I have had 2 kinds of flooring in my house. The first was in a rental property but had excessive water damaged due to a renter. So in fairness, I would say that it is not a good example of durability. Renters may not always take care of a rental property.

The second was HARRIS FLOORING and is 1 decision I will regret forever. I went with Harris Wood Floors. The retail store we purchased the materials through said Harris floors stated a 25 year warranty on their product. At the time of purchase, I never imagined that would be a issue that I would even need to consider. I take exceptional care of things. I'm here to say they are the biggest 13K regret I have ever had. The installer is well known and the best in our area and they did a great job. The floor quality is the worst quality that I have ever seen. We don't wear shoes in our home, don't have pets or kids that caused damage and within 2 weeks there were chips and marks all over. There are places where the finish doesn't even cover the wood grain! These places of poor quality were all over the place. I contacted the company and figured they would know this was a poor quality batch. We hadn't even had time to live on it. They sent out a representative to look at the floors. He said he would take the information to Harris Floorimg and they make a decision on whether or not to honor my warranty. After a month of waiting, Harris Floors said they wouldn't honor the warranty and didn't give reason. It had only been 2 weeks!!! We hadn't even had furniture moved in yet! The damage you see (only 4 pictures out of 20) is not from misuse. It is only from poor construction and a poor product. They were all taken in the first 2 weeks of installation. The floors from my rental house didn't have scratches and marks and unfinished places like the Harris Flooring. The rental floors looked a million times better by comparison and that was AFTER years of renters. This is all nothing more than fact. Whatever you decide please heed my warning and save yourself the time and money.

The above photos show wood that is splitting and checking...these are often found with improper humidity control. Go ahead and look at your HIGH END Whole Home humidity control on your HVAC system to make SURE you have humidity set at 40%. If you don't have ANY of those...then you will most likely need to get one. If you want to get the stuff in writing (about how bad the quality is) then HIRE an NWFA Certified Flooring Inspector.

www.nwfa.org

Sorry to hijack the thread.

@Cm G - Your concerns are scratches. That means you want to go in one of two directions; very expensive and with a product that you cannot kill or a low-cost option that is as tough as you can afford:

1. Porcelain tile in a 'wood-look' presentation at $12-$15/sf total job costs (labour and materials included)

OR

2. High-end Laminate out of Europe = $4 - $7/sf + $2/sf cost of installation.

The first option is going to be out of your price range but the second option is going to fit well inside your range.

If you look at the cost of flooring as the same way you look at the cost of replacing your ROOF...you will get a sense of how important floors should be. They are the MOST ABUSED surface inside your home. They are also a surface that is a 'finish' or part of the look you are going with.

If you would spend $30K on a new roof, you might want to ensure you are getting into the same range for your flooring. A roof should last 25 years (so long as you purchase the '25 year roof'). Floors should be the same.

What is your TOTAL flooring budget (once all the bills have been paid and you have a new floor...including labour)? Most people have to work backwards from the total budget, with the labour and subfloor preparation costs REMOVED. Now you have a budget for the flooring product....then you divide it by the 1400sf you need to cover.