Lynn, try reversing the situation. If you were buying the home and the floor had discolored areas, what would your reaction be?

Is your office in a secondary bedroom area, where most people would probably want carpet? Maybe carpeting the area would work out better. It would be quieter for an office, also, esp since more than one person needs to work in it at times. Additionally, I think rooms that are carpeted generally flow better overall as a different flooring material than using multiple types, like wood, laminate, tile, and carpet all in one home.

I'm not sure if when a rug is moved and the area is lighter underneath, whether the floor will even out -- all areas eventually going to their darkest potential. Might depend on the finish too. With butcher blocks, I was told that a poly finish will keep the color from darkening with age. I have seen floors with poly coats where there are lighter areas where rugs were, though. Some googling or talking with flooring people might turn something up.

I don't know what would be more expensive- refinishing or replacing laminate to hardwoods. I would probably prefer to refinish. Upscale homes should have hardwood flooring, IMO.

Hardwood will need to be refinished at some point no matter what.Just the nature of the beast. Yes, it changes color with fading, but that wouldn't stop me from buying a home if I loved everything else about it. I have a 4,000 sf home with hardwood on the entire first floor, two sets of stairs, the upstairs hallway and the MBR. We saw the house when it was empty and didn't notice a thing wrong with the floors. They were beautiful. We moved right in! We were lucky. As buyers, we expect more or less to ready the house to our liking with paint, wallpaper etc. before we move in, if we can. The floors are no different if they are hardwood. Perfect time to refinish!

The one house that we went through had an area carpet down and I purposely checked under it to see the condition of the floor. They were pine and it was much lighter. I have found in the past that the pine baseboards and trim in my house were already changing colour when we put up shutters. We had to wait for them to change as well. Now they are all the same.
If I were buying upscale, there is no doubt that I would prefer hardwood discoloured or not over laminate.

Squirrelheaven, thanks for replying but remember my pics of my home office where I decided to finally install tile in the two foyer areas to replaced the damaged engineered oak wood from my central air conditioning unit failing on me and needing to be replaced after it squirted water everywhere? That is a 388 square foot room that is made up of two rooms combined and is the room people see when they first enter my home and stand in the foyer. That is my home office that someone buying my home would have a formal living room and dining room in these two rooms. It flows into a family room open to my kitchen so I have decided to put the same hardwood floors or top grade laminate in the other room that is only I think about 244 square feet.

My townhouse is in an upscale development that has million dollar homes behind it and that is why I am worried about resale value. If I was married and knew I was going to be living here for many more years, I would not worry about resale.

Thank you orie and kmcg85 and mistybear11 for your opinions. I had no idea that Pine Wood changed color also. So maybe I am worrying about nothing and should get what I like and have to deal with the color change at the time of resale? I know when I was a first time home buyer 11 years ago, if this floor had big patches of a different color wood so much lighter on it, I would have not had the money to refinish it and unless I was giving extra money to refinish it, I would have not bought the unit.

But then again, my neighbors bought their end unit next to me paying top dollar and painted the house, tore up the carpets and put engineered wood floors down with a sub-floor and redid all the tiles in the bathrooms and put in new vanities and I guess made the place their own. But they have two incomes.

I bought my unit since 11 years ago, it was only 7 years old and in perfect condition and looked so gorgeous. It has about 2000 square feet which is a nice size when living so close to NYC.

The particular laminate I am looking at is 4.92" wide and very realistic looking and some people have chosen it as their favorite sample on my floor. It is very sturdy and will not change colors.

HW is more upscale than laminate. The guy who installed my floor said just take out the rug for a while and the floor will even out. But no way am I going to move my china cabinet until/unless we are moving it out of the house LOL! If you don't have extremely heavy furniture, just move it around occasionally and/or keep the drapes/blinds closed when the sun's real strong and you won't see much color change.

If you really want the HW - then get it!! You will be living there & enjoying it. Upscale properties should have HW. Most buyers are prepared for the potential need of sanding.

You could always have window film installed to help protect from the sun. I have it in my house & love the window film.

SMiles:)

Thank you ajsmama, for letting me know that you feel hardwood would be better in my home if that is what I want. It is amazing that some of my clients that visited actually picked out some of my engineered and hardwood floor samples for their house and thanked me for helping them with their own decision and a few clients fell in love with the Bruce Park Avenue Makore Laminate and one is putting it in her kitchen and another one is putting it in her home. I had the samples on the floor in front of my desk hoping they would ask me if I wanted their opinion with me making the final decision myself. I have so many nice clients.

Johnatemp, thank you for letting me know that most buyers are prepared for the potential need of sanding the floors.

