Does anyone know if you can install pre-finished hardwood flooring over existing hardwood? If so, what are the top pre-finished brands that you are aware of? Can this be a less expensive option than refinishing hardwood floors? Thanks Amy

You can do it any way you want. The tools you have at hand and your skills will help you make that decision. It can be easy to get a close match with the old and new, however remember that the wood must match in species, grade and sawing. If you decide to weave in the new with the old, cutting out some of the old planks to slide in the new is how it is done. You can cut some butt seams to preserve more of the existing, but that takes more skill and some tools you may not have. Look at how the floor is put together and select a sacrificial board to cut out so you can gain access to the rest and dismatle the boards...that way you can remove some of them intact to incorporate and reinstall with the new.

Redroze, I'm just getting back online and seeing your questions, so I'll try to answer what I can. My new floor in the LR/DR was not pre-finished, it was all site-finished. I did put a pre-finished floor down in my office (no pics, sorry) because I work from home and didn't have time to be without my office for the week it would have taken to have floor sanded etc. The pre-finished does have a different feel to it than the site-finished. I wouldn't say it's grooved, just a more defined difference in between the individual planks. The office doesn't adjoin any other room, except the tiled hallway, so I didn't worry so much about the wood being different there. I see from your pictures what you mean about running the planks the same way and wanting to be sure things don't look odd. One idea might be to take up some of your FR planks, like the first 12 or so, and then put them back down interwoven with the new planks. That way there's not a clear line in between the 2 rooms, but rather a more gradual blending. Here's another couple of pictures, this time of my family room. The first one is a before shot of the hardwood floor + a rug-like carpet. The floor created a frame around the carpet. I had the carpet taken up and new hardwood put in where the carpet originally was, then everything sanded and refinished. You absolutely can't tell where the old wood was vs where the new started. In this case, the new is random width because it opens directly to the kitchen (as opposed to the LR/DR which is all the same width). So, one house, all new site-finished floors in the LR & DR, all new pre-finished floor in the office, original/refinished in the kitchen, and half&half refinished + original in the family room. Boy did we have dust! Hope this helps! New:

Thank you all so much for your input. In all my research, and talking with some general contractors in Chicago, they told me absolute no-no and that it is incredibly unprofessional - they have never seen it done especially in mid and high rise cement construction buildings in downtown Chicago that have concrete floors. They explained that the red oak 2 1/4" solid wood floor is not secured to the concrete and that there is expansion/contraction/movement making it an unsuitable subfloor/ surface to directly lay tile down on top of because tile requires a stable surface. I can literally hear squeaking sounds like the floor is moving, because I hear squeaks when I walk on my own red oak original developer installed floor. My neighbor doesn't understand any of this or what the potential issues/implications are for us both and asked me to try and explain it to him. How would you explain this situation to them? Won't their tiles/grout crack and break and they will lose their floor? Should we both be worried about any structural/weight/load issues? @glennsfc, can you please help me understand using Schluter Ditra over securely fastened hardwood and why you suspect this was not done? Thanks and so appreciative!