We have Kahrs Castle & Cottage engineered hardwood made out of oak and really love them.

We just put an order for Bruce Maple Solid Hardwood(cinnamon color) for our entire main floor(about 1400sqft). No experience yet with those as they are not yet installed but I loved them at the stores.

You may want to provide some information about your living circumstances so you can get feedback that's more specific to your situation. For example, do you have dogs? A big family? Lots of traffic? Are you hard on your floors? Because I think durability is related to those factors. With that in mind, we have prefinished oak flooring from Bruce through out the main floor, except the dining & kitchen. In those two rooms we have prefinished BellaWood Brazilian Walnut from Lumber Liquidators. They've been installed for about 3 years now and they've both done very well but we don't have kids and/or a dog. We use rugs at the entrys and sinks, have pads on all the legs of our furniture and we leave our shoes at the door. Hope that helps!

I'm going to be having hardwood floors installed early next month. We went to Lumber Liquidators and ended up going with strand carbonized bamboo because it's supposed to be so much more stronger than most hardwoods.

Well, that's a lot!! LOL If you get 3/4 inch planks instead of engineered, you'll have the comfort of knowing you'll be able to refinish them several times. :c) We have birds too and our floors have held up with moving cages and some of their mess very well. The one thing I like about the Walnut as opposed to the Oak is that the walnut is NOT stained. It's dark wood clear through the plank, so what you see is what you'll get every time you refinish them. The benefit is the few scratches or dings we do have, don't show. Where with the oak it's stained and scratches deep enough to penetrate the stain, show more. Hope that helps!

We have oak hardwoods throughout the house (that's how they used to build houses in this area, circa 1960). They have held up well to 3 kids (now grown/gone), dogs and cats. The real beauty of hardwoods is that they can be refinished and will last for years......case in point here!

Every 10 years we empty out the room (ugh!) and have the floors refinished. They will never wear out!

Bamboo last house, domestic cherry in this one. I wouldn't recommend either for durability...but they are beautiful until you look too closely.

Do you know about the Janka Scale?

Here is a link that might be useful: check the numbers

Good link to provide amysrq, that explains a lot! We have engineered Mannington Hickory floors in our home, and I have been very pleased with how well they've worn. We have had four dogs, three cats, grandchildren and regular family foot traffic with shoe and heels without any noticeable scratching or wear. Most of the flooring was installed ten years ago, the remainder was put in two years ago, so our entire lower level is hardwood.

A hammer dropped once left a slight ding in the kitchen. The ice maker on our frig broke one night and left a 4 x 5 foot puddle of water standing on the kitchen floors overnight. We mopped up the water, opened up the windows, kept a fan blowing and allowed several days for the floors to dry, and you can't tell now where the water stood. This flooring was not the premium line of hardwood that Mannington carries, either, it is probably considered mid-level. One feature I liked is that I was able to match the newer flooring exactly with what had been installed initially - something to consider if you're only doing certain areas at a time. Although hickory isn't way up there on the hardiness/harness list, ours has held up very well.

My son just had Brazilian cherry installed in his house, and has already seen dings and scratches. Consequently, he doesn't let his dogs come inside the house anymore, and asks everyone to leave their shoes at the door. I'd hate to have something that sensitive that you couldn't live life as usual inside your own home! I do think it's imperative that you purchase from a well-known reputable manufacturer, even if installing it yourself.

Mannington Hickory in Nutmeg finish

We have Anderson pre-finished oak in a cherry finish. We live out in the sticks, so a lot of mud/gravel/snow etc gets tracked in. We had a very high strung yellow Lab in the house, I have a 4 year old boy, you get the picture.

We have had ours for 10 years now, and the floor is holding up well, even in the really high traffic areas like our back entrance.

My advice: don't go too dark, because dust will really show. Don't go too light, because every speck of dirt will show. Don't get a high gloss finish, because you will spend a lot of time maintaining it. And get a wood with some grain or variation, so that scratches or wear or dirt won't show so much.

Good luck!
Jen

Amy, thanks for the listing to the janka scale. It looks like hickory/pecan would be the hardest of the "non-exotic" woods, and it's what I'm looking at.

