5' or 3.25' wide Brazilian Cherry Engineered Hardwood floors?

susanlynn2012

15 years ago

I posted a similar question on the decorating forum but I still would like some more pictures and/or information before I buy my floor tomorrow or at the latest the next day. I love the wide plank floors my neighbors are installing but they are installing very dark floors (I prefer to not go so dark as their floors that are almost black despite the beauty of their floors) with hardly any color variation. I want BR-111 Triangulo Engineered Brazilian Cherry floors and must have engineered wood floors since I live on a slab. I was ready to make the purchase today for the 3.25" wide plank but saw another picture posted by a member of her 5" wide plank floors and now I am confused.

Anyone else have pictures or information to share with me on this Kitchen Forum? Is it worth it to pay almost $700 more for the 5" width to have longer boards and a 1/2" versus a 3/8th inch thickness if both have a similar 1/8th wear layer (at least 3 MM of solid wood on top that is a sawn cut of the wood to look like solid wood) that can be sanded down 2 to 3 time.

The installers came and said there is 620 sq. foot for the three rooms I am going to have hardwood installed in after the old carpet is removed.

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Comments (9)

ci_lantro
15 years ago
Since you have smallish rooms, you may not get a lot of advantage out of the look of longer boards. If the wear layers are the same, then the only reason to choose one thickness over another (in your case with slab floors) would be matching floor heights in adjacent rooms.

Wider boards will go down faster but I doubt there will be much difference, if any, for install cost. But check, to be sure. A little savings on the labor might tip you to springing for the wider/ longer board style. Also, stylistically, the wider boards can feel a bit more contemporary but either width will work with any style, IMO. And, wider boards showcase the grain a bit more.