My problem is I really love the BR-111 Triangulo Brazilian Cherry 5 sample planks I have that are a foot long each in 3.25" width (very pretty fine grain and coloring that goes with the different woods in my home) that I have here that a nice member of this list sent me. I loved her floors since I just desired a floor with a little bit of red in it and some variation in color. I just feared that it would be so much lighter under my furniture.

But now I am thinking if I place the darker boards under the big pieces of furniture that I will not be able to move around, maybe that will solve part of the problem. Also if I ever sell the place, most likely I will have furniture in it and if not, maybe I can open all the window blinds to help darken up the areas that never had sun or I can explain to buyers with literature that Brazilian Cherry is a very hard wood and it is sun sensitive so when they put their furniture in the room, areas that had furniture on it that does not will start to darken up. The room that has a lot of furniture in it (my two room home office) does not get a lot of natural sunlight since I like privacy as I work so I keep the blinds shut. The other room (my family room) has a big wall of windows and a cathedral ceiling but the light leather furniture in that room and the glass tables with solid cherry wood legs, I can move around. I have not bought a rug for the room, so I will let the floor darken first or maybe I will not need a rug since the floor is so beautiful. My backyard faces the woods so the area has a lot of shade so maybe I will not get a lot of direct sunlight either there. My furniture has been there almost 11 years and have not faded at all. I have sheer horizontal blinds in the room that I usually keep shut since enough light filters through to light up the room and other times I just open them for 1 hour or so when the sun is going away and it is not a work day and I want more light.

Of course, I can always get an American Wood that does not change color as much in a stain with a touch of red in it.

johnatemp, where do you buy the window film? Do they install it since some of my windows are up very high due to my cathedral family room ceiling. I like that idea.

Lynn, I have window film on my downstairs windows and skylights in my kitchen and that did not stop my floors from fading. 3 years ago when we were renovating the kitchen, we had to tear up part of the old hardwood and piece in new hardwood. It was actually a pretty large section. We only put poly on it, no stain to get the best match. When it first went down, I was disappointed because the new hardwood with the poly looked so much darker next to the original hardwood. Some strips looked almost brown. There was not a whole lot I could do, so I just went with it. Now, almost 3 years later there is very little difference between the old and the new, it has lightened up so much. That brown strip has lightened so much, it blends beautifully with the rest of the floor. Thy floor guys told me the wood would lighten up and they were right. This is with the window film. It's kind of like wearing sunglasses. It stops some of the sun, not all of the sun from coming through.

You don't need to refinish a floor just because of sun causing color changes (lightening or darkening). Just move/remove the furniture for a while and it'll even out. If you have glass tables then they should darken pretty evenly, but before you sell you should tell buyers there will be a light patch under the sofa, it'll darken out if they expose it, or they may want to put their sofa in the same place. No need to sand and refinish - then they'll lose all the beautiful patina/darkening of the cherry. American cherry does the same thing, and is not as hard as Brazilian.

kmcg85 & ajsmama, Thank you both for your answers that really help. I guess no matter what I do, natural wood will change colors but that is also the beauty of a natural product. So if I want window film, it will only stop some of the sunlight. So if I do sell my home, in my home office, I would just need to open the blinds with nothing in my room to get the rest of the room to darken up and catch up. I guess nothing is perfect. Some woods fade and some darken. I like that Brazilian Cherry is a hard wood able to handle incoming traffic in my home office and I thought the variation in the wood would be good to go with the different woods in my home. I was looking at Brazilian Cherry and Amendoim since they are both hard woods and have variations in the boards so that they will go in almost any room in my home. I just really love the fine wood grain in the clear grade of Brazilian Cherry that BR-111 has.

A local store let me bring home very big samples that have many planks on them. I love the Brazilian Cherry and it is not too dark and the lighter newer 5" huge sample next to the 3.25" 3 year old darker and more red sample do not look bad next to each other and both are beautiful to me. Amazingly before I left I saw these long Pradoo 4.92" wide planks for a customer on a table there. I asked if I could bring one home since I fell in love with the color. Mike let me bring home a big sample with several planks on it and I love it also. I will look at the samples tomorrow. The Amendoim big sample I brought home is pretty also but I like having more color after all in my family room and my home office. 29.5" long X 18" wide are the three samples of Triangulo Engineered BR-111 Samples while the Pradoo (so realistic and beautiful) Sample is 18" X 18". I have to return them tomorrow.

Again thank you for your support.

Lynn, I had mine professionally installed - it is Vista film. I heard about it here, I think from Demifloyd?? I get east/west sun & it has really made a difference. As Kmcg said it doesn't block everything but I think it helps alot.

