I want to put Scrapped Engineered wood floors in our whole house  including the kitchen. I just love that scrapped look. Based on my current research, it sounds like Engineered is preferred for several reasons including that it wears better (factory finished vs. site finished) and can resist water better. It can even be laid directly on concrete which is what we have.

It is my understanding that a good quality Engineered wood floor can be refinished a few times. This is attractive because IÂm guessing that in 10+ years when we may be ready to sell the house, if the floors are refinished, they will look brand new.

However, I donÂt know if the scrapped floors (Engineered or not) can be refinished  wouldnÂt the sanding remove the hand scrapped look? This may prevent me from purchasing the scrapped look which I really like.

IÂll be watching to see what others have to say.

i wondered about the refinishing part of scraped wood too, so maybe go engineered satin finish thicker real wood and all should be good?

so maybe go engineered satin finish thicker real wood and all should be good

All should be Great! IÂm just not ready to give up on that hand scrapped look yet. But you definitely want to compare the thickness of the top (real wood) layer when deciding what to purchase.

It is also my understanding that the engineered planks can be a DIY project  where real wood would be much more difficult to DIY. Are you planning on DIY? If so, you will really save a bundle over hiring an installer and finisher for the real wood.

I think one advantage of real wood is that it would be easier to match should repair or new additions be desired. So I wonder if buying/storing extra pieces of the engineered is recommended.

Engineered flooring generally can be refinished except for the scrapped kinds. Scrapped has the same wear layer thickness as regular engineered floor, but that thickness has been reduced by scrapping.

Again, generally speaking, it can't be refinished. It doesn't have enough finish face material left for hand sanding and certainly not for power sanders.

Just another opinion to consider-I have engineered, scraped hardwoods in my foyer and formal dining area. It's GORGEOUS! I just knew I had to have it somewhere in my house. But mine has it's downfalls. You can see EVERY footprint if someone walks across it with shoes on (and sometimes even with bare feet). I can't imagine having to try to keep it clean if it was in the kitchen or in a really high traffic area. It would be a nightmare for me, since I can't stand seeing footprints. I've dropped a couple of things on the hardwood, and it left a gouge-and mine is supposed to be one of the hardest woods. Just thought you might want to know. Good luck!

i guess we could DIY if the builder allowed (have not chose one yet ) and yes it sounds more friendly to do for sure. I would stock pile a 1/2 box or so of any kind I think

superchick, what color is yours? the one in the show rooms was quite dark satin and nothing was showing but good to know other colors might as i do not like the fact that some hardwood we have seen in friends homes which must be glossy shows all dust under furniture and I do not like that look nor footprints. :-)

SuperChick - do you have a picture of your hand scraped hardwood floors? I'd love to see them. :-)

Here's an old picture. The color in the pics is a little redder than in real life. I'm racking my brain trying to remember what kind of wood it is. I'm pretty sure it's walnut or chestnut? And now that I look at the "hardness scale", it looks like if it is one of those, it's not so hard. Maybe I got lied to about the durability! They told me it was much harder than oak. I can't seem to find the exact color on the website, perhaps they've changed by now.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that my wood is what I would consider a satin finish, definately not shiny or glossy. I think the color was something like "autumn spice".

superchick
that is lovely
how do you like your entry way with just wood? does it get used lots? do you have snow, etc where you live? I am wondering about durability

SuperChick  ItÂs beautiful! Thanks so much for posting a picture. Where did you purchase it? Did you install it yourselves?

I have engineered hand-scraped (fyi, "scrapped" means "threw away") wood floors throughout most of the house (not including the kitchen) and I love it. DW likes them so much she requested a matching hand-scraped coffee table.

There are pros and cons to engineered vs. solid, and also to hand-scraped vs smooth. If you want to install directly over concrete, engineered is generally the way to go. A moisture barrier is still usually recommended however.

The ability to refinish varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and you should read the product literature to see about the particular flooring you're considering. Also just looking at the thickness of the top layer will give you an idea. In general a complete "refinish" should be extremely rare, especially with floors that are pre-finished with aluminum oxide or other high-wear topcoat.

In areas of specific damage you would generally do a "screen and recoat", basically a light sanding and fresh topcoat. This may be possible with hand-scraped engineered, but talk to your vendor if you're concerned.

yes chief i realized after i posted i added an extra P

thanks for info

Chief  what product did you go with?

In general a complete "refinish" should be extremely rare, especially with floors that are pre-finished with aluminum oxide or other high-wear topcoat.

Are you saying that a refinish should not be needed because of how well the floors are pre-finished? This would be good news. As mentioned, I was considering the day we decide to sell (10+ years down the road) Â my thoughts were if we refinished then, they would look fabulous to potential buyers. But if this really would not be necessary, that would be one less worry and allow me to buy the hand-scraPed :-) floors I want now.

Right, the factory pre-finished coatings are much harder and more durable than anything you can do site-finished. Well, providing you buy a decent product, that is. You can usually tell by the length of the warranty or you can call the manufacturer for information.

Usually when people think "refinish" they are thinking of power-sanding all the way down to bare wood, re-staining, then brand-new topcoat. For light surface damage you can do what the flooring guys call "screening" (don't ask me why), which is a light buff, not going down to bare wood, then apply fresh topcoat.

If you wear shoes inside the house or live near a beach then I could certainly see planning on a refinish when moving out after 10 years. We're a "barefoot" family, so it wasn't a concern for me at all. Anyway, I'm no expert so I definitely recommend talking to your flooring guy or even contacting a couple manufacturers for information.

I bought my wood though a company called prosource, I think the brand is "provenza". Here's a photo although it's tough to see the hand-scraping because of the dark color.

Just for fun, here's the matching hand-scraped coffee table that I made for DW.

chief, you made the table out of remnants for the top..WOW fantastic job
heck if i get this type of flooring i will have to ask for the pattern so i can get DH to make me one.. love it
thanks for sharing

Oh no, I actually made the coffee table from scratch with all solid wood. I do a little woodworking as a hobby. The top is genuinely "hand-scraped" by yours truly!

double WOW!!! fantastic craftmanship!! job well done

Well, I love handscraped too but shyed away from it because I was worried it would be trendy and I was also worried about refinishing in the future. Still LOVE the look though!

Chief  May I ask what you are a Chief of? My DH is a Deputy Chief with the Fire Department. :-)

OK  Just trying to understand here. In 10+ years, if you were going to sell your house, you would either have to do nothing to your *gorgeous* floors or do a screening? Can these hand scraped floors be screened? Please tell me if I am worrying for not  because I *really* want these hand-scraped floors too.

BTW - your table is awesome. I can see why your wife loves it. :-)

Thank-you for taking the time to answer these questions.

Jeri

All prefinished manufacturers recommend a screen and recoat every 5-7 years or so, depending on wear. This will be problematic with scraped floors because they're not flat enough for machine screening. The low spots won't get touched at all by the screen. If you want to follow best practices and screen and recoat to keep that top layer looking it's best, then you'll have to hand scuff every inch of the floors before recoating. And, you can't spot touch up areas that wear more quickly. Poly doesn't lend itself to that. It'll show a touchup bigtime. It's do it all or nothing. Screening and recoating is already a PIA for most people, as it involves basically moving all the furniture and people out for a couple of days while it's done.