(Be sure you know what the Brazilian cherry will look like after it's been down a few month. It's a photosensitive wood & will darken somewhat. If you're looking at showroom samples, then you're good to go with the color unless they're fresh new samples.)
farmhousebound
15 years ago
lynn - you might also want to take into consideration where you live. DH and I will be putting hardwood down throughout our house when we get to that phase. We are adding on to an older farmhouse. I really liked the wide plank flooring until I got to researching and talking to some experts--seems like where we live (GA) w/ the high humidity that cupping would probably end up being an issue w/ us with the wider planks. We were also going to have issues with installation due to the wider planks because the old part of the house is not exactly level and the skinnier boards would help us when it came to installation. I am going w/ the 2-1/4" because I have seen in some old stores and love the look as much as I did the wider plank and it has the vintage look that I like. The GC is really glad I do!
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Gregmills, thank you for replying to my post. In 2009, I had several installers take moisture readings and my floor was dry. BUT since 2009, I had the water damage from the water heater on 3-20-13 which damaged the 5" wide BR-111 Brazilian Cherry engineered wood floors which have not been removed and are over the Floor Muffler Ultra pad that they were floated on. I had to buy area rugs as the planks had cracked and lifted. I was waiting to have the insurance claim settled first before removing the floors. My little 6 lb Maltese got her foot caught costing me over $300 with the vet bill, X-rays and pain medicine. Thankfully nothing was broken when she was running and got her foot caught in the floor and was whimpering and carrying on. That is why I bought the inexpensive temporary small area rugs to cover many of the damaged areas until the insurance company settled with me. I had chosen to install the same Brazilian Cherry Wood but now sold directly by Triangulo to stores rather than first sold to BR-111. I just want to change my width to 3.25" from 5". I would prefer a floating floor again as it felt like a solid wood floor but was not so hard on my feet. The store had bought a large lot of 3" Solid Indusparquet Brazilian Cherry Hardwood so can give me a very good price on installing the solid wood by gluing it down using SIKA 2. I did look this product up and they are saying 3/4" solid hardwood can be glued directly to the concrete since it has a moisture barrier and good holding power but flexible. I did call the manufacture of this wood today and Indusparquet will not warranty the solid wood unless it is nailed to plywood floors. I have get to go to the store to discuss the estimate he prepared for me but I am feeling I need to tell him that I really prefer the 3.25" engineered wood downstairs and upstairs. In the summer time, the air conditioner keeps the humidity level down and the house is maintained at 36 - 40% humidity. In the winter time, the dry air is a problem with my forced hot air heat. I used humidifiers downstairs in the day time in my home office and upstairs at night. I have never had a problem with the 5" engineered wood floors until the water damage so I feel I am OK with the engineered wood floors. But when I go upstairs at night, it is very dry and I have to run the humidifiers on a long time to make my bedroom humid enough so I do not get nose bleeds. This is what I am afraid of with the solid wood. I am also afraid of the install failing downstairs where the concrete floor is not flat/level. I filled the large cracks I found when the carpet was removed in 2009 before the installer arrived to install the floor. I will not use him again as he told me to use 2 less boxes so I changed my order and we ran out of wood and he never came back to finish the job when the wood arrived. I want someone to do the full job and charge me extra for moving the heavy cabinets. I have bought so many stackable crates since I will empty them. I have called moving companies to get prices and in case a store does not want to move the cabinets into my garage themselves and to put them back on the floors.
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kge9, Thank you so much for letting me know! I think 4" trim would look nice if it is above the floor. Right now I have almost 3.5" trim that is partially covered with the thick rug and padding so 4" not covered will look nice and wide for me. I would love it if it came primed. Maybe I can suggest if I buy it and the installer installs it to save money. I feel I can also paint the trim but not the walls. I don't have baseboard heating (wish I did) since I forced hot air heating with vents on the floor. I would love it if the quarter rounds could be skipped! How much space did you leave from the floor to the wall? I can't believe all the furniture is out of those three rooms and I can't believe how much furniture I had in those rooms. I definitely plan on just using my dehumidifier to keep some back files in my garage since I don't want to move 3 of the 5-drawer 42" wide file cabinets back into my home office rooms. I want more of my walls to show and more space to walk. kge9, any pictures of your new trim with the tinted white you planned on using.
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ok, this is an area where I actually know something! I sold and spec'ed hardwood for a custom shop before my mommy-life. The information you are getting here is correct. Engineered floors will give you 1-2 refinishings ON A PERFECT SUBFLOOR. One of the issues that sometimes arises if there are inconsistanies in the height of your subfloor. Because there is thinner wood wearlayer (before you get to the engineered wood) there is the chance that you can damage the floor irreparably when you sand it. Now I only saw this saw this happen twice, once on a loft job and once in an older home. The loft was more subtle as it was over concrete, the old house more obvious as they were DIYers and picked engineered flooring to try to negate their irregular subfloor (they neglected to tell us that that was why they chose engineered, we would have talked them out of it had we seen the floor first) Neither of their claims to the manufacturer were fully settled because both times they did not follow the guidelines for floor prep. The loft job was also a materials only job for us with their GC laying the floors but he insisted he knew what he was doing. A good engineered floor will not be cheaper than most of your nail down options because the production costs are higher. Now having said that, GOOD engineered floors certainly have their place in places where you can't put traditional hardwood due to height restrictions or concrete subfloors. My boss had a great engineered floor in his basement and it survived a flood remarkably well (it was ash, Kahrs brand out of Scandinavia and one of the beefier engineered floors and one of the pioneers) My Grandmother also had a Kahrs floor in her ground suite condo and she LOVED it and I was impressed by the milling. I'm considering it for our basement because it's warmer and less echo-y than laminate There has been a lot of 2nd rate engineered flooring coming out of China and being labeled for all sorts of different companies. You should be able to tell an engineered sample because the layers are sandwiched together and the tongue will be a different wood than the top (showing) layer. Distressed finishes are usually more expensive because of the extra step in manufacturing to make it distressed. That is different than just getting a lower grade of hardwood like a rustic or tavern grade (in solid hardwood). Those grades have more character but they often don't carry a warranty and generally have a higher waste percentage. Another thing to think about---if you ever have to replace part of the floor, you will always be able to replicate 3/4" thick hardwood but engineered floors are more like tile, they change and get discontinued over the years. You could go pre-finished, save the hassle of site finishing but with the thicker wear-layer a 3/4" nail down floor offers. Only you will know if you can handle beveling or not. The changes in milling the last 10 years are huge. The bevel in your better milled wood is tiny. I like Canadian mills, Model or Mirage for pre-finished. Remember that if you ever re-finish, the bevel will disappear and you will, essentially have a site finished floor. One benefit that many people don't know about? With a prefinished tongue and grooved floor you can have a good installer cut out a single board (or more) from your floor if it gets damaged which is why we did a fair bit of pre-finished in new homes since inevitably we would get call-backs at move in to repair trade damage (@#$%^ plumbers and their big wrenches!). Prefinished hardwood deals the best with shinkage and expansion issues because the finish is on individual boards. Site finished floors are more labor intensive but the materials are cheaper (apples to apples). They are what many people consider the gold standard however there are more steps and you don't always know how it's going to look until it's done. There is more chance of finish contamination and trade damage during the rest of the building process. We refinished 100 year old floors. I loved the idea that there wasn't 4 generations of carpet and crap in the landfill. Definitely a forever floor and it can usually be re-sanded for all but the very worst water damage (think entire house under water for a few days) If you are going with a wide plank, keep in mind your species and humidity level (and your ability to keep humidity stable). The wider the plank (with 3/4" thick flooring), the more obvious shrinking and expanding will be. If you take a 2" wide board and it shrinks 2%, it isn't very noticeable. If you take a 6" wide board and it shrinks 2% the gaping will be more noticeable and in the case of a site finished floor *could* pull your finish apart. You'll need to find a flooring contractor in your area with lots of experience. Most of the best hardwood shops ONLY do hardwood. Beware of carpet shops and many of the big box stores in many instances. Make sure they are accredited with the NWFA (national wood flooring association) http://www.nwfa.org/member/ good luck!
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ajsmama, your Brazilian Cherry floors are beautiful and so is your trim and steps. Thanks for sharing. The trim looks so nice since I am used to half my carpet covering my almost 3.5" trim. Laurie, That price sounds great and the height and width sounds perfect. I will have to look into this since I want my baseboard to be self-primed. My floors are now totally bare. My brother owed me and he finally decided to help me out by removing the carpet, pad, tackless, and trim (he labeled the trim to save but it is not in the best of shape). He left the trim and quarter rounds on the Porcelain tile foyer areas and told me the flooring guy will have to decide what to do with that since my brother sells, repairs and installs carpet for a living. He removed all the bad CVT tile in the utility room so someone can install tile that was not water damaged and cracking. He left the destroyed trim there that is so water damaged. The flooring guy can't come by until Thursday. I have to try to clean the floor again since it was SO dirty. I got all the nails off the floor and one layer of dust, plaster and dirt and the little Styrofoam balls that must have fell from the ceiling and were under the padding under the carpet from 20 years ago! I swept so now tomorrow I will vacuum. I hope a painter can start before the floor is installed. Squirrel, I agree with you that I invested so much money into a new floor that I also feel I would be happier with new taller trim or at least new trim. Thank you everyone! Anymore input and/or pictures would be appreciated. Thanks for being there for me. My little dogs are in my bedroom with me since that is where my computer is now. I can't work and I need to work. I ran out of toner and all my files are downstairs in the hot garage. I really wish someone would start my floor first before the painting since the dogs and me are all stressed out seeing the ugly cement floor everywhere downstairs. I wish I was also removing the torn linoleum kitchen floor but that is a project for next year, along with a new dishwasher since mine is almost 20 years old and leaks and does not match my stainless steel French Door refrigerator.
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susanlynn2012
Original Author
15 years ago
ci_lantro, thank you for your reply. Two of my rooms are combined as one big room with a half of a wall high and a half of a wall long so when you enter the room there appears to be a very long hall way (created from putty file cabinets against the wall and my L-Shape desk and other cabinets in the room and desks. So the longer boards may look great here but the other room is small so maybe the shorter boards would look better there.

