Unfinished Hard Wood Floor Or Pre-Finished Hard Wood Floor?
By Jeovani Christopher

Pre-Finished Or Unfinished Floor, What To Install?

Installing solid hard wood pre-finished and unfinished for over a decade,most of questions are: should I buy pre-finished floor or unfinished and sand it later?

What I try to let my customers know about it are:

- When you purchase a pre-finished floor in 90% you will have some small gaps in betoween the wood boards and also in most cases you will feel that the seems of the wood boards when you walk without shoes, specially when you purchase a bad quality pre-finished floors.

- Buying a pre-finished floor, you will also have the problem of maybe not getting the color of you dreams,nowadays you will find a wide range of pre-finished floor colors, thickness and many other characteristics that in some years back you would not find in stores.

A good thing about pre-finished floor is: very faster, cleaner installation. Depending on the way you want you pre-finished installed,most of installers can install 1000 sqf in a day,it means that you just need to leave your floors inside of your house 3 days before the installation,you need to leave wood inside of your house so it can get acclimatized with the temperature where it will be installed.

Installing the unfinished solid hard wood, you have the option to choose what stain color you want to have on your floors, if you don't like those very tiny gaps betoween the floor boards, unfinished floor is a very good choice,also when you walk on your floor you will not feel any floor borad's edge when you walk with no shoes.

Also when doing the sanding and finishing of you unfinished floor you can choose what type of glues you want on your floors.

You can go with satin, semi gloss, gloss and high gloss polyurethane, this is very good, because you can choose how shine you want to have your flooring.

Install unfinished hard wood flooring will take a lot more time than a pre-finished floor installation.

Let's say you want to install and finish "natural finishing" 1000 sqf of unfinished wooden floors,it will be a project of at least 4 days working on the floors and you will be able to step on your new floors only by the 5th day.

1th day: installation of the unfinished wood flooring

2th day: sanding the wood floors,buffer and apply the 1th coat of polyurethane

3th day: buffer the floor and apply the 2th coat of polyurethane

4th day: re-buffer the floor and apply the last coat of polyurethane

As you see, there are some things about pre-finished or unfinished floor installation,there are some more aspects that you should think before you you go for pre-finished or unfinished floor install,keep researching you will more confident in what is better for you.

If you have any questions about it, feel free to contact us and we will be ready to help you on this.

Go to our site and get more info about prefinished and unfinished wood flooring installation. If you want to purchase your own material, we offer installation service labor, we are licensed and insured and we serve NY, CT, NJ, PA.

http://hardwoodfloorinstallation.Info/

We do all types of hard wood floor installation,sanding and finishing. My name is Jeovani and I work for Americany construction inc, http://www.hardwoodfloorinstallation.info/.

Buying Oak Hardwood Flooring? The 5 Things You Absolutely Need to Know!
By Eric M Dyer

Unfinished Oak hardwood flooring versus prefinished Oak is a choice that consumers deal with when considering hardwood floors in their new or existing home.

More often than not, the appeal of having a custom floor is alluring to the consumer. If you're adamant about having the floor a perfect match to your custom stained cabinets, and you can't find a prefinished floor that goes with them, then looking at unfinished is probably an option for you. However, that's about the only reason an unfinished floor should be considered, when color is the only factor.

A few things to note when deciding between prefinished and unfinished wood floors:

1. A prefinished wood floor will have a higher quality finish than an unfinished, custom stained version. Prefinished wood floors will usually have between 4-7 coats of Aluminum Oxide and or Polyurethane applied at the factory using several treatments that include pressure and heating. Not only will the finish be incomparably better on a prefinished wood, but the factory process also rids the wood of any excess moisture. There are great custom wood flooring installers out there. Don't misunderstand me! They just can't give you them same finish quality because of limitations in the field, plain old physics, temperature, physics and chemistry.

2. Manufacturers give between a 5 and 25 year wear warranty and 5 and 15 years on the finish itself. If you go with a custom stained unfinished floor you will get a 1 year warranty at best.

3. A custom prefinished floor will take a lot longer to install. The floor has the be "aired out" longer before the job, it has to be nailed down, then sanded, then stained, then finished, and then sometimes another finish is applied. It can be a week long process sometimes. Installation of a prefinished wood floor takes about half the time versus unfinished.

4. A prefinished hardwood floor produces less off gassing and VOC's than a custom unfinished version during and after installation.

5. Unfinished hardwood will have to be refinished much quicker than factory prefinished versions. Refinishing a floor can be an expensive project.

Don't get me wrong on this! It may seem like I'm knocking unfinished, custom wood flooring. If you want to have a custom floor, that's great. However, you need to be armed with the right knowledge so you can decide if it's really the right choice for you.

For a great looking prefinished hardwood floor, be sure to BecklersCarpet.com for excellent Hardwood Flooring Specials.

The author, Eric Dyer is a writer for Beckler's Carpet, based in Dalton, Ga. Beckler's Carpet has been flooring Amercia since 1949.

For more information you can visit, http://www.becklerscarpet.com/ or contact Alan Talley or Paul Collins at 1-800-232-5537.

The Benefits of Pre-finished Hardwood Floors
By Marcus Peterson

Pre-finished floors come with an extended factory finish warranty unlike unfinished floors. The heavy duty finishes are urethane-based. Within a few minutes, a number of urethane coatings can be applied on planks using ultra violet lights. However, you also have the option of unfinished hardwood flooring. The pre-finished hardwood floors have a definite advantage, as clean up and labor is not required and one can choose from a number of wood species. Unfinished floors need sanding and coating after they are secured while pre-finished floors do not.

