Find a square edge prefinished floor and you won't have beveled or eased edges to worry about.

As a hardwood floor enthusiast, having been in the hardwood floor business all my life, it is site-finished hands down for me. Aside from the aesthetic knocks I have against prefinished floors (seams you can see and feel with your feet, a funny sheen, no choice on sheen, color fading problems, etc.) the main point I stress with my clients is maintenance. You mention small children and a dog, both of which I have to contend with on my own floors. Any hardwood floor you choose will eventually show signs of wear. With the proper finishes on a site finished floor, restoring your floors to new is very feasible. With a factory finished floor, it is virtually impossible.

With the current cost of unfinished red and white oak in standard widths of 2 1/4" and 3 1/4" at extremely low prices, we have been finding that site finished floors can actually be less costly than even median factory finished floors. The difference in material price easily offsets the cost of sanding and finishing.

Of course, any homeowner making this decision must consider the possible issues of dust, fumes, and time off the floors. It is imperative to find a top-notch floor finisher who works primarily or exclusively in occupied homes. You need a finisher who can keep dust to an absolute minimum (which is possible) and who uses high-end water based urethanes such as Bona, Glitsa or Basic Coatings. Each of these companies makes a commercial grade water based urethane that will be prefect for your traffic needs. They are also very low in VOC's and some are green guard certified. The best reason to use them, though, is that 5, 8, 10 or more years from now when you see a traffic pattern becoming visible, a good floor finisher can use the same finish to "re-coat" just those areas showing wear. It is possible to blend these newly recoated areas into the surrounding areas without moving all your furniture. This is typically very affordable and takes only a few hours to complete and dry. In this way you are able to indefinitely maintain your floors making it possible to avoid ever sanding them back to the wood. Unfortunately, with prefinished floors, once they wear out, all you can do is to sand them back to the wood and do exactly this process. To make matters worse, most of them now come with aluminum oxide finishes which make this refinishing very difficult.

I say, why install a floor trying to avoid refinishing when refinishing will eventually be the only way to make them look good again? Get it right from the start, use the best finishes out there, the right finisher and then maintain your floors. You will have floors you love for life.

the other point of view should be expressed as well. Don't know why you would say factory finished can't be recoated to be made looking new just as easy? Aluminum Oxide in testing is far more durable than any site finished flooring. Solely from a design element some people like to see individual boards which is possible with beveled edges. Board replacement for a damaged board is infinitely easier with factory finished. You should never have to resand a factory finished flooring, screen and recoat. Most lines now come in a high gloss or matte finish. Even if they don't you can recoat using a matte finish if thats your desire. If you wanted a custom stain or somehting very different, yes site finished is the way, but for most people pre finsihed does the job and with way less dust, fumes and more durability.

hi im bill my wife and i we went to lumber luquidaters and we got our flooring for $1.69 a sqft and it was a beautiful job !! we love our flooring.. it s was wonderfull product !!! My wife and i we hired a man by the name of Kenny Ray Carr to install our flooring he is a remodeler we had rec...to us from a close friend at my work he installed a metal roof for her for only $0.80c a sqft and her roof was high quality roofing and the job look so good i hired him cause she was happy.. i love Lumber Liquidators the prices are very low and the quality of there flooring is better than that of big box stores..i would buy there agian !!i had got a istamate for flooring instalation and they said is was going to be $4.25 a foot.. my wife and i we had 2,300 sqft installed so my friend she told us abou t Kenny and he gave us a price of $0.90c a sqft i could not belive it .that is less than a dollar a sq ft !!.and he did such a wonderfull job my wife had him paint 2 rooms for use and install 5 windows install our back door..he only charged us $495.00 for the rest of the work he did .. and the best thing about his work is he did all the work himself.. no sub out work to other people he was there when the work was getting done and let me tell you... my wife was soooooooooo happy it got her off my back . he was so low on his prices i would not even try it my self .. and if mamas happy then every body is happy !!!!its not woth the money i would save/// i have to much to do as it is..and if kenny will install it for that price i will let him do it agian !!. and we love his work and his HONESTY! witch is the most important thing when hiring a contractor to do work at your home !My wife and i we would tell every body this !!! Kenny Ray Carr is some one you can trust and his work is beautiful and his price you cant beat for the work you get !!we will hire him agian !!!!this is his number 228 217 0337 tell him bill sent you !

Love this!

For that price `ol Kenny was using illegal aliens!!