Linelle, I am also in the SF Bay Area and looking for a good hardwood floor installer. Can you tell me who you used and if you were satisfied with their work?

With the exception of the master bedroom, the entire main floor in my home has 16" China multi-color slate. (Original floor was random-width maple.)

Silly me, I posted kitchen floors.
Here are some others too. I used to have tile a long
time ago in a previous house. It was durable.
Hope these pics help too.

~boxerpups

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Bamboo. I know nothing about bamboo other than it is
a green eco friendly item. It looks pretty here.
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Pergo. Wow, this is pretty amazing.

Nice tile
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reclaimed spanish tile, nicely done.
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One of the best things about getting real wood floors over engineered floors is that they can be refinished several times. This is a picture of my previous home's kitchen floor - maple. The floor is over 80 years old. It used to be covered with an asbestos vinyl floor which I ripped off and scraped. I used a chemical to dissolve the black mastic. When I got most of the stuff off I had the professionals come in to sand the floor. They were not able to take off the vinyl floor themselves. I had to do that.

Four inch wide white oak stained nutmeg with an area rug.

Carol, I'm in Santa Rosa and had a guy who works with his nephew do the whole job. He's based in Windsor. Unless you're up this way, it might not work for you. Two neighbors had this guy do their floors so I got a first-hand look at a similar house *and* I got to talk to them after they'd lived with it for awhile. I'm very glad I got everything installed, sanded, and finished in place. It was messy, but then it was over. Also so glad there are no micro-bevels.

Ours has some permanently dingy off-white carpet right now. But over the next few weeks, all of the carpet in the place will be replaced by glue-down cork tiles. We're in central Alabama and hardwood is the standard around here, followed by wall-yo-wall carpet. But our home is MCM so we thought we'd go with something a bit different. Here's the one bedroom that is done:

MCM?

Medium colored oak...
I wanted to go a bit darker but DH really wanted this color~ figured it would be good for resale, too.
Good luck!

greatroom or LR/DR and bedrooms have white Berber carpet, rest of the house has marbled tile, sorry pic is from Xmas.

I'm in Colorado. I want warmth and a cushy surface under my feet.....carpet everywhere except bathrooms,entryway & kitchen. Then since it's gonna get wet....it's ceramic tile or marble.
Marble floor in the master bath with a colorful throw rug:
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We have oak, stained with pecan, in the entry, kitchen, and 4' perimeter around the dining room and living room with carpet inserted. I just like the softness of carpet and why spend the money to put in hardwood and cover it with area rugs?...and always catching it with the dining room chairs when moved out and in? I am sorry I don't have a pic, but have had a lot of good comments on doing this.

Loribee, I wanted a medium wood color but my husband wanted a darker wood. Around here, darker is more popular, and I also didn't mind the darker so I decided to let my husband win that one, haha.

We have handscraped wood. I love love love it. It's softer than tile but cleans up better than carpet. Our rug is dark and patterned to hide stains.

The wood has a matte finish, which when combined with the handscraped texture, makes scratches barely visible. I dropped a heavy iron table and dented the floor, but just filled that in with a sharpie and you can barely notice it. (I've since bought a wood-colored marker and use that now instead of the sharpie.)

Can you tell I'm all about low-maintenance?

Just wanted to keep this thread going for a while!!

My old living room was 4 inch Brazilian Cherry and our new living room is quartersawn white oak 4 inch. We don't have the LR/DR done yet, but here is a picture from our family room and it will look the same.

Our old living room in a different house with Brazilian Cherry

Quartersawn white oak natural finish and low sheen

Kat :)

I have 13" tile covered by a wool area rug. No pics handy right now - sorry!

Lesmis (Kat), Both of your floors are beautiful.

Since you have had both of the floors I am considering for my home (I go back and forth between the Brazilian Cherry that is rich and beautiful and adds color) and the Quartersawn White Oak Floors that is very neutral and calming), which do you prefer and why did you decide to not install the Brazilian Cherry Floors in your new home?

MCM = Mid Century Modern.
Like this:

We have brick floors throughout our home, as they look great with our abobe walls and are so easy to take care of. I do think they'd be pretty uncomfortable in the winters if we didn't have our in-floor heating, though. We have Oriental rugs here and there in every room for extra comfort, too.
I don't have a very good pic of our living room floor, but here are two that will give you a pretty good idea of how they look.
Lynn

Lynn2006, we decided against the Brazilian Cherry in the new house because we have two large, very active dogs (a Border Collie and an English Shepherd). In our old house we were able to close off the living and dining rooms and we only had the BC at the time. In our new house, the entire house will be hardwood (we still need to finish our remodel) and it's all fairly open so the dogs have access to pretty much everywhere so we opted for a lighter floor. I loved the warmth and richness of the Brazilian Cherry, but it did show a lot of dust and would have shown scratches from the dogs. We like the color variations in the quartersawn oak and it already hides a myriad of sins, such as scratches made by various workmen. We are also on the water now and didn't want anything that would show water spots too easily from the dogs coming and going, white oak is supposed to be very water resistant. My neighbor has Brazilian Cherry and they love it, but he did say that he didn't think it would hold up to our dogs. He had an elderly black lab who didn't rip and race around his house as much, and now it's just the two of them and no pets in the house. We specified a number #25 sheen on our oak, which is below what is considered a matte finish which is usually referred to as a #35 sheen.

Kat :)

Currently have wall-to-wall, but it's coming up and wood laminate is going down. Can't wait...I hate wall/wall.

We have 2 dogs, so we chose solid hardwood throughout our entire home except for our daughters bedrooms and our baths. For our hardwood, we chose Bruce Solid Hardwood in Ash - Pre-finished in the Gunstock stain.

Note: There is a big difference in Solid Hardwood, which is sometimes pre-finished, and Engineered Hardwood, which is always pre-finished. The link below is great at explaining the difference.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Difference in Hardwood Flooring

Kat, love your table in photo #2. Exactly what I want. Where did you get it?

I really do not know what kind of hardwood floors we have. They look like Scarlet's except our dogs have scratched them up horribly. I was reading about them on the link Scarlet posted and it looks like you cannot refinish engineered hardwoods because the finish is really only a top layer.

Do any of you have scratch problems with your wood floors? Is there a particular kind that is better for people with big dogs?

The only scratch problem I've had with my h/w floor was when they were brand new and I moved my couch without realizing the plastic leg protector had fallen off, exposing the nail in the couch leg. I was devastated, horrible scratch. But it was close to the wall, the rug covered it, plus the couch. I got over it.

My neighbors have the exact same floor as me. They have two teenagers with lots of friends and also two active mid-size dogs. Their floor is fine. You get little scratches, boo-boos here and there, and then stop noticing. The floor can take it.

Okay - not exactly a response to this post, but rather an additional question. What could I expect to pay for someone to install hardwoods (approx. 2000 sq. ft.) in my downstairs? Also, how long would it take?

kgsd...your medium colored floors are lovely!
okay...as far as durability- my oak floors got quite scratched during my father's mercy meal this winter.
I think we had 100 people here.
We figure it could have been high heels??? I really don't know and honestly don't mind- just so you know.

lesmis, thank you for your explanation of why you chose the Quartersawn White Oak for your new home. I still love both and can't decide. I put the large samples in front of my cherry desk and I will live with both for a few days and then transfer them back into my family room that has a taupe sofa and recliner and glass tables so that is the room that looks best with the Brazilian Cherry. I actually like the contrast of the Quartersawn White Oak Engineered Wood floor samples in my home office that as the Cherry furniture and the putty file and supply cabinets and does not have any overhead lighting.

Your Quartersawn White Oak floors are beautiful and your Brazilian Cherry floors are also beautiful.

Thanks Lynn2006, if you don't have pets I think both are really pretty. If I ever win the lottery I'm buying reclaimed old oak from Europe though, it's my favorite!

Linelle, thanks for the compliment on our kitchen table. My deceased father actually built it along with several other cherished pieces in our house. He retired as a government engineer after 38 years to become a gentlemen farmer and woodworker! It's made from pine cut from my grandparent's farm which my father loved to use, he called it Southern Maryland Mahogany! If you live in an area where you have good woodworkers or furniture makers I'm sure you could have one made. It's not an intricate design at all and if you ever need better pictures I can take some. I've also linked a company below that makes them if you are anywhere near VA, I'm sure they ship too, and their prices are good.

Kat :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Shaker Farm Table

Kat, how blessed you are to have this table and other pieces your father made. You must treasure them. The tables in the link are very nice and quite reasonable. Unfortunately, I'm about 3000 miles from VA, or it would be real tempting. But it does give me ideas on what to look for out here.

Colorblind, I had hardwood installed in my living/dining/kitchen and halls two years ago. The total space is approx. 700 sq.ft. It is thick 5" wide red oak. They took up my old flooring (carpet and Pergo, a bit of tile), did the underlayment, installed the wood, sanded, 3 coats of oil-based finish (no stain). There were two guys working. They started on a Monday and applied the first sealer coat on Thursday. They applied another coat Friday and Monday (didn't work on the weekend). I could walk on it Tuesday and move furniture back on Wednesday, but I gave it an extra day. I was soooo nervous about that floor at first, but I don't baby it anymore.

It cost me $6500, which included new baseboards, which I painted before they were installed. The old ones had to come off anyway, so I opted for 5" to replace them. Also went with toe kicks rather than quarter-rounds. I live in the SF Bay Area, so I expect our prices are at the high end.

I'm so glad I got the real hardwood. It completely changed the look and feel of the rooms in which it was installed. And I couldn't remember the carpet being there.

Hope this helps.

I have old heart pine floors original to the house.

Red oak engineered floors - Hartco brand. We love them.

I have wall to wall carpeting, but will be changing it to either marble or granite within the next month.

Alma

Linelle - thanks for the info. Just to confirm, the $6500 was for Labor only - correct?

Linelle, here is a link someone posted on the kitchen forums. This table looks almost identical to the one my father made, even down to the breadboard ends! He says he ships too, he's in Arkansas, still along way away but you could call and get a quote. Click on tables, and then on Pine Shaker Table.

Kat :)

Here is a link that might be useful: another shaker pine table

I have brown carpet. When it's time to change it out I'd like to put hardwood in the LR and back the hall.

These floors are so gorgeous. Does anyone use carpet anymore?

Sadly I have carpet. We just did the kitchen and Family Room in QS Oak. I am so sorry I did'nt contiue it into the LR. My floor guy ended so we can always add but I should have done it while we had it all torn up...sigh
LR

FR and Kitchen

Does anyone lay hardwood on an angle? What is the best direction to lay teh floor?

Thanks

You can lay hardwood on an angle, but the recommended way is to lay it opposite whatever way your floor joists run, otherwise it creates too much of a load from what I've been told. We have a truss roof so the trusses and floor joists run one direction in one part of the house and another way in the other part of the house. That means that our hardwood does the same thing, it runs opposite the joists in our LR/DR and the other way in the rest of the house.

Kat :)

Hard wood everywhere but, the bathrooms and upstairs bonus room.

Living room

lesmis, I did testing on my BR_111 Engineered Brazilian Cherry samples and the Coswick Engineered White Oak samples and both seem to hold up to water without stains. So White Oak is more water resistant than Brazilian Cherry wood?

I love the 4" wide plank size since it is not too wide or too skinny. There is just so much less choices for me due to needing engineered wood floors.

I have 4 little dogs that do not shed and range in size from 3.9 lbs to 8 lbs. I still can't believe I have so many little dogs but it is a long story how this happened.

I even find the Ash floors stained Gunstock beautiful in the picture above. I almost wish I was married so my husband could make the decision from the final choices I choose. :)

brazilian walnut (ipe)

here it is before we added furniture

here it is after (LR area 1)

LR area 2

Someone asked about hardwood being laid at an angle. Hubby did that in our library.
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We also added a border all in the same wood in the ladies parlor. This next photo was taken from the ladies parlor looking into the library.
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And this is my wonderful hubby installing the floor in the gentlemen's parlor. The pictures too small to see the border around the hearth.
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And here's the sunroom. It opens up to the Gentlemen's parlor, the floors go at right angles to each other, but I don't have a photo of that online.
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Our upstairs hallway is in the same wood as the floors above. It has a turn in it. I thought the each end of the hallway should have the floors going lengthwise so I asked if he could try to do log cabin (as in the quilt) corners. And he did. I'll try to take a photo tomorrow, but right now our grandson is asleep in the room that opens from the corner of the hallway.

I would love to post a picture of my living room floor, but.... how do I do that? Can I post a jpeg photo that I have on my computer, or does it have to come from photo bucket or similar place? I like seeing all these pics here, but I am frustrated searching for information on how to do that. TIA

I have 1.5" Red Oak floors in our LR, Hallway, and 3 bedrooms. The kitchen and master are additions to the house and have tile and carpet respectively. I LOVE my floors. They are original to the house (1955) and someone on the flooring forum here was able to direct me to a vendor to find flooring to replace the setion under the carpeting that had linoleum where the kitchen used to be. We had a hardwood floor guy install the new stuff and sand and refinish the rest so that it all matched. I couldn't have been happier. The only drawback to our old floors is that they are very creaky!

The day they were finished:

After we finally moved in:
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Bumping this thread up in case anyone else has pictures of their beautiful hardwood floors. I am beginning to think all hardwood floors are beautiful.

Like Jane, we have antique heart pine original to the house through out.

Lovely floors everyone! Sadler, have you made a decision yet?

Justgotabme: Can I borrow your hubby to come do ours? :) Lucky you!