Nann2a, your floors are lovely. I notice there doesn't seem to be as much variation as I would expect in your wood planks.

I'd love to see more photos, if anyone wants to post.

Lukkiirish, what kind of birds do you have? I have a parrotlet, 3 linnies, and a crimson bellied conure, but I think I'll be adding to my linnie flock. In fact, I will be closing off my too-small dining room to make it into my office/bird room. That's going to be my first project, and I hope to get it done in February.

Thanks so much to all of you!

Jo

And as Nanny's post demonstrates, numbers alone don't tell the whole tale as Brazilian Cherry is much harder than Hickory and should not be getting easily dinged by dogs. Names are quite confusing (especially with the exotics) because different manufacturers call the same species different things. I guess the lesson to be learned is to make sure you know what you are buying. The janka scale determines how much force can be applied before a wood dents, dings, compresses. How durable the finish on top of the wood will determine the amount of scratches. If you want a durable wood, look for a high janka number, and a great finish, an unstained wood is less likely to show life's little traumas. I have a 100 lb dog that dents my mother's oak floors much too easily, but he does nothing to my brazilian cherry floors. If you have a 20 lb dog, you can get away with much softer wood. If Fido is heavy, get a wood high on the janka scale and make sure you get a sample so you can try the fingernail pressure test. It's not scientific, but it's easy to see that Cherry is much softer than Brazilian Walnut when you try to dent it. If it dents easily, run, run, run away. If you do get an engineered wood, make sure there is a thick wear layer so it can be refinished if needed. Some sales people will tell you that janka doesn't matter, it's only the finish. I've lived with softer hardwoods, and harder hardwoods and Janka ratings are critical if you have big dogs, heels, moving heavy objects, etc.. If you like darker woods, that Brazilian Walnut with a great finish is hard to beat. It will take a lot of abuse. I hope that helps.

Thanks, darenka! It is all a bit confusing. I'm thinking of getting a floor with a distressed look, so if it scratches, I will just "distress" it a little more. :)

We bought our 12"-20" wide plank floors from Carlisle, but haven't yet installed them. They're pine so I'm expecting (hoping for) lots of distress marks in their future, but we want more of a rustic look.

Love the Carslisle floors and very excited to see them installed, but if I hadn't already purchased them I'd seriously consider these rustic floors by Vintage Wood Floor Company.

We purchased our antique oak beam mantle from this company and I was drooling over their rustic floors just today when we went to pick up the beam. Small company and great customer service by both the owner and his staff.

My favorite is the Antique Original Face Oak Plank floor from the American Barn Collection (first thumbnail on the link).

Here is a link that might be useful: Vintage Wood Floors American Barn Collection

Hi Jo! Oh I love parrotlets, how cute. My sister has a sun conure, and 2 budgies which are similar to linnies right? I only have 2 Cockatiels however they're nurturing a clutch of 4 eggs right now so that may change soon. You wouldn't happen to be interested in a baby cockatiel would you? (or know of anyone who is?) LOL!! Here they are during a changing of the guard.

{{!gwi}}

Honestly I would just go with real hardwood, unfinished red oak. It will last you a lifetime and you will have the ability to refinish over and over if needed way down the road. We just uncovered red oak in our new home and had to install new red oak in our fairly large kitchen (had linoleum from the 60's yikes!) which they toothed into the older red oak in the adjoining family room. For the new wood installed in the kitchen, stripping the family room, and 2 long hallways and applying duraseal spice stain (a fairly dark stain) and 3 coats of oil, it was just under 3000. They look gorgeous. I had a nightmare in my last house when they tried to refinish a prefinished floor which was worn enough that we didn't realize it was prefinished, so buyer beware, no offense. Maintainance problems are more difficult later on with prefinished. Most of my homes have had red oak and they are a floor guys dream look good natural or stained and are extremely durable, in my opinion.

I have a 140 lb Newfoundland and that's why we went with the strand carbonized bamboo. The 2789 Janka rating is near the top of the chart (as opposed to regular bamboo flooring) and due to the carbonization process, the color is completely throughout the board so if it scratches, they should be less noticable. And, at $3.89 a foot, it was significantly less than the exotic hardwoods.