I have around 1800 sqft, largest room is around 450 sqft and smallest is 180 sqft, I am planning on doing a DIY engineered glue down wood floor installation. The trouble I am having is chosing a good brand. I would like to stay withing an 8-10K budget, Kahrs makes really nice floors but they are pretty expensive approx $6sqft, in comparison the home depot brand is around $3.30sqft. Anderson Bruce at home decor is around $4.50. I have read many forums and they all say stay away from bruce and products from lumber liquidators. Is there really a marked improvement in quality with these more expensive floor products? Do you have any reccomendations on products that will fit my budget ?
Engineered wood floor product reccomendations?
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Engineered options
Hi. I sell wood floors, and I don't want to make any kind of a sales pitch in this DIY column, so I don't want to recommend a brand. But I can offer some advice. All of the major brands are pretty good, but wood flooring is like a car. Bruce makes everything from a base grade (call it a low priced Chevy) to a fairly high end product (call it a small BMW). Both are OK, but one is obviously better. Tpically speaking, the home centers carry the base grade products.
Things that you'd find in a better engineered product:
* A nice, clean core plywood with very smooth milling on the tongue an groove. (as compared to a splintery T&G)
* A fairly thick wear layer. 1.6 mil minimum.
* Nice, consistently milled edges/ends. Cheap products often splinter here.
* A high quality finish which looks "clear" and not cloudy/hazy.
The budget you mentioned is suffiicient for a good qulaity floor.
Hope this helps!
Wood Floor Guy
http://www.woodfloorsforyou.com
Hi. I sell wood floors, and I don't want to make any kind of a sales pitch in this DIY column, so I don't want to recommend a brand. But I can offer some advice. All of the major brands are pretty good, but wood flooring is like a car. Bruce makes everything from a base grade (call it a low priced Chevy) to a fairly high end product (call it a small BMW). Both are OK, but one is obviously better. Tpically speaking, the home centers carry the base grade products.
Things that you'd find in a better engineered product:
* A nice, clean core plywood with very smooth milling on the tongue an groove. (as compared to a splintery T&G)
* A fairly thick wear layer. 1.6 mil minimum.
* Nice, consistently milled edges/ends. Cheap products often splinter here.
* A high quality finish which looks "clear" and not cloudy/hazy.
The budget you mentioned is suffiicient for a good qulaity floor.
Hope this helps!
Wood Floor Guy
http://www.woodfloorsforyou.com
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Agreed, or at least the ones highly visible. Some of them are carrying more than the standard stuff of a few years ago, but you'll have to dig through the sample racks.
Take for example Bruce and Home Depot. The display shown above offers what you can find in practically any local flooring retail store. Time your purchase right and take advantage of the 20% offers they have from time to time. Prices are inline with online retailers without the added freight charges, but takes longer to recieve.
Home Depot Hardwood Floors
You mention Kahrs and gluedown. Not a good idea if you're looking at the woodloc wider long planks. Absolutely horrible to gluedown direct without constant problems.
So are you saying that I should go for planks that are not *wide*, If I were to glue down on bare concrete on a 8yr old house?
I was going to check out some of the local engineered wood retailers, some seems to have good price on Brazilian Tiger wood. Some of the brands they carry are as follows, any of these in the list that are known to have problems ?
Armstrong, Mullican, Mannington, Anderson, Ecotimber, Johnson Hardwood, Butler Johnson, Earthweks, Bluelinks, Award, Century Flooring, Bruce, Diamond W, Expanko, Factory Direct, Florida Flooring, Hartco, Galleher, Kahrs, Lauzon, BR111, LM Flooring, Scandian, Longust, Pinnacle, Mastercraft, Columbia, MD Building Products, Expanko, Mohawk, Robbins, Oshosh Designs, Shaw industires, SMT, Swedeco, Tarkett, Teragren, Tom Duffy, US Floors, Wincanders, and Woods of Distinction.
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Rating for engineered floors
No such thing applies Ron. I wish it did, but whether engineered or solid, in the prefinished category there is no universal standard.
Wood Floor Guy
No such thing applies Ron. I wish it did, but whether engineered or solid, in the prefinished category there is no universal standard.
Wood Floor Guy
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Lots of brands listed!
My guess is you're in CA based on the number of local, secondary brands you have listed here. Most are good, and a few that I'd stay away from are:
* Eco Timber
Diamond W
Factory Direct
Duffy
US Floors
Woods of Distinction
Wood Floor Guy
My guess is you're in CA based on the number of local, secondary brands you have listed here. Most are good, and a few that I'd stay away from are:
* Eco Timber
Diamond W
Factory Direct
Duffy
US Floors
Woods of Distinction
Wood Floor Guy
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82 Posts
Regular tongue and groove no problem (except Harris Wood unless they've changed their milling), but any older click type can be very troublesome to install via gluedown direct. Incidentally glueing any floor by yourself won't be an easy task.
Award is a fine floor. Extremely durable finish.
Other good ones.
Mannington, Anderson, Lauzon(top drawer), BR111 (hit or miss), Scandian.
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wait...are we talking about gluing direct to concrete with solid floors?
Yes, gluing the Engineered wood directly to the concrete floor, the floor is 8yrs old, and it was moisture tested and suitable for gluing down.
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Who is the manufacturer that recommends this?
I would like to know as there is some concrete I would love to glue to....manufacturers always seem to get a bit crabby when I think about it.
I would like to know as there is some concrete I would love to glue to....manufacturers always seem to get a bit crabby when I think about it.
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