I have Tigerwood floors (since Friday, whooee, I now have them throughout the upstairs instead of just in the kitchen). Have to say I do clean them daily, but it takes seconds, quick runover with a microfibre mop into the vacpan. I'm thinking I may ask for a Roomba for Xmas- then really maintenance should be even simpler. I have a satin finish, and spills wipe up with ease, a quick swipe with a microfibre cloth and they look new again (have had kitchen floor for 8-9 months).

Each person's idea of how much work is acceptable is going to be different, both DH and I are madly in love with our floors, so much so that cleaning them truly is not a chore- though my DS thinks it's stupid to have a floor that you have to wipe up spills right away (well, he's only around a few weeks a year- so he just has to suck it up!!! :>)

kitchen floor darkened a fair bit - looked closer in colour to teak when first installed

{{!gwi}}
bedroom floor just installed- lighter in colour

raechelon, I just love your Tiger Wood Floors. They are so rich and beautiful with color variation in the shades of color I love. Thank you so much for sharing. Also thank you for sharing how they get darker. The floors are perfect for your two rooms and especially for the bedrom with your beautiful rich dark bed. I have been looking for real pictures of Tiger Wood in a real home so I am very thankful you shared them. Just gorgeous!

I agree, the Tiger Wood is gorgeous...what is it...is it Bellawood? Where can you find it??? I am chiming in because we are going to install dark wood as well and need some help in choosing how dark...lynn 2006...how dark are you going? We have lots of mahogany, so we have to go relatively dark and we live in the country with lots of dust. But, we didn't want stone/tile throughout.

Paso, Here's info I copied off the web:

Tigerwood is a beautiful exotic Brazilian hardwood which provides one of the most unique patterns you will ever see. Tigerwood is so called because it has a reddish/orange background with dark vein striping which give it a tiger-like look. Because of its incredible beauty, tigerwood is highly sought after for both interior and exterior applications. Domestically, tigerwood has been compared to beech wood; however, this wood far exceeds beech visually. Tigerwood may be used residentially or commercially wherever the strong look is desired. From doors to musical instruments to flooring and decking, tigerwood is a great choice and an excellent alternative for those looking for a light-colored floor but prefer something harder and more exotic than maple or beech.

FAMILY
Anacardiaceae.

OTHER COMMON NAMES
Bossona, Bototo, Coubaril, Gateado, Gomavel, Goncalo alves, Guarabu, Gusanero, Jejuira, Kingwood, Locustwood, Muira, Muiraquatiara, Mura, Urunday, Zorrowood.

ORIGIN
Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala, Mexico.

APPEARANCE
Tigerwood is a species which exhibits a wide range of color and striping. The striping can vary from fine lines to bold strokes. Tigerwood exhibits a large degree of color change with a pronounced darkening of the background under the stripes from a light orangey tan to a deep reddish brown color, which then in turn makes the striping less contrasting and more subtle. It has a highly lustrous surface that is almost oily.

I wouldn't call it light. I would say especially after exposure to light- that it falls in the medium to dark category. We chose it after considering every flooring surface out there, cuz we have so many different colours/kinds of woods in our house from oak, teak, maple, mahogany, fruitwood, etc. and the Tigerwood had the right tones and enough variation to go with everything. Our particular manufacturer is Kentwood- it is 3/4" thick solid hardwood, and the planks are 3 5/8" wide. But, it is available through many different manufacturers- though I didn't like the colour tones in some, so best to see them in person.

I would also like to thank you for posting pics of the Tigerwood. I just ordered it for my entire 1st floor and was a little nervous because I couldn't find any pictures of it installed. I've been able to find everything else on this site but no Tigerwood! Our supplier had Red Tigerwood and Golden Tigerwood. We choose the Golden. raehelen, did you have a choice and if so what did you choose? It is so hard to tell color from a picture. It is beautiful!

Saramae,

My supplier- Kentwood- just had the one choice- Tigerwood Elite. When I googled golden Tigerwood, all I got were articles about Tiger Woods winning gold! :>)

But, I would say mine leans towards gold compared to some very reddish samples I saw particularly from our HD. But, my floor has more red tones than the pictures Kentwood has on its own website... so you're right, very hard to tell from a picture. Colour is very similar to teak, with more depth.

I hope you love yours half as much as we love ours- now, if I could just get DH to stop sliding his feet along the floor- (he loves the feel! :>).

paso, I am having such a difficult time deciding what to do since the area I live in and the fact I have a cement floor under my flooring now, means I should go with an engineered hard wood floor which to me is not as pretty as a solid hard wood floor in terms of the cut of the wood used. I love Tigerwood and Amendoim so far which are both exotic brazilian floors. I love Cherry but it is too soft of a wood for me to use in my home where I have a home office.

I have a med-dark wood floors. They are handscraped and lightly distressed and I love them. They also have a low sheen. I have white cabinets and wanted the darker floors. We also replaced the carpet that was in the family room adjacent to the kitchen and down the hall. I know everyone keeps stating how difficult they are to keep clean, but i hated the carpet for showing all the ground in dirt and I would rather have it on my swiffer than on my floors and not know it. We did have to go engineered since the family room is on concrete, but I love them anyways.

ging9, yoru floors are gorgeous! I love the coloring and the look a lot. What wood species and what finish is on them to ake them so pretty?

lynn2006, you might want to check out Owens engineered flooring products. It is a high quality product but pricey. In their advertising they mentioned that they cut the wood a different way so that it looks indistinguishable from solid plank.

lynn2006-thank you. I love them too. They are an engineered floor like I stated before since we have them both on wood subfloor and the step down family room which is over concrete. It is the Anderson line-Virginia Vintage in Maple Heritage. I really liked the look of handscraped, but noticed that a lot of them are very deeply grooved. This one is less noticable, but has some nice distressing as well. I have two kids, 4 and 2, so I wanted something that I wouldn't obsess over every little scratch and ding. There are some slight surface scratches, but no deep ones and you really cannot see them unless you really look hard. It feels very warm and comfortable under foot. And a plus for the engineered flooring is that there is less swell and shrinkage of the wood and the planks are very straight so installation is very easy. I don't think anyone can tell they aren't solid wood. I don't think you would be able to tell solid from engineered once it is installed, it isn't like the laminate products.

Thank you astridh and ging9 for the information that I will look into as soon as I do some work today since this flooring decision has taken over my thoughts. I really appreciate it and I will look into both lines you mentioned.

ging9, I just ordered three free samples of hardwood planks from the Anderson site. Thank you.

astridh, Owens does have nice engineering flooring products. Thank you also. I just finished viewing the site.

Glad I could help. I hope you find something you love as much as I love mine.

Jodi, I love your floor, you have just exquisite taste... Would you share any more details? I love the width of the plank and how the bevel seems a little emphasized. Would you mind sharing the maker and line? I'd love to find something like that in a medium, kind of chocolatey color, hopefully it wouldn't break the bank! Thanks!

Great thread peemps, I have been wondering the exact same thing-about the dust, etc. I just love the look of the dark floors. All the floors on this thread look great, I would be thrilled to have any of them in my home!
I am redmodeling my kitchen as well, and I am contemplating an espresso finish maple floor with natural cherry shaker cabinets and a soapstone or honed black granite counter. (on a side note, I am also wondering if I should keep the island in the natural cherry as well.) I am hoping that this type of floor will not be too dark or soft. Just brought home a sample of something by Naturally Aged flooring, but I have never heard of this make before. Seems reasonably priced and has a 25 year warranty. Does anyone have anything similar?
I would love to know the make of Jodi's floor as well...

danpezz, the maple floor with an expresso finish would look wonderful I feel with cherry cabinets. I would keep the walls light.

Thank you Tenloris and Danpezz. We love the floor also.

Below are details on our flooring, a link to the Victoria Floors site and a photo of our flooring on one of their pages. I personally think our floor is prettier than what they show on their site.

Victoria Floors - Antique Collection - Coique Chocolate - 7" wide planks.

Jodi-

Here is a link that might be useful: Victoria Floors

raehelen, I had to laugh when you mentioned Tiger Woods. I kept coming across articles about him when I was researching Tigerwood! I'm glad you love yours and I will be sure to post pictures when mine is installed. Thanks!
Sara

I am going to echo 'bestyears' advice. STEAM MOP! I, too, have Brazilian Cherry floors. With teens, grown man child, woman child w/husband, dog, DH, and frequent family dinners I can attest that my life has changed since owning the shark steam mop. It's WONDERFUL.

