Laurie, we have been considering hardwood for our great room. The type of flooring I am attracted to is called "hand scraped". Don't know if that is what you are referring to when you say distressed. While I love how they look, I wonder if I would love living with it for the same reasons you are questioning.

They are soooo beautiful. I was talking with someone in a tile shop once, though. She had the most beautiful floor sample with her and was choosing other materials. Her decorator was trying to talk her out of the floor -- saying she would hate it because of the way dirt gets caught in all those little crevices and distressed places. Same with the gorgeous unfilled tiles, esp if they're on the floors. All that great patina ;)

We have engineered handscraped antique pine floors (engineered do better in high-humidity areas.) (The company also had distressed, so there is a difference.) We love ours. Very easy to maintain, but we don't have pets, so couldn't answer that one. We took this shot right after we moved in, in November. Have since added an area rug under the table. The spot on the lower right is from the camera, not a floor defect. ha. Just thought it would give you an idea of what they look like. We have it in the living, dining, and hallways. {{!gwi}}

We have an antique, salvaged oak floor in the powder room. It definitely looks, as is, distressed. I finished it with Waterlox. It's so rich looking, I wish I could have done that floor throughout the house (another client gave our contractor remnants of their floor for ours -- they got a nice bottle of wine as a thank you).

My floors are engineered, hand-scraped, and distressed, with bevels. I love them. No problems so far with dirt building up in the bevels, but the floors do get a weekly light damp mop.

Wodka and Chiefniel - do tables or chairs wobble? Both your floors are great!

I love the distressed floors and would likely still go for them. Those beveled edges are a trouble spot though. Esp with spills, crumbs, and cats that throw up!

rogue, we don't have any problem with with tables or chairs wobbling. On the other hand, I tend to wobble every once in a while, but that's a post for the health forum. ha.

We have original oak flooring in our home...it was all covered with carpet for years...and I would call it distressed. We did refinish it..
We have been talking about building a home and wondered about the distressed as well. We have been tearing down the original farm house at the property we have and want to keep the flooring out of the home...just for the distressed look.
Karen L

thanks for the info and photos...

okay, y'all brought up another question. We were just looking at floors at Home Depot and I noticed some of the floors said handscraped engineered floors. Is that similar to Pergo floors?

Laurie

The engineered floors are a wood composite, with a finished veneer on the face, rather than just solid wood. Pergo is a laminate. I think the wood finishes on those are photograph image overlays or something.

Another reason or advantage for the engineered woods is, as someone mentioned, that they are more stable with regards to warping. Although for my situation, I'd still want solid.

I have the distressed, hand-scraped oak floors throughout my house. They are a "medium" scrape. I think the heavier you go with the scraping, the more likely you are to get your nylon stockings snagged on them---or so I heard. I don't have that problem.

My floors are easy maintenance. They get a light mopping every week or so. The only place I noticed dust accumulating was in the knot-holes, but you can request wood without those.

There is one spot in my bedroom, though, where the wood is a little rough and my long-haired cat's shedding fur has tufted in it. Otherwise, I have no other spot like that. I have to pick it out. (If I remember correctly, after the guys hand-scraped, they used a machine that smooths to knock off any hard edges and they probably just missed this corner of my room.)

Furniture does not rock---it's not that uneven.

I've had one scratch that took the finish off and I wiped stain in it and it wasn't too noticeable.

texashottie - I know you talked about your floors in your recent post about the desk, but you didn't mention what brand they are.

Another question about the engineered hardwood. We have laminate floors now, which I always loved until I started seeing everyone's hardwood floors here. When my dogs walk on it, it sounds like fake wood. I'm guessing you can still hear the dog's nail on the real wood, but it probably has a different sound. Would the engineered hardwood have the same sound as the laminate floors?

Laurie

We have 7" wide plank, distressed, engineered wood floors from the Victoria Floors Antique collection. The wood is Coique with a Chocolate stain.

There is a definite groove (stained dark, hence Antique collection) between planks but is not a dirt collector, though our home is not filled with kids and dogs.

We love the look and feel of the floor. On bare feet it feels soft and warm.

It does show dust and anything light but is easily cleaned with a Bona cleaning system.

Here is what the floor sample looks like on the Victoria Floors site.

Here's how it looks in our home.

Jodi-

Here is a link that might be useful: Victoria Floors

Laurie--oh, okay, I wasn't sure if you had seen that post or not. I don't know what "brand" my floors are; the builder contracted it out and the oak came in bundles of planks in varying lengths. The sides are tongue-and-groove.

My old co-worker had built a house and told them she wanted this particular distressed wood floor from Lowes. It came already stained and she described the assebmly to me as being "snapped" together. She's really happy with them.

My hardwood floors have deeper "scraped" grooves than Jodi's pic shows. Mine look more distressed and "rougher" especially on planks that have tighter grains. Jodi's look nice and smooth--I don't think cat hair would get caught in hers. ;)

My dog's toenails sound funny on my floors too.

jodi - That picture looks like it's right out of a magazine!

texashottie - Can you post a couple more pictures of your floor. Maybe when the time comes, I can just show someone the pictures and they can tell me where I can get something similar. Besides the dog hair getting caught, I think the rough look would fit in better with my style. Between working and going to school, I don't clean as often as I used to and I'm thinking it wouldn't show with a floor like yours :)

Laurie

{{!gwi}}

Laurie, it's hard to take a good pic. I'm trying to show pics where the sunlight hits it so you can see some of the scraping in the highlights.

