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Site finished vs pre-finished hardwood floor

6 years ago

If I have a site finished hardwood floor installed with 3 coats of poly, is that going to have some water resistance to spilled liquids? Will the gaps in between the boards be sealed so no water will seep thru in a short period of time? Thinking about doing all hardwood on my first floor throughout the kitchen, dining, and living room.

So in a nutshell, will the site finished be more resistant to water spills than the prefinished floor?

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Comments (3)

User
6 years ago
It should be more resistant simply because a site finish is basically a single covering, when the flooring is installed correctly(no gaps/etc).
PRO
Uptown Floors
6 years ago
Solid or engineered hardwood?

Solid: Interior relative humidity has to stay in a tight range, otherwise gaps will open up. You might not see them but they're there. More variables than space to mention. Conditions when it's installed, moisture levels in hardwood and sub floor. It has to be in harmony, before, during and after.

Engineered: Far more tolerant of humidity swings, but can still gap (minuscule) with prolonged very low humidity. 20% and under.

Ken Fisher

Uptown Floors
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floorguy and glennsfc what would you use. We need l000 square feet of hardwood. Our island will be in a dark stained rift quarter sawn oak. The hardwood will go in the kitchen, eating area, living room (great room for those three rooms), den and one bedroom. We would like to use oak on the floor to match the island, but have it stained in a medium brown color. In the past two hardwood finished on site floors we used glitza water based finish. I don't know if glitza is still allowed because of the ureaformaldyhydes (sp??) but would like a satin finish. Maybe we shouldn't be so close minded about unfinished. Maybe we should buy finished but we have to get longer lengths then are usually offered. In VAncouver, B.C. all we see is 4 to 5' at the longest. Just looks like a quilt. And for a l000 square feet of mostly open area that could be deadly. My mind is open and I look forward to your opinions. I know you know a lot more then I do. Can hardly wait to hear your opinions.
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I think the misinformation was about screening and recoating a site finished and doing a board replacement. On site finished if you have a problem its much harder to do a single board replacement and have it blend. Most times you would have to resand the entrire floor to make it look good. With factory fiished a single board could be replaced without resanding adjoining areas. Either could be screened and recoated without sanding. Comments about factory finishes scratching are sometimes due to the fact that with multi coat products the almunium oxide is left off the top coat. It tends to look milky and the idea is to make the top coat easy to repair when scratches occur so its often pure urethane with the AO below the top coat.
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As JLC said, you have nicely finished doorways ... the only time you will see both floors is when you have a door open. And with the difference in lighting, you won't notice slight differences. Here's how I match or blend finishes: Bring home some samples of the prefinished you are thinking about and lay them in the hallway, parallel to the existing floors. Stand back 10 or so feet and pick the board or boards that you have the hardest time spotting. That's your match. Or, remove the boards that stand out ... what's left is the matching color. If you carefully pick the ONE board that is just inside the doorway to be as close a match to the older one in the hall it will make the blend almost invisible. Here, in an 1880s adobe ... the door stops where the pale wood is, and I picked new boards with the brownish tones of the old floor (upper part) to make the new flooring (running side to side) less conspicuous. (there was craptastical 1990s carpet and some wierd sill arrangement to deal with ... nothing in the house is square, plumb, or level). By matching size and rustic-ness in the new flooring we got a floor that blends with the old. Cleaning and refinishing the old floor (eventually) will make oit blend better.
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First off I would discard option 2. Putting wood over wood is generally not something I would recommend and I would think that if the dining room carpet were replaced with wood, they would finish up at the same height. Plus it could cause problems at the appliances. It sounds like the kitchen needs to be refinished or replaced. Get options for both with options to do the dining room the same. When did you previously have floors sanded? There have been solid advances in dust capture machinery. It still takes some time but with proper care it will last a long time. It's worth it to take a little time to get what you want. If budget is an issue, put the same wood width and species in the dining room, either in the same color as the kitchen or in a color you like. Maybe you can find a trustworthy refinisher (with good machinery, zipwall poles, plastic and tape) to do the kitchen floor to match the new dining room the next time you go out of town. We do this all the time. Or install new unfinished matching solid wood in the dining room now and apply a coat of oil sealer temporarily until you can have it all finished to match. This way you get a better match without eased/beveled edges or overwood and all the cracks filled and poly'ed over.
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PRO
Cancork Floor Inc.
6 years ago
In theory the site-finished hardwood will have a slight edge on "water resistance" than factory finished. As Handy Mac points out, the finish will coat the entire floor in a single SHEET of finish.

Now...that isn't to say it will be SUPER water resistant. It won't be. Most wood will have issues with large amounts of water allowed to sit on the floor. But the worry you have - water getting between the planks - is greatly reduced with a site-finish...again it is a large SHEET of finish that spans the boards = a thin layer of plastic = a little bit more water resistant than factory finished.

Again...these numbers and 'time frames' are very similar. But there *should be a slight advantage for the site finished. That's why we require our cork floors in kitchens be site finished after installation - the polyurethane spans the joints making the floor resistant to surface spills (many hours of protection because cork itself doesn't care...but the fibre board in the middle does).

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