Cleaning and mopping is no problem now. So much easier. Once you have your floors dust mopped and or vacuumed, cleaning with steam and no chemicals almost guarantees no streaking, less smudging, etc. Chemicals do leave deposits on the floor. This I know for a fact from a puppy that was extremely sensitive to chemicals. I also learned that half of what I thought was a 'dog problem' was really a chemical problem. Once all the residues off my tile was gone, little to no problems now.

As for dark floors showing dust and debris: of course it does. It's no different than a black car showing dust. It lets me know: cleam my floors. I once had a vinyl floor that was dark green. Ouch. I worked myself silly with that floor. Wood is better.

As for Brazilian Cherry and denting. Uh, yes it does dent. And Yes, it can scratch. It gives my floor character. Because when the floor is clean, you see 'clean', not character flaws.

The ONLY thing that anyone needs warning about BC is knowing that it is very, very sensitive to light. Even a florescent light bulb will cause shadings on the floor if you have a rug down. In my kitchen, I keep rugs in front of the sink, range, and main oven. The flooring is much lighter there than anywhere else. I sometimes leave them off the floor a few days to let the color 'even out'. I have about 1,600 sf of BC downstairs, so I know what I'm talking about. BC darkens with any kind of light. I have an 8' front porch overhang and a 12' back porch and the light still affects the flooring. As long as you know this, you'll be fine. It quickly evens out in the smaller areas. In front of my foyer front door? Well, that's a 5' x 8' foot shading issue.

OK, here's my best tip for anyone that mops. Target and BBB sells the Shark Steam Mop with two mop heads for $79.99. RIGHT NOW www.qvc.com has the Shark Steam Mop with SEVEN mop heads for about $67 and some change. This is a GREAT deal. They've been out for awhile and just got them back in. I ordered three for Christmas presents this past weekend.

Here is a link that might be useful: Search Shark Steam Mop 7 mop heads

ging9, I have here a sample of your flooring and it is so beautiful and would go wonderful in my bedroom with my Durham Sand White Royal Cottage Furniture but unfortunately it was darker than my Cherry Wood Swedish Furniture in my home office and did not go well. Thanks for letting me know. I am going to try a sample of their lighter colors since the engineered wood floor sample is made so well and just beautiful.

Chinchette, What brand is your beautiful Brazilian Cherry Floors and what size width is your plank?

Wow, I'm glad I found this thread. I have medium stained oak floors now and was excited to stain them dark to contrast with my off-white cabinets. We follow the Japanese custom I grew up with, which means no shoes worn in the house ever, but now I'm worried about every strand of dog hair showing.

Chinchette, Love your space, can you tell me more about your kitchen cabinets, countertop and flooring choices in the kitchen. Were considering installing BC on the whole main floor, I'm thinking tile in the kitchen area, and dark cabinets. I like your light choice for flooring and countertop area. Was this a new build?? or a remodel???
We will have to knock out the wall dividing living room and kitchen for the great room concept. If we do, it may be similar to your design. Do you have a kitchen table also, or a dining room?? Are you satisfied with your arrangements??

I had lots of warnings about this - we ended up with a great Doussie. Not installed yet, but it is a super hard wood so I think it will hold up well. I've seen it installed and it is stunning. I have expresso cabs and this is a lighter floor with nice dark brown feature boards.

we have real deal solid red oak floors stained English Chestnut...it's a medium (more dark than light) satin/matt finish.....It still scratches..now I don't know how the wood (but not the solid wood flooring) holds up, but a varnish pen makes scratches disappear in my floor....I think unless you go very light, you're always going to see scratches....if you're that worried, I'd go with an already distressed, hand scraped floor....

How the heck do you guys get your pictures to loan and show up like that? I can't figure it out!!!

We have Brazillian Walnut in our kitchen, another one of the harder woods, a real pain to install (diy). No stain, they are this color all the way through with a little poly on the top. We love love love them.

**To post pics you need to open an account at photobucket.com, and download you pictures there, then once they're downloaded there is a window that has the hmtl code for it in a box, copy that and paste it into the message.

Here's our floor!

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Kitchen about 85% complete...
That's my Brazillian Cherry & I would do it again. Yes it does show dirt & dust, but I'm learning to care for it. I'll deal with it because I like the look. Ours doesn't show scratches. We gave many samples our "test" before purchasing. We now have 5 boys and a large dog. They take their shoes off in the mudroom on the slate tile. I vacumn the carpet & the wood with our dyson about 4 times per wook. Once a week I use a spray cleaner & cloth mop. I have a shark (steam)cleaner & use it around the kitchen/table area if needed. Would use that more, but still worried about it on the wood. If you love the look go for it, unless you want it to look perfect all the time.

mommyto4boys (I guess now you have 5 so you must have signed up before the 5th child), I love your Brazilian Cherry floors so much! Do you have the 5" plank? Are they solid wood? What brand did you use? They are rich and gorgeous with that color I love. Your kitchen is also very beautiful. I just love the chairs and table so much as well as that beautiful French Door Refrigerator (what brand may I ask?. Thank you for sharing.

ging9, I really like your granite--what is it?

Lynn2006-Thanks for the nice comments on the kitchen. I hesitated to share pictures until this week as things are still unfinished & I see all the dream kitchens here & start thinking (coulda' shoulda'). I hate to even type the floor brand here (BELLAWOOD) as some here have said to NOT buy from them. We tested about 5 different Brazillian Cherry floors at home (samples that is). We pounded on them with match box cars, etc and found dinks and scratches to really show less on this brand. I love the way it looks, but yes dust and dirst shows & you need too be wiliing to clean that or live with it:) It is the 5" planks and I'm happy with that choice. The part we are not thrilled about is some unevenness of the floor after installation. The installer says it was much worse than other brands & he wasted more planks than usual to try to keep it even. He wanted us to buy from "his" supplier. My neighbor has a different brand prefinished floor and it isn't perfectly smooth either. I'm thinking it is more just what you get when it isn't sight sanded/finished. Though others may weigh in on this and say they have prefinished and it is perfect. Though I do believe you get a better poly finish when factory applied and that is what we were really looking for. Someday we can refinish the floors as YES they are solid wood.

And we love our fridge! It is a GE profile & has so much space. I liked it because I did not want an exterior/door water dispenser and I didn't want the top hinges to show (dh thinks I'm crazy).

Hope this helps and yes we just had boy #5!

"mommyto5boys", Thank you for the quick reply. I love your Bellawood floors and despite the installer's complaints, I find them beautiful and perfect for your kitchen. I wish I could have solid wood floors but due to the wetlands my home if built on (so pretty with the woods around me and the location is perfect for me) and my cement floor on my first level, I feel I have to go with an engineered wood floor with a thick sawn layer of solid wood over the plywood for future refinishing. I still am not sure if I am going with 3.25" planks or 5" planks. I seem to like both looks so much.

I wish I saw this picture of your Ge Profile Refrigerator and learned that the hinges do not show before I bought mine. I love my LG French Door Refrigerator but I would have preferred to not have the water on the door since I like the smooth look better like yours and I would have preferred to also not have the hinges show on top. But I am so glad I bought the French Door. I love having a bottom drawer freezer and I love having to not bend down when using the refrigerator that is used a lot more. Your stainless steel refrigerator really is beautiful and is perfect for your gorgeous kitchen.

Congratulations on boy #5.

Mommyto4Boys (now 5), checking out your floors again and I really love them so much and would choose your brand if I was going with solid wood. I am still considering both Barazilian Cherry Vs. Amendoim. I love the look of both so much. But your floors are really gorgeous and the 5" plank was perfect with your size kitchen that is just beautiful.

ChrissyJamed, I was wondering if you had any pics of your Doussie floor and if the floor is light sensitive also?

we bought some Sangria sunset Acacia schn cherry 38x3from Lumber Liquidators they said they had plenty but in fact they did dot we need another 200 feet of this type and if you can find some or something close please let me know.

Hi - RmKitchen - and anyone with a super dark hardwood - what vacuum cleaner do you use that doesn't scratch your wood?

I think if you have a light colored dog go light flors or a dark colored dog go dark.....I of course have dark hardwood and a light colored pug ( breed sheds worse than a Labrador Retriever) I went dark because the space is open and large otherwise dark floors can really make the space look small . So it you do not have pets to worry about then consider the space and how dark may make the rooms look smaller. Good luck! Btw, both are beautiful and can be even more enhanced by the colors on your wall. Hope that helps :)

I have two black dogs. Dark wood is the only wood for me, but I am still cleaning them frequently this time of year (brushing indicates the worst is nearly over). I do see flour after baking in the kitchen, but not a lot of dust other than getting under certain pieces of furniture.

Swiffer wasn't enough, but a Dyson Animal D59 has been great. It is a cordless model with a much longer charge life and a shorter charge time that the swiffer vac I was trying to use between vacuuming. Shark and Hoover have new models, but this one weighed half of what the Shark does and the Hoover was released just after I bought the Dyson so I don't know it's details. Was going to check it out if I wasn't totally happy with the Dyson.

Only issue with the Dyson was the cost and I got a $50 discount on sale plus a pharmacy reward and red card discount and a $50 free tool kit in a Target promo (the attachments get a lot more on the floor and under furniture that the Swiffer or the vacuum and they can do the window blinds and small spaces easier than my vacuum attachments ever did). I figured that was as good as I was going to do on a new unit. You can get them refurbished.

I am just beginning to do some research to redecorate our kitchen. Judging from all the complaints and my loathing of high maintainance, it makes sense to me to stick to a light to med oak floor and lite to med counters and any place dust will land. Add some drama with dark cabinets to avoid so many finger smudges and then the icing on the cake - a pretty or bright back splash and walls.. Unfortunately, I am beginning to hear bad things about fingerprints on stainless. Is it true it too is awful to keep looking good?

First, we had dark hardwood when we moved into our current condo, and in our last apartment (rental). They were never dust-free, in fact, they appeared to be dust magnets. We refinished them a medium brown, and while I'm sure there's just as much dust, you can't see it now!

As for stainless, yes, stainless shows fingerprints. Some people are bothered by it (me), some are not. We chose to panel our fridge and dishwasher this time around because we hated the drip lines and fingerprints so much in our old house. It can be kept looking fairly good - I just wasn't willing to do what it took (housekeeping is not my forte).

Splatoid, I love your floors! What board width are the Kentwood Acacia Hardwood floors? I also love the rest of your kitchen! The installers look like they did a great job!

Yes they did. I got a real good contractor. The floors are 3 1/2 " Here is a link to there web site. https://kentwoodfloors.com/us/products/acacia-natural

I was a little leery at first because I saw lots of pictures with a lot of lighter wood mixed in. Too much for my taste but most of those were other brands. This was just the right mixture. Some of he light/dark mixed pieces of wood are so awesome I will post a couple of close ups to show you what I mean. Thanks for your comment.

Here are a few close up's

I had a question on Throw rugs. Any suggestions and what's best for hardwood floors?

Thanks

Splatoid, I just love the floors! The width is perfect also. I have the same question on throw rugs as I just did my floors and really love yours! Wish our installer did mine.

What kind of floors did you choose. Any pictures?

I had med-dark floors and what made them look dirty was the sheen! I believe chinchette. They were engineered wood and they were so smooth you could see footprints in sunlight with CLEAN feet right out of the bath not even wet. Drove me nuts. I've been wanting to go with real wood (handscraped with a little tonal variation to hide dings/scratches). I may consider engineered if I can get it in a matte finish, because the engineered held up beautifully in my previous kitchen, and I'm worried about a true hardwood in that area. It will be one or the other, I love wood floors. My friend had a darker almost espresso floor, now those you had to dust all the time to keep looking clean.

Splatoid, I had chosen In 2009, Brazilian Cherry long & 5" wide engineered wood boards by then BR-111 Triangulo. I had water heater damage in 2013 so finally I replaced the boards with 3.25" wide Triangulo shorter boards to give more color variation as I did not have a lot of floor showing in my home office. The installers lined up too many seams and I am not happy in my home office area. A different installer from the same store did a great job in my family room. I will take pictures when I am able to as I am in the middle of tax season.

we have Brazilian pecan floors. they re gorgeous.. However they show everything once the light comes in.. footprints all over. hair, dust & anything that falls as you walk. I don't mind all the work because of how they look. I even bought cashmere slippers for guests if the weather is wet! When the sun shines in I just flip the blinds. NEVER AGAIN! Love the look but I am EXHAUSTED! I Have a vacuum with velvet brushes and I can just use it constantly.. Ohs did I mention its just my husband & me? NO PETS!