Is American Cherry Hardwood Flooring 3/4" too soft for normal residential living on the first floor above grade? Will the finishing found in Lauzon and Mirage flooring help significantly in keeping the flooring looking good?

The main answer to your question lies mainly in your lifestyle.

I believe Am. Cherry is a fine wood, one of my favorites.

It would not be too soft of a material for my lifestyle or my tastes.

Are you metropolitan or a rustic? Will your floor be clean and clear or do you like some character?

Do you live in a museum or do you like to tussle with the kids and the dog?

In short ... are you anal or adventurous ?

Wood floors will indeed wear and scratch and move and do all kinds of stuff that will either infuriate or intrigue most. The most important thing to know is do you like the species, do you love how it looks, makes your home feel, complete your tastes, etc.? Will you like walking, playing, living, making memories, on it? Do you plan to enjoy your floor and how it makes you feel OR are you going to freak out everytime the doorbell rings and get all paranoid about what type of shoes your would be guest will be wearing.

Bottom Line: BUY THE FLOOR YOU LIKE? One you feel is beautiful. Get a decent finish. Then commence enjoying your new look in your home.

Did I come off as too much of a romantic?? Oh well ... hope if I couldn't answer your question I atleast gave you something to think about.





Quote of the day:
Definition - STATUS ... When a person buys something they cannot afford to impress people they don't even like.

Hidden meaning - Do for yourself what you like, not what you think your friends at work might like.

I am now advising my customers to consider Hartco Pattern Plus if they are dead set on the Black Cherry. The Acrylic Impregnated finish process makes the wood itself much harder, over what Oak is from what I understand.

This is one situation where a factory finish would be a better alternative to a sand on-site finish if the customer is debating using one of the softer woods. It will still scratch though, even Brazilian Teak. Janka has nothing to do with surface scratching.

Pattern Plus is the only brand I am aware of that will also do "custom colors" on a prefinished product.

We do indeed love the Am. Cherry look and we aren't too anal, but plan to take precautions (slippers being provided to guests, etc.). We do wrestle a little bit, but most of that will take place in the carpeted family room.

Hoping to get the Uptown Uptown American Cherry engineered hardwood.. Hoping this helps with maintaining care, however, I'm sure I'll learn to love the scratches, etc., that will add character to the flooring.

Just be sure and take the basic precautions, felt glides under chair legs, vaccume or sweeop regually and place walk off mats in the entrances. Be real carefull with the fridge or other heavy furniture with feet too small to distribute the load without indentation. I went to look at a chery floor not to long ago where the homeowner had rolled a big screen t.v from the front door to the family room in the back of the house leaving a nice pair of track marks from start to finish, the guