My favorite finish for wood floors is Tung oil because scratches can be repaired individually without refinishing the entire floor. With our tung oil floor we don't use any pad under the rug but with a shiny finish you should or they will slip around. If you have a decent finish you shouldn't have to worry about a vacuum cleaner scratching it but I find it is easy to sweep my wood floors anyway with the occasional wet mop.
Stained wood will show scratches more than unstained wood. I wouldn't go with poly finish with a softer wood.
We refinished our fir floors ourselves with tung oil and it was very easy. In the picture you see a lot of color variation that is from the horrible things previous owners did to the floor, not the tung oil.
Other than that you need to decide what look you like, wide plank vs narrow, light or dark...

Here is a link that might be useful: Our tung oil floor.

We have had oak hardwood floors in our kitchen, and rest of the house, for 12 years and LOVE them! We haven't had to refinish them yet, but will, when we do our remodel. They have been easy to keep clean and very durable and they don't show dirt if you have a dog. The dogs don't like it much because they can slip and slide, but as far as upkeep and looks, we love them.

I forgot to add, on the subject of eng'd hdwd: they do not need staining, sealing, oiling, finishing, refinishing, or anything else. You buy them prefinished and prestained, just like kitchen cabs, and you don't refinish them any more than you would restain your kitchen cabs. (I am told that if they get really gouged you can refinish them once, and only once. This is the one place where true hdwd has an advantage IMO -- but as I mentioned before, true hdwd is a serious pain to install in SoCal.)

Chelsea, your floor is beautiful!

Here's the Hdwd Floor 102 stuff: The wood selection is as big a deal as with kitchen cabs -- maple, oak, etc. I am told to stay away from American cherry as it is too soft for floor use. Hickory has wild color variations. You can get into wildly exotic hdwds -- mahogany, ebony, etc. -- if you can afford it. I don't know the "rules" on selecting floor wood with cab wood, but I usually see cabs in a lighter color than the floor. You can get random widths, only narrow widths (3") or only wide.

I'm attaching a link to hdwd floor porn (at least it is for me).

Here is a link that might be useful: Anderson vintage hardwood floor collection

Thanks for the compliment. It was suprisingly easy to do, we only finish sanded because we used a stripper to take of the old finish/paint. The floor was hidden under striped carpet.

I just got Mercier's Premium engineered hardwood in maple. It has gotten some dings already from dh's tools during our reno. It's a beautiful prudct and every single board is perfect! No waste, no warps, nothing.

The engineered can be sanded down and refinished 3-4 times in it's lifetime. You can only go down to the tongue and groove part just like with solid hardwood.

The darker stains show smudges, dust, etc. more.

I price matched an internet price (reputable dealer Hoskings Hardwood) with my local guy. I got a smoking deal compared to the price he orignally quoted me. My dh did the install himself (first time doing HW and did a great job)

I'm a big fan of hardwood floors. I had 3 kids 2 dogs and 2 cats, was a very messy cook and a bit of a slob, and still my kitchen floors looked great and lasted 15 years before I needed to refinish them. I liked hardwood so much that I replaced the carpet in the living room, dining room and master bedroom with hardwood when I had the kitchen refinished. Make sure you get a HARD wood, I know oak is pretty bullet proof, do a little research. You can chose between engineered hardwood, and stained in place hardwood. I prefer stained in place because there are no bevels. I'm one of those people that can spot an engineered floor a mile away, and the bevels between the boards drive me nuts. I like to walk barefoot at home and the stained in place is one smooth surface. At my daughters house, I can feel the bevels beneath my bare feet. (No insult intended to any one with engineered floors, just my preference) The cost of engineered and stained in place is about the same, but it's more of a pain to install the stained in place, it takes several days for the sanding and the staining and poly to be applied which can be disruptive and smelly in a busy household. Dust, a big compalint in the past is no longer an issue with the new machines that are used now. A light stain is better if you want scratches and dust to disapear. I just sweep or vaccum my floors about once a week. More frequently when the kids were young, just as you would any floor. More is probably better. I only damp mop them twice a month. They just never look dirty!

I think you can also get pre stained solid hardwood in addition to pre done engineered.

bluekitobsessed,

Why no Swiffer?

We have quarter sawn white oak. We were told that the quartersawn woods wouldn't expand and contract, leaving gaps between the planks. Ours was finished on site with 2 coats of oil based finish and a final coat of water based something or other. They're beautiful but I can't report as to durability yet.

You can also get both solid and engineered in a plank look or with beveled edges.

Margieb2, lots of reasons. 1. My hdwd floor installer told me not to :) 2. Swiffer seems to leave a streaky residue on my hdwd. 3. It's a green thing -- when in doubt, avoid disposable/single-use/chemical-soaked stuff. I mop my floors with Bona hdwd cleaner and a wonderful mop called Sh'mop, which has a washable (reusable) terry cloth cover. When I'm done, the hdwd gleams. (As opposed to swiffer, where you can see the direction in which I was mopping.)

Inkycrab, I don't think I'd seen pix of your kitchen yet. That is seriously gorgeously sleek. I prefer lighter natural-ish wood and it's nice to see such a beauty!

Karin, sorry to hijack your thread.

Thanks Blue...!

Thank you all for your responses. I am going to print them out and read them tonight.

Incidentally I was trying to get a piece of broken sub-floor out by pushing it with my foot. Well I pushed it so hard, my leg went all the way down to the dirt from the raised foundation. Two nice really big bruises and the skin peeled off on the front of my leg.

OK, so now that I have my one accident under my belt, I am good to go ;)

Karin

bluekitobsessed, I'm going to take your advice on the hardwood cleaner and mop. I tried a Swiffer on my wood floors, and I agree that it leaves an awful residue. It looks nice initially, but after drying you really can see a film, and it even feels sort of sticky.

But other than this issue, I LOVE wood floors in the kitchen. I was worried that they would be hard to maintain, but so far I have found it easier than other surfaces I have lived with. Plus it feels really nice. :-)

I second bluekit on the Bona hardwood floor cleaner and mop. I use the same system and it works like a dream. My hardwood floor refinisher told me that if hardwoods are cleaned with the "wrong" products, that they couldn't be refinished in the future. Murphy's oil soap was one of the "wrong" products. In a pinch I use 1 cup of vinegar to a gallon of water. That's what I used on my wood floors for 15 years before I refinished them. I prefer the Bona.

Also if you want your floors to look great and not show scratches, get a low sheen poly finish , not high gloss which shows the scratches.

I've only been using diluted vinegar for years. Today I had them sanded and they put on the first two coats. Looks great! But now I'm wondering if maybe the vinegar ate at the finish over the years. Is the advantage of using Bona that it better protects the finish?

We got mannington engineered hardwoods in most of our house the summer of 2004. I love it, DH loves it, friends constantly compliment it. We did 13" ceramic tile in the kitchen because my DD is a water and food slopper. I just didn't want to worry about the wood. I love all my floors. For the last several years, I've read all the stuff on cleaning hardwoods and didn't use the murphy's as a result of what I read. I've used the vac floor attachment a few times when I'm vaccuuming my area rugs anyway, but for the most part, DD and I use either the broom or dustmop, then, we mop with hardwood floor cleaner. Finally, I read something on the Flooring forum about Bona Kemi that directed me to their website. Wow.
After reading and watching their informative videos, I finally caved and went down to Ace Hardware and bought the
Bona mop system. I like it a lot.

Dogs have learned to adjust their running speeds on my hardwoods very well.

Red

My house has the original (at present unrefinished) nearly 200-year-old wide-plank pine floors throughout the ground floor, including the kitchen.

I second recommendations for a repairable finish, like tung oil, varnish and wax etc. Not polyurethane.

But I most strongly of all recommend putting down small rugs in areas as soon as you notice wear: in front of the sink, doorways, under tables, where the dog paces under the window, wherever. Use the pads, as others have advised, and move them around so they don't stick to the floor.

But if you are older, or have older people over, be REALLY careful about small rugs. Older people tend to not lift their feet as high and can get entangled or slip.

I love my old, battered, patched wood floors. Trying to find someone who respects their age and quirks to tidy them up a bit after the remodel is perhaps the trickiest part of the plan.