farmhousebound, thank you for letting me know that you chose the slimmer boards for the vintage look and for your high humidity. I get high humidity most summers but this summer there was not much of a problem due to my new air conditioner unit. I usually have to run my dehumidifier all the time in the summer but my new central air conditioner solved that problem. But I was told by the installers that the 3.25" is more stable if the humidity changes and is better if they are not sure how level my cement floor is under this carpet.

Thanks again for replying. I will wait for others to reply. I would love a close up of 5" wide boards to see what the Brazilian Cherry grain will look like since most of my samples are 3.25" wide so the grain is fine and cut off but pretty like this also.
grendal_fly
15 years ago
Lynn2006,
Here is a picture of 3.25" boards. Please not that these are hardwood not engineered, but they might help you get an idea of the look of the narrow boards in Brazilian Cherry.
susanlynn2012
Original Author
15 years ago
grendal_fly, I do love your Brazilian Cherry floors with the boards looking very nice in your kitchen. I love the variation in the colors and the way it looks. You have a beautiful kitchen. Thanks for sharing.
Buehl
15 years ago
Lynn2006, have you tried the Flooring Forum as well? They may have additional info/tips for you.

I admit, I'm also curious. While we are considering a different wood, I've also been wondering about the plank width!

Here is a link that might be useful: Flooring Forum
susanlynn2012
Original Author
15 years ago
buehl, I have not tried the flooring forum since they do not get many responses but maybe I will post the question there also. I may visit a new local store that has the Brazilian Cherry on the floor and they claim big samples of he 5" wide planks to compare. I am now leaning to get the 3.25" despite the shorter boards due to having so much furniture in my home office with the bigger boards mainly being seen in my smaller family room that does have a high ceiling but is not that big. I'll be sure to share any information that I find out about the choice of plank widths. If the boards were the same price locally, I may just take a chance with the wider boards. But I also want to get what I like the looks of better for my three rooms which I am still not sure about.
Laurie
15 years ago
Lynn - Take a look at ccat's posting today titled: Uba Tuba and Maple Kitchen - pics and questions answered. Ccat's floor is not Brazilian Cherry, but the planks are 4.5". If you scroll down on the post, you'll see where I asked about it.
susanlynn2012
Original Author
15 years ago
laurie_2008, thanks for letting me know about that post. I found her floors very pretty in the 4.5" width. I am finding that most hardwood floors are pretty despite the width from the pictures I have seen. I went to a store today and fell in love with many floors with different plank widths and even felt the Brazilian Cherry was nice in the 3.25" wide despite the shorter boards. I guess it is the shorter boards that was bothering me but maybe it is not so important.

5' or 3.25' wide Brazilian Cherry Engineered Hardwood floors?

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5' or 3.25' wide Brazilian Cherry Engineered Hardwood floors?

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