What (engineered/solid) wood for this type of look (pics)?
Hi,
I've been to this forum a few times but mostly to read and learn. I'm pretty regular over on kitchens and home decorating. We're getting ready to build a home for our family of four. We have two children, a boy (10) and a girl (6) and a whopping 14 lb dog that does not shed. This house will be the house we plan to stay in so I'm trying to make my decisions the right ones.
We have a very open plan for the downstairs main spaces. I'm looking for a moderately dark wood. In our current house we have a Bruce floor in Butterscotch that has held up fairly well. But because of the shiny finish, it shows more scratches than I'd like in some spots...from the dog's nails or furniture or whatever. I like distressed floors but not a ton of machine handscraping that looks really wavy. I know I want to go darker and want wider planks without much bevel and very very very little sheen. We will have white kitchen cabinetry and builtins in our living room (the rooms are wide open to each other)
The photos I'm drawn to:
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I also like these but think they're pine which I think might be too soft for us?
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We are a casual family and are not doing a formal living room or dining room in this house. After you go through the foyer/entry, you enter the main space and can see straight through to the back yard. The floors are going to be SEEN in this house. The family room, casual dining/breakfast area and kitchen are all open to each other. We are an active family. Since we live in New Orleans, I want something with character and that looks beautiful, yet not too dressy and not too busy. We want a comfortable feel to our home. I'd also like some character to the floor to help mask any dings that may occur. But again, I do not like a lot of handscraping. I also want to try and stay mid-range (possibly a little above but not go super high-end). Is it possible to have a beautiful floor with character at a mid-range price point?
I went to a local place and he showed me UA Flooring's Olde Charleston Genuine Teak. It's beautiful but a bit lighter than most of the photos I'm drawn to. So I'm not sure it will give me the look I want for the overall space. I also have read that Teak is softer than Pine.
This has been longer than I meant for it to be. Sorry! In a nutshell, can you recommend a manufacturer and floor that can get me started to achieving the feel I'm after? I'd like to stick to our local places that carry: Shaw, Bruce, UA, Mannington, Columbia, Mohawk, Lauzon and Armstrong (Robbins). They may have other brands but these are the ones I know of off hand. Thank you so very much!
Comments (11)
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Old solid wood vs New Engineered wood
Comments (6)The old will be finished right at your home. This will take longer and be messier. But the results will be terrific. No grooves between boards (crumb catchers), the exact color you want with the finish you like. The existing floors will have great character and look great once refinished. Just be sure to match the species of wood: red or white oak. We selected traditional oak flooring finished in our home....See More5" plank unfinished wood floor - solid or engineered?
Comments (3)You really need some consistency in so far as moisture conditions year round for a solid wider plank floor to perform well. I've mentioned some of the issues before. In a nutshell I think of some of the comments here over the years when people say things like "...my 50 old year old house had oak floors and they looked like new...now with my my new house they cup and gap etc." The reasons are due to the way homes are built today. Older homes are generally drafty, the RH is more stable, hardwood floors love that. Today, new homes are are so tightly insulated, but what happens more than anything is the basements or crawlspaces are never given the attention they should be when new hardwood floors are considered. It's your choice, but make sure you have the obvious covered and know what can happen. Engineered Floors Today Ken Fisher...See MoreEngineered wood next to solid wood
Comments (4)Ok so it sounds like you have some good, solid professional advice - it’s always nice when you don’t get differing assessments and each pro says the same thing, usually makes it easier. That said, only you can know whether the perpendicular boards would bother you, but I would ask a different question: will it bother you LESS than the existing transitions and height differences? My guess is yes, and I think that once everything is the same level and finish you won’t even notice those boards. We have one that transitions to the tile in the entry from the living room and I never really notice it - and I can be rather type A about those kinds of things lol. I think your freak outs are normal, especially since you are under pressure making a lot of time sensitive decisions while trying to plan a move. Not the best of circumstances for being able to think clearly and not freak out. That said, there are always surprises to be found and things that weren’t noticed in the tours you did before deciding to buy, it’s inevitable once you spend more time in a house that these things pop up - even in GREAT houses. It probably is a great house, and if this is the only “surprise” you discover it truly is a gem and you should feel happy/lucky that it’s very minor and easily fixable. Take a deep breath and hire one of those guys to fix the floors and move on to the 1.3 billion other things on your list to do before you move :-)...See MoreLay engineered wood floor over existing engineered wood floor?
Comments (6)Thanks all. We removed the floor. Unfortunately as expected, that exposed more of a mess. Luckily, no "damage" to subfloor per say, but it looked like the previous folks who installed the floor used leveling "float" on pretty much the entire 700 sqft and in some place as thick as almost 1.5 inches. This made it very difficult to remove the layers of flooring (combination of engineered hardwood glued down and some solid wood nailed down to plywood, which was glued and nailed down to "leveling float", which was poured over OSB subfloor). The demo guy tried to get to the OSB subfloor as best he could but he stopped after 2 days of demo and when the OSB was starting to get damaged as it came up with some of the float. We have now moved on to filling the 3 very low areas with some plywood and then pouring self leveling float over the entire floor to try to fill in all to "holes" that were created by trying to pull up the previous float. I guess I am officially welcomed to home ownership....See MoreRelated Professionals
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13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoThanks for the email Laurie.
Yes, the fourth photo down is the view as you walk into our front door. Or at least what it looked like a couple years ago. We have since made that room into a formal dining room. This is what it looks like now. Lighting is different so it looks darker and perhaps a little closer to the real color.
It's a beautiful, warm engineered floor and I love it. But ... we don't have kids at home any more or a pet. The wood is fairly soft and dents easily. It is forgiving though as dents just look like natural patina. Also, since it's a cherry, it darkens and reddens with age (another reason it looks darker in the second photo).
Here are the specs: Victoria Floors Antique Collection Coique (Chilean Cherry) Chocolate, 7" wide planks.
Jodi-
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Laurie