Good luck!

Hi margieb2,
who is the manufacturer of your quarter sawn hardwood? We have the white oak as well and it is very VERY soft. We had our kitchen cabinets put in afterwards and some saw dust got under the cabinet guy's drop clothes. The saw dust has left little pock marks all over the floor. The floor installer said it was a soft as he has ever seen...everything leaves dents and I mean everything. The fridge was pulled out once with no protection and there are 2 distinct tracks where the wheels were. The fridge was empty. Ours is made by Keswick. I hope you have more luck with yours.

On my Tigerwood floors (the biggest splurge we did on this reno)[Like blue with her blue, I love my TGW!], I use the Bona as mentioned above, but just today, I was tired of being down on floor to spray and then wipe with a cloth, so I tried wetting my microfibre mop with water to give it an overall cleaning, and then drying by hand, and it was fine. I wouldn't do that too often, but since floors have been in since October 07, and this was the first time I wet-mopped them, think I'm OK. We're renoing our whole house,so I think the last demoing and removal of drywall and tile even though in the basement, sent dust throughout the house!

Tip- look for Walmart's house brand microfibre mop- length is adjustable (so it fits in my short broom closet/pantry), heads are removable, so I bought three. I dry mop/sweep every day, push into my vac pan, and keep a clean one for 'washing' the floors. A couple times a month I may vacuum with my special bare floor attachment.

I can't imagine being as careful as some of you are cleaning your wood floors (not that you are wrong, I just couldn't do it).
I sweep. If they get dirty I wipe spots with a wet rag and let it dry on its own. If they are really dirty I give them a good mopping with lots of water and then dry them mostly but they are still a bit damp. I have used dish soap on them.
They still look fine.

Is there anything you can add to the dilute vinegar mixture to improve the smell that is safe for the floors? I love the smell of a freshly cleaned house that has been with Pinesol or something similar but realize that would be too harsh on the wood floors.

Another vote for Bona. Keeps my floors beautiful and is ok for the environment. I get it at Bed Bath and Beyond using my 20% off coupon.

akarinz,

I am somewhat in your boat, but further along. I also never had wood floors. I ultimately decided on solid maple, site finished. I looked at the engineered and prefinished stuff, but it just didn't do it for me.

I was replacing pergo, which didn't look *awful* yet, but also didn't look good. The kind I had was simulating 2" or 3" planks, but it actually came in larger pieces. These eventually separate just enough that you can see where the real planks are, and it just doesn't look right - the simulation becomes obvious. I have to believe the same will be true for real wood engineered floors of the same style.

When I was looking I found that the engineered stuff in now available in single planks, which would solve that problem.

But I found it difficult to find prefinished products that butt flush rather than having the micro-bevels. And I didn't like those.

Also, my contractor had an excellent sub- for floors. So I did go with the solid wood. I have three coats of Bona Traffic finish on it. My understanding is that this is the toughest finish around. It certainly looks great. And it went on quickly. (Its water based.) It is expensive. The floor contractor said that often they put a couple of coats of something else and then end with one coat of Traffic. But in my case I wanted something that would not yellow, and this was supposed to be better that way. It does look great.

And I also picked up the Bona floor care system. Seems to work well.

Except for the bedrooms, 2 of ther 3 bathrooms, and the upstairs media room, my entire house has red oak floors. They were originally finished with epoxy-based polyurethane finish, which has kept them in unbelievable shape---no traffic marks, except for a slight dent or two from dropping a heavy pot.

The advantage of epoxy-based polyurethane is that it doesn't wear like standard poly. You never see traffic marks or wear marks. And whitew vinegar (dilluted or straight) works like a charm in keeping it clean and shiny.

Since I just re-modelled my kitchen I had the floor sanded down with one of those vacuum sanders (which removes the dust)and refinished. This is something you can't do with much success with engineered wood and definitely not Pergo.

You don't need to spend the money for Bona floor care as white vinegar does a better job on real wood flooring with epoxy-based poly. It leaves the floor looking brand new with no chemicals or extra poly behind.

Greg

For the vinegar / water solution you can add a little lemon or orange oil. That or pretty much any essential oil (just a little bit) that you like.