In a previous house, I had Brazilian Kempus - it is a gorgeous more exotic wood - no stain - just poly. This was an upscale home - the floor was different where I had rugs but it was not even an issue with the sale. The buyers loved the floors & house. Point being, what ever you chose, I am sure it will be in good taste & if & when your home goes on the market, the buyers will recognize quality mostly. The most important thing is you enjoy it & love it while you are there.

Do you have pics of your new samples?

Smiles:)

johnatemp, thank you so much for letting me know that you used Vista Film which I think will be good for me to use also since as it is I do not get that much sun so this should help a lot.

I love the Brazilian Kempas. I could hardly find any companies that made this in an engineered wood except for Hartco Valenza Collection by Armstrong's Commercial line (very nice and thick with such a gorgeous grain) and some unknown companies. That is when I went back to Brazilian Cherry as a floor I loved.

If I had a sub-floor and a basement below my home (my home was built in the beautiful preserved wetlands with woods around me... country like but close to all the stores and highways), I would have more options with solid wood. I am looking for thick sawn layers on top of the plywood so I will have an engineered wood that can be refinished if I ever need to.

My client just drove me around to some homes to show me the hardwood floors in my area and these homes are gorgeous. I am back and needing to work but feeling I really love the grain and rich coloring and the semi-gloss finish that is so nice without being too shiny on the BR-111 Triangulo Engineered 3.25" Brazilian Cherry planks. I also love the longer boards that are 5" wide with more grain showing but I think the 3.25" looks better in my home office so I will have more variations in the color showing that I love.

I still love the Pradoo but this morning the glossy finish is smudgy while the BR-111 is not. I also love the way the Pradoo looks in the family room but in my office the Brazilian Cherry looks so much nicer with my cherry wood furniture and putty file cabinets.

I think you are right that buyers will recognize quality and there will be buyers that will love the style and the choices I made in my home. For now I am not nervous anymore going with an exotic wood that has no stain.

I will try to send in some pics of the samples a little bit later on since these are very beautiful big samples and not little boards to give me a much better idea how much I love the look of this wood and color variation.

johnatemp, any pictures of your beautiful Kempas Hardwood floors from the prior home? Does Kempas have variation in color also and darken up with the sun to get a richer beautiful color?

Lynn,
I do not have any - I wish I did. That house was built really well & had beautiful mouldings & details. I can't find the pics from that house that we took when we sold it. It does darken & have variation like cherry. It seemed really hard, too.
I did not pick it for that house but I did love it so.
Your setting sounds wonderful.
Oh, and I would do engineered wood, too since you are living there. Sanding is messy & dust gets in every little crevice.

You are such a kind person on GW - always something nice to say:)

Smiles:)

johnatemp, thank you for your kind words. I am having a difficult day today so reading your post made me feel better.

The Kempas solid wood floor installed in the show room at a local flooring store was gorgeous and I wanted that floor but it was sold only in solid hardwood. I only found two other places with Kempas Engineered hardwood floors and they seem to be in limited supply and not found locally in my area. I love the grain on the Kempas so much.

Mirage makes an engineered Braz. Cherry in a very low sheen, which makes it easier to keep clean looking. I liked it better than the Tiangulo.

The darkening is a non-issue. It doesn't take long for the lighter areas to catch up once exposed.

Thank you Chinchette for letting me know about Mirage. Tomorrow I will visit a local store that will almost match the price online (will be about $243 more but they will move the very heavy file cabinets for me included in the price and has a very fair installation price) that also sells Mirage. So I will compare both Mirage and BR-111.

Thanks for letting me know that the darkening is a non-issue.

Chinchette, I just looked at another picture of your beautiful Brazilian Cherry engineered Mirage floors in cashmere finish and I love them. Is the width of the plank 3.25" or 5"? Your plank lengths look so nice. Are they longer than the BR-111 3.25" plank's 12" to 42"? Why did you choose the plank width you chose and how old are your gorgeous floor? Other than the finish, why did you like the Mirage Engineered BC floors better than the BR-111 Triangulo Engineered BC Floors?

I dont understand what the problem with darkened wood floors is!
We have kempas floor in our second floor bedrooms. Yes, it has darkened but simply move your furniture around, remove the rugs for a week and it evens up! problem solved...

I love the natural beauty and tell tale signs of natural wood and would prefer it over laminate and other manmade products.

Think of it as abrash, the color variation found in hand dyes, hand made oriental rugs. if the color is too even, it looks fake :)

Thank you Pharaoh for your post. I have decided to go with the natural beauty of the Brazilian Cherry floors in the Engineered wood and not worry about them darkening up with the floor being lighter under heavy furniture that I can't move. I just love the natural wood look of unstained exotic wood floors.

I love Kempas hardwood floors! It is difficult to get that wood in an engineered version. Do you have any pics of your beautiful floor to share?