Help with Hardwood Color Selection (Engineered Hardwood)
Color Selection: Photo of a sample Sent to me:
From Shaw Website:
To be installed here:
Some houses built with some of the colors:
House #1:
House #2
House #3
I like darker colors, but not too dark. I like House #3 floor color the most. Not sure what color it is. What do you guys think and like?
Comments (30)
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engineered hardwood floor over old hardwood floor
Comments (14)You need to do a little more archeological digging still. You need to know the whole construction of the floor before you can decide how best to install something new. I'd take up that plywood piece in the kitchen and see what's under it. It's higher than the surrounding floor, so needs to go. You should also be able to see from there what subfloor is under the original kitchen hardwood. It's too bad the space under your entryway is finished, but I'd still do some exploring from below to see what's under there, and to figure out the fix to stop it from squeaking. Is it drywall below or a drop ceiling? I know it probably seems like a pain to tear out drywall, but if you cut out a clean patch, like 2' x the width of the joists, it'll be relatively simple to repair. Just make sure to cut it down the center of the joists so that there's room to screw the patch piece to it later. Cut the hole under the area that squeaks the most, if you can. Have someone walk on and watch the floor from below to see what's moving. It might be as simple as pounding in a couple shims from below, or face-nailing a loose board from above. You want to find out what's underneath the hardwood. It might be laid directly on the floor joists, or there might be 10" wide boards that the hardwood is nailed to. Another thought is to take out a board in the hallway, since that's not original and you want to replace it. See what the subfloor is there. I am a bit puzzled at why, when you've stripped the kitchen down to the original hardwood, it's still higher than the hallway floor. Is your current surface perhaps not the original kitchen hardwood? Peeling back the plywood area will help determine that. BTW, I haven't heard of that stop squeaking product you linked to, so can't offer any personal opinion. And don't pour self-leveling compound over top of hardwood. It needs to go over plywood....See MoreEngineered Hardwood versus Hardwood
Comments (23)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!...See MoreDifferences between traditional hardwood and engineered hardwood?
Comments (3)Wow...that's a huge question. I know it sounds simple, but it is quite complex. So complex there are entire books on the subject (both professional and lay-man). So....solid hardwood is just that. It is solid. It is the same wood cut from the same tree, from the same plank at the mill. Traditionally it is 3/4" thick. Widths vary but the classic is around 3" wide plank. A 3/4" solid hardwood can be refinish 3-4 times with a total lifespan of 60-100 years. These are either factory finished or site finished. The industry has realized that some people are too afraid of large purchases so the solid hardwood industry has come up with the idea to make their planks THINNER and thereby making them cheaper. I've seen 1/2" or even 3/8" solid hardwood. They can be refinished once...maybe twice and have a lifespan of 20 - 40 years. These thinner solid hardwoods are often factory finished (cheap, thin and fast). And that's the easy part. Engineered hardwood...where to start. First off the TOP layer is the ONLY LAYER that contains the pricey hardwood that you are paying for. Everything else is like "plywood". The body of the plank is made up of cross-hatched layers of wood (not always hardwood) that are glued together. The top layer will range from 2mm - 6mm. The ability to refinish will depend on the thickness of the top layer (known as the wear layer). You need 3mm of wood to complete a full sand and refinish - just once. So the 2mm wear layer is a "one and done" type of floor. It has a life span of roughly 20 years (though many people rip them out after 15 because they look beaten up). The 6mm wear layer in a 3/4" engineered plank that is site finished is the Holy Grail of the engineered hardwood world. They are the most expensive, the most beautiful and offer the longest life cycle of all engineered hardwoods. They are so expensive that they are MORE expensive than solid hardwood floors. Whew. There is so much more but that's the difference in a nutshell. Shaw has had some complaints. The biggest issues with wood will be humidity and indoor climate control. Ask your builder to check the heating/cooling system. Ask them detailed questions about the unit's capability to handle climate control that is REQUIRED for a hardwood floor - regardless of the presentation....See MoreWhat hardwood or engineered hardwood product best for concrete slab?
Comments (21)Leather is the most 'recognizable' pattern for cork (other than the ground up cork board look). When it is laid it looks like hardwood flooring using 'shorts'. It has a bit of a brick look to it. Ignore the 'pink' in the samples. The pink is the very first colour to fade away. It takes a few months for the pink to disappear but once it is gone the cork (Leather and Logan) will look more like oak in tone (yellowish with some hints of green and some gray). It is a 'directional pattern' which means it has a 'linear' sense to it. The Logan is the most expensive cork pattern you can get. The slices of pattern are random. They are hand cut and hand laid. It takes *roughly an hour for 1 person to arrange 10sf of the pattern. It is STUNNING. It looks more like stone. It is random...did I mention the pattern is random? Leather and Logan can have the extra 2 coats of the Loba 2K Supra AT = super tough. The Latte is a FANTASTICLY tough finish. It has the polypropylene finish on it. This is the 'non-vinyl' product Cancork sells. It is tough....right after that it is SUPER TOUGH. And then for good measure, it is TOUGH!!! For a Rental property, the Latte is a product I would recommend. It does NOT need the Loba product. That means you save $1.50/sf RIGHT AWAY. It can handle 3mm or 6mm cork underlay. If you are looking for temperature control, then I like the 6mm underneath...but CHECK your door heights, etc. All you need to do is take your floor sample and the underlay sample they sent you (their supposed to do that...sigh) and see if it 'slips' underneath the doors in your home. It is that simple. I hope that helps... As for the Tacoma...I'm guessing you are looking at KILOGRAMS (700 kg) as your weight limit = 1540 lbs. The weight of a standard skid of cork flooring = 1000sf (ish...depends on the product) = *roughly 2000 lbs. And the skid sizes are PERFECT to fit between the wheel wells of a truck bed. I've watched this stuff get loaded into pick-up trucks for 6+ years. A forklift operator can drop that baby into your truck (so long as you do NOT have a 'cap-it') and off you go. If you only have a short way to go, the 2000 lbs won't be much of a problem...I just wouldn't do a trip to Bella Coola with it. ;-)...See More
snowpow
6 years ago
Boxerpal
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoI say go with what you like. #3 is beautiful! If you like dark you will love your floors. With your limited options, I would choose dark. But I am a dark floor fan! I had dark floors in my last house.. Well like this color below..Not super dark but that is because the buckets of light coming in make them look warmer. But the stain was dark. They were an ebony, jacobean, mahogany mix stain. My husband wants to do the exact color or darker in our new house. We had dogs, kids, dust and a busy family. It never bothered us, and the dust didn't show nor did wear or tear. My home is cleaned bi monthly and I sweep/ vacuum every four days or so. I find when you love something you don't mind the extra time to care for it. And for me, I would rather see the dirt that needs to be cleaned rather than pretend it's not there because I can't see it. HA HA HA
Ideas for Kitchen Reno 2018 · More Infosnowpow thanked Boxerpal
C W
6 years agosnowpow
6 years agoBoxerpal, love your floors. That’s what I am trying to acheave. What color you think I should go with to get similar effect.
I like these : except I think hazelnut has a lot of red in it looking at these photos from Shaw website(Although the photos of sample don’t have red in it). Not sure how it is really gonna look. If it doesn’t have red (like on sample ) then I might go with it.
I like color of Weathered but concerned that it is going to look like “worn out” floor ... I wasn’t able to find real photo of this floor anywhere...only computer rendering from Shaw....
thats is why I am so torn as to what color to go with ....I want a medium color on a darker side . But not “black” To minimize “small” room effect.
Boxerpal
6 years agoSnowpow
I think you may want to avoid any red tones. If you love option #3 I think you will love it. And once you decide, don't second guess instead focus on how to make the rest of your space work with your choice. Keep in mind there are 1000s of options and 1000s of reasons to sway you and 2nd guess yourself or doubt what you love. What do you love? Get that floor. When you look at photos on Houzz, what floors make you smile? Since your only options are those 3 get the one closest to the floors you love when looking at pictures.
Here are some dark engineered hardwood floors. And I do not think it makes the space look smaller. The space is highlighted by the darkness.
Traditional Dining Room · More Info
Salon with Custom Plaster Ceiling · More Info
KSI Designer, Jim McVeigh · More Info
Seeley Living Room A · More Info
Master Hall · More Info
Castro Kitchen · More Infosnowpow thanked Boxerpalsnowpow
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoBoxerpal, and Cpartist,
I like the floor on the photo that called Master Hall but I don't know which one would be close to it...
The reason why I an second guessing myself is because I have no idea how these samples will actually look in real life. the only one I saw real photos of is coffee bean color.(#3). I would love to see how weathered and chocolate look like. I think hazelnut might have too much red in it... Although I don't know. Looking at Shaw's website it seems like colors are different from the sample photo that was sent to me :
Looking at samples I kinda like Hazelnut, But I hate how it looks here (more like cherry). Not even close to a sample:
though on this photo it looks as if there is no red-and I like that:
:
You see, thats why I am so confused...
I would love to see weathered in real place (real photo) but wasn't able to find any
Only these renderings:
As you see it looks way warmer than the sample photo. Sample looks grey
The rendering of chocolate seems to be a bit lighter than coffee bean -but sample shows it darker.... here is why I am confused
So I need to decide between
1)Weathered
2)Hazelenut
3)Chocolate
4)Coffee Bean
I can't believe there are no actual photos of these floors installed....
Where should I look? I need to decide tonight .... Help... :)
Boxerpal
6 years agoIf these are Engineered hardwoods are they not already stained? If they are not sure mix your own stain. But i thought the were stained and you had to choose one. Colors change on a monitor or even photograph so I can understand your dilema. I wish I could help you more. I searched the brand and color and could not find many images. I wonder if you could have a sample of a piece of the floor? That way you could see it up close and personal.
If you don't like red follow Cpartists ideas and go for weathered, it wont look old rather the red will be grayed out. It will be muted but look really nice and might be exactly what you are looking for. And keep in mind you can 2nd guess your choices until your blue in the face but whatever you choose is going to look so much better than what you have now. Which I assume is a blank slate.
: )
Be good to yourself because whatever you decide is truly going to look great. Even if the one you choose has a hint of red you will discover how to make it look gorgeous in your space.
Here are few photos i did find. Coffee Bean.. (I love this one but I am biased because I love dark floors)
And this one was the one I kept saying to get.. Chocolate but I think this will have a warmer tone. Not really red but with a warmer tone red may appear
This one is weathered Shaw. but I don't think it is the same option as you have before you. Your sample photos look more gray than this below..
Again whatever you choose is going to be AMAZING!
snowpow thanked Boxerpalsnowpow
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoWill post photos. Went with Coffee bean. was able to get decent photos from shaw's rep.
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6 years agosnowpow
6 years agoUser
6 years agoBoxerpal
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoBoxerpal
5 years agoSnowpow any updated photos of your floors? I am getting close to picking mine and wanted to see how yours came out.
I am looking at Vosges and UA flooring company.. I keep changing my mind and now realize how hard your choice was. I am hoping all has gone well.
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5 years agoBoxerpal
5 years agosnowpow
5 years agoHerrProfessorDoktor
5 years agoBoxerpal
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
Rick Benak
4 years ago
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