Pre-finished hardwood floors are cheaper and can be maintained easily. Addition of aluminum oxide chips to the finish, a recent advancement, makes urethane finish more durable. Pre-finished hard wood flooring made from red oak is cheaper than floors made of white oak. Red oak flooring is soft and its grain pattern is open.

Pre-finished products are usually available in three or four colors. The surface of pre-finished engineered floor has a hardwood veneer that is known as the “wear layer”. The layer may be thin or thick. The thickness of this layer will determine how many times refinishing can be done. In some products, refinishing is not possible.

Pre-finished products can be installed quickly and easily. Pre-finished products are not prone to seasonal contractions and expansion, and generally pre-finished products come with 15 and 25 years warranties. A variety of finishes and kinds of wood are available for pre-finished floor. The finished wear layers are better than those applied on job-sites. Factory applied finishes are more abrasion resistant and are free of dust, hair, swirl marks, etc. These evenly applied heavy duty finishes do not have an odor.

A pre-finished hardwood floor is processed and finished in a factory. It does not need sanding or finishing.

Hard Wood Floors provides detailed information on installing, cleaning and refinishing various types of hardwood floors, including engineered, solid, long-strip, exotic, pre-finished, and cheap hardwood floors. Hard Wood Floors is the sister site of Bamboo Flooring Web.

Pre-Finished Wood Floors Become Choice When Remodeling
By Bill Cizinski

Most homeowners, when weighing wood floor options to remodel their existing homes, have been leaning toward pre-finished wood floors as their choice.

There are many advantages to these pre-finished products in existing homes. First and foremost is that no sanding and staining on site is required. A major disruption of lifestyle can occur when having to deal with the excessive dust and intense odors of having floors stained and finished on site. Pre-finished floors have multiple coats applied in the manufacturing process and are far superior to any finish applied on site.

Pre-finished wood floors offer a variety of options for these homeowners. Wood species from all over the world are available. Solid woods as well as engineered woods are also options. Wood thicknesses range from three-eighths inch to three-quarters inch. Most board widths range from two inches to six inches. Stain colors and gloss levels are also plentiful.

Existing homes may sometimes restrict the thickness options due to pre-existing conditions. Having all these thickness options available most certainly will make their project successful.

Multiple installation methods are also available when choosing these floors. Solid wood floors are generally three-quarters inch thick and are nailed down over suitable wood sub-floors. Engineered wood floors have multiple thicknesses available and generally have three options for installation. They may be glued directly to the sub-floor, stapled down to suitable wood sub-floors, or floating installations can be used. Floating installations can be used over wood or concrete sub-floors. The majority of the time you should be able to walk on these floors immediately.

Consider all the advantages these pre-finished wood floors have. Many wood species from American favorites like oak, maple, and hickory to many exotic species like Brazilian cherry, Santos mahogany, and teak. Multiple options are available in both solids and engineered. Multiple thicknesses as well as board widths are also enticing.

Adding to that all the colors, finishes, and installation options available, it's no surprise that these floors are becoming the choice when remodeling existing homes.

Bill Cizinski has 32 years of retail sales management experience, and has co-founded a direct sales business focusing on producing multiple streams of income for today's economy.

To learn more, go to http://www.yourpassiveincomeopportunity.com, or email Bill at meetdawnski@gmail.com.

Pre-Finished Hardwood Flooring - Get the Beauty of Hardwood Without the Fuss
By Matt Gallo

Hardwood flooring brings unbeatable elegance and beauty to any home. Versatile, durable, and attractive, hardwood is one of the most popular flooring materials available today. However, despite its popularity, hardwood does have two major drawbacks: it can be prohibitively expensive, and installation is a drawn-out process that can take weeks! When you want the gorgeous appearance and long life span of hardwood flooring without the cost or messy installation, pre-finished wood flooring is your best bet.

Pre-finished hardwood flooring is a new type of floor that combines the beauty of wood with super easy installation. Unlike laminate flooring, pre-finished hardwood is real wood: a thin layer of hardwood is adhered to a backing of composite wood. This offers the same attractive looks of hardwood flooring, but since less of the high-end hardwood is used in the floor, the costs are much lower.

And, because the top layer of your pre-finished hardwood flooring is made of real wood, this type of floor can even be refinished like traditional hardwood. Unlike laminate that has to be replaced when it becomes scratched and worn, pre-finished flooring can be sanded and resealed to restore its gleam and luster. Depending on the thickness of the hardwood veneer, your pre-finished wood floors can be refinished several times over the course of their lifetime.

Pre-finished hardwood also has the benefit of being sanded, stained, and sealed at the factory, eliminating the need to do these steps in your home. Traditional solid hardwood flooring is installed unfinished and subsequently sanded and sealed. With the drying time needed between coats of polyurethane, this process can actually take more than a week! And, although dust containment systems are much more sophisticated than in the past, the sanding can create quite a mess. With pre-finished wood flooring, installation is a one or two day job and virtually-mess free!

Additionally, most pre-finished wood floors are installed as floating floors, an installation method where the flooring planks connect to each other, rather than being nailed into the subflooring. Again, this allows for quick, hassle-free installation. In fact, in many cases, you don't even have to remove your old flooring first; pre-finished floating wood floors can be installed on top of linoleum, laminate, concrete, and even old wood floors without any adverse effects!

Although wood-look flooring is available today in startling number of options-from traditional hardwood to laminate-pre-finished hardwood flooring gives you the appearance and benefits of real wood without the cost or hassle of solid wood. If you're ready to add pre-finished wood flooring to your home, visit your local flooring store to select your beautiful floor and schedule your easy installation.

Matt Gallo is a home improvement specialist and the Internet marketing manager for Prospect Genius, a leader in providing search engine optimization.