Garrison DaVinci is indeed gorgeous. I spent a lot of time over the past few months looking and learning about hardwood flooring for my ongoing remodeling project. A number of the Garrison products were on my short list including the DaVinci because I am on the side of the camp that likes the French Bleed look. I say that because a guy who owns one of the local flooring stores specializing in hardwood (and who has been in the business for 20 years) told me that the French Bleed can be vary polarizing, e.g., in a lot of cases a husband or wife loves it and the other says it's a deal breaker. ;-)

I'd only point out that the DaVinci is not one of the Garrison products that has a 4mm wear layer. Rather it is 3mm but that is more than enough - especially for a hand sculpted product. I also am not sure if the DaVinci is truly "hand" sculpted or if it is done with a machine but I suspect the former given it does not have the "spoon" look that most of the machine produced products have.

Price wise it sounds like you got a pretty good deal. I can't wait to see some photos of the completed install.

I am not sure about the "fad" aspect but the kitchen designer I have been working with who actually does entire interiors as well thinks that smooth is more "timeless". However, in the end I ended up selecting a 5" sculpted/distress flooring to cover the 1300sqft (basically everywhere except the bedrooms, bathrooms, and utility room.

I went with BR-111's Zinfandel Tigerwood for a few reasons - the first being that it is truly sculpted/distressed by hand so each plank is unique. The second is that it can take on more than one character, i.e., it lends itself to contemporary, traditional, and even rustic aesthetics all depending on the decor in the room. Thus, it should in essence be "timeless" and allow for changes in the future if so desired. The other key factor is that it comes in lengths up to 7' and in the box I purchased prior to making the final decision there are five 7' boards and a mixture of mostly 2 to 5 feet for the rest (total coverage is 31 sqft). The long lengths are desired for a large entry way as well as the living room area which will have furniture mostly on the perimeter. Thus, the wood flooring is going to make a "statement" in that room and I was hesitant to go with a flooring that only came in the standard 1 to 4' lengths from the fear it would look "busy".

The final tipping point of the decision was that BR-111 recently decided to sell direct to the public and for the most part dropped the pricing on all of their flooring in their process. Case-in-point is about 4 weeks ago the average price for Tigerwood Zinfandel was $9 a sqft. Now it is $6 and I was able to negotiate even a better price than that from BR-111 directly partly due to my order size as well as the fact that True Hardwoods (who I also considered ordering from) had a sale going at the time. ;-)

Bloozeman I just responded to you on another thread. :-)

Tigerwood intrigues me, but I have never seen a whole room in person. Have you seen this in a large area before? You sound confident in your choice so Im sure you will love it. The small samples I have seen in stores look awesome! But some of the larger spaces in online photos seem a bit too much for my tastes, tough I would love to see it in person before we make our final decision.

Good luck, and please be sure to post a photo when you are done. Do you by any chance live in S. CA? :-D

Jeri,

First off sorry for the confusion and stating you had gotten a good deal on the Garrison DaVinci since I meant to address that section of my post to vestirse who was the purchaser.

Confident? LOL Believe me I still ask myself if I should have went with two of my other choices on the ultimate short list. One of the is Hallmark Hallwoods Sapele from their Exotics line. It is a smooth finish and leans more towards the contemporary or formal look. I bought a box of it too and in the right lighting the 22 sqft of it is AMAZINGLY beautiful. It has an incredible grain that shimmers. However, since I am laying down 1300sqft the lighting in the hallways, entryway, living room, dining room, family room, and kitchen all varies of course. So in the end considering that and my concerns that it was less dense than the other two choices and that it may be slightly a bit too reddish I decided against it.

The other short-list contender that was seriously weighed was the new Ernest Hemingway Wild Amber (which is actually Acacia) that just came on the market a few weeks ago. I actually delayed my purchasing decision because I wanted to see it before doing so. It was actually the designers first choice and it is definitely gorgeous and the construction is top notch (as is the Hallmark). However, I was skeptical that it would look too busy in the large open areas because it only came in 1 to 4' lengths and it does have a pronounced (and beautiful) grain. Throw in the fact that at the point I decided to just take the designer's advice (which has not failed me yet nor have I disliked any of the work he has done for other clients) I was unable to make the purchase because the initial shipment of the Wild Amber to the manufacturer had completely sold out (17K sqft).

One of my concerns with Tigerwood (which I have always liked) is the variance of color I had seen between samples from different manufacturers in my local flooring stores. However, the Zinfandel Tigerwood has a slight golden stain which I suspected would even things out a bit. Thus, I decided to take a chance and buy a box because I think the "tiger" striping is gorgeous and would provide the body and character the designer and I are looking for (otherwise I'd just buy laminate ;-)). Obviously, it did turn out to be gorgeous and the slight stain did provide the result I was looking for. The designer was hoping for more of the striping and it to be a bit darker (less golden) but I told him to not to worry because I ordered more than the recommended 7% scrap to ensure that I get as much long lengths and striping as possible and given Tigerwood is photosensitive it will most definitely darken. ;-)

Needless to say I am totally excited. The only bummer so far is that the my order got stuck at the local freight company's warehouse for the weekend given all their trucks were already out for delivery when it arrived on Friday and that they will not do the "inside" delivery option I paid for. Oh well, if that is the only hitch to my new flooring I can most certainly live with that!

I will definitely post some photos after the install (which should be in about 3 weeks) since I live in Scottsdale, AZ. However, I guess that is not too far for you to drive especially if you wanted to tie it into a weekend getaway. ;-)

Forgot one last thing in regards to the hole handscraped phenomenon. The machined variety tends to have a more pronounced affect that looks like someone took a spoon and "spooned out" channels within the plank. For my tastes the channels are too deep and the repetitiveness of them ends up with a with a wavy look when you look across the floor from the same angle the planks run. In fact the minute I saw this at a flooring store that had about 500sqft of this type of product installed as the flooring in a display area I immediately ruled it out as something I would go with.

Here is a product we used that has a thicker wear layer at 3/16 of an inch (5mm) that comes in pre-finished (smooth and distressed/scraped) and unfinished for on-site hand scraping/finishing. We had ours hand scraped and stained on site. It is a neat process to watch.
We had a company in Fort Worth, TX (also in Keller), Masters Flooring, install for us.
With 3 teenagers and their friends coming and going, it has taken a beating and keeps looking great. We get scratches and dings all the time and a furniture marker and sharpie with wet cloth does the trick.
I love dark wood and I think it will always be timeless. Quality Core pieces always will be "in" and classic. They should be neutral (a red painted floor would be dated). Change the walls, fabrics and accessories to stay modern or up to date if it is important to you.
I used the 3" planks that are cut on-site to different lengths. The thresholds to the other rooms of different flooring are also scraped and stained to match.

We went thru this same discussion a few months back. My husband and I eventually decided that it would be a fad. Once we saw handscraped at a couple of parade homes, it looked to manufactured for us. The handscraped is done by a machine and it looks very uniform. So it didn't natural to us. We did have the option of having Amish woodworkers do a true handscrape but the cost would have at least doubled the price. We eventually decided on 3,4,5" planks of hickory heartwood, sand on site. We had our floors installed last week. We think it will give us the rustic look that we are going for.

I don't have pets or small children anymore. However, I do have teenagers and a spouse who is a farm consultant, I have dirt, pebbles, etc that make it into the house. So there is risk of scratches. Our second choice of wood was quarter sawn oak. We felt that would be a great choice but in the end, we wanted a more toned down wood grain and we ended up with the hickory.

I do want to say that I would have considered handscraped if we were doing a smaller area, like my husband's office. We were replacing 1100 sq ft of flooring with hardwood. We have an open concept floor plan so we felt the handscraped effect would be just too much for that much space.

Hi All!

I've been attending to house matters - we just closed and are now first time home owners, yay! Flooring install had a hitch and won't begin until Thursday, but I will definitely be taking pictures and including them here :)

I know what you guys mean about machine hand scraped looking very wavy in a big space. That's one of the reasons we liked the Garrison Da Vinci product so much. We didn't know if it was machine or real hand scraped, but it came in random width and I think that helps break up the waviness and distressing on our boards. We did see a big install of another wood from the series and loved it. Bloozeman, you are right, I did not see the characteristic spooning either, which we saw in so many others, and it set this one apart for us.

And bloozeman, thanks for correcting me on the wear layer. We looked a wood for three months solid and I think I became cross eyed in the process! As should be obvious, we love the french bleed too. And coincidentally, we looked very hard at BR-111's Oscuro Tigerwood and also one of their versions of Santos Mahogany!

Bloozeman, do you have pictures of your new floors yet? I would love to see pictures, and your comments for the Tigerwwod floor. Thanks!

I think it will stay around as an option but good reason to get 3/4" instead of engineered is that you could sand it flat later and restain. Definitely look at BR-111 and they send free samples. Their angelim handscraped is tough as nails... a hard wood whose stain is also very resistant to s scratching and if you get the armagnac or similar dark color it is especially so. I would go with them over all others. Now if you want a domestic wood, Anderson has gorgeous product that passed my personal scratch test better than other brands... but domestics are softer wood types generally. They have some high-end anti-scuff coating.

Bloozeman, was the BR-111 you chose part of their advertised sale or no? We are considering 1,000 square feet of the angelim so any pricing or negotiating tips would be welcome. Are you happy to have ordered it direct vs. have your installer (if you are using one) order it?