You won't have a problem getting ahold of this floor in our area. It's pretty standard in the homes around us. ;)

Laurie there are some beautiful samples in the gallery section of this site

Here is a link that might be useful: old world floors

Thanks, Texashottie!

Roguevalley - Thanks for the link! I found one on there that looks distressed. Isn't it funny, the more beat up it looks, the more I like it :)

{{!gwi}}

I'm not sure my floors are supposed to look distressed, but thanks to two rambunctious kids and two high-energy dogs, they've achieved a nice "patina", LOL!

I'm pretty sure our flooring is plain old 1x6, 1x8,1x10 and1x12 pine boards from the hardware store. The builder seems to have routed tongue and grooves into them and nailed them down using old square-head nails, trying to achieve an antique random-width pine look. I'm pretty sure it's regular boards and not floorboards or reclaimed flooring because in closets and other less-visible spots where I guess they didn't bother to sand as well, you can still see a lumber-grading stamp on the wood beneath the stain and poly.

Anyway, because the floors are pine, they do dent and chip easily, and the edges splinter. This is more of a problem in the winter, when the low humidity causes the boards to shrink and the gaps between them to get kind of large. The gaps do catch crumbs, but we use the central vac with bare floor brush to get them out (the roomba didn't work at all, and just pushed the crap into the grooves!). I suppose a more fastidious housekeeper would be grossed out by the spills and crumbs between the boards, but I figure it looks more "authentic" - prior to this house we lived in a 200 year old house with 200 years of dust trapped between the floorboards - never bothered me. Any big scratches I usually just touch up with a minwax stain pen.

I don't seem to have any good pics of the floor uploaded right now, but here's one to give you an idea:

Jody in so calif ~~ I can't seem to get your link to work. Would you please be so kind as to post the URL? Thanks -- your floor is gorgeous!

Oceanna, the link isn't working for me right now either. Maybe try again later. The URL is http://www.victoriafloors.com

Jodi

Thanks, Jodi! I'm trying to figure out what I can use to replace my hideous carpet, but my budget isn't big. That picture you posted is sooo pretty so I really do want to look it up. I hope you'll be posting more pics of your home on this forum. If this is any example, it must be beautiful.

lkplatow - Wow, that sounds like a lot of work. I know that's how they used to make hardwood floors, but I didn't know anyone still did it that way. They look great!

Laurie

I had wood floors with beveled edges, and I hated the way hair and crumbs got caught in the cracks. And housebreaking a puppy was, well, let me just say...ewww. It's really hard to get liquid spills cleaned up well.

Since this is the first time I've ever had wood floors, I don't know the difference. I mean, the obvious difference between my flooring and traditional flooring is indeed the groove but since I have nothing to compare it to in my life, it's all good. :-) Besides, we have no puppies or small kids to deal with so I feel relatively safe we will like it. Though it's only been in about a month and I've already cleaned it a hundred times. :-) What a dust magnet!

Thanks for the compliments on our flooring. I didn't consider the cost that significant ($7 s/ft) but then I didn't do much shopping around after I found it. It was love at first sight.

Oceanna, the photo I took yesterday is a bit misleading. That is our flooring and that is half of my library/office but you turn the corner at the door and you enter a warm dark kitchen and dining area that looks nothing at all like the light and airy library. Plus, we have not completely unpacked from our recent remodel, so the bookcase is beautifully uncluttered. :-)

Here is what you find when you turn the corner. I got the fruit bowl for Valentine's Day so the tag was still on when I took the photo.

Jodi-

Laurie I have to say that I like the sample you picked too. The question is - would we like in a large quantity? I sure wouldn't be too worried about marring the finish, and that would be nice.

Yall, there are some gorgeous floors on this thread!!

I love every single one of them.

I didn't get to pick our floors. But luckily the builder was cheap and chose #2 red oak. It has alot of grain and knots. It is stained walnut with a very matte finish. It looks decent when standing but when on hands and knees you can see surface level scratches and such from 1 over 100lb dog and 1 50lb dog. I just call it patina. Kids and dogs all over it. I figure by the time I sale this house the floors will have to be refinished anyways. So, why stress??!! I have self-distressed floors:)
Jodi, your backsplash and kit looks beautiful - I have the same spice rack - gotta love Costco - would love for you to share more pics of your kitchen:)

Smiles:)

Thanks johnatemp, some have said my whole kitchen was designed around that spice rack and in a way it was (very long story).

I don't want to hijack this post any further but will post kitchen photos in a separate post soon.

Jodi-

Jodi, the link is coming up for me now, thanks. :-) I like the texture of your floor.

I hear you on your floors showing dust. I had a dark walnut stained oak parquet floor in my last home. After a few years I sanded and restained it in a medium warm honey tone. That made maintenance easier, and also lifted some emotional weight off my shoulders as I found the darkness depressing when the weather was grey and wet (9 months of the year here). Dark floors are beautiful, but I liken them to black cars -- drop-dead-gorgeous when they're spotless, but very fast to show dirt.

Texashottie- those are the floors I want! I love the herringbone pattern, too. WHere in TX are you? Are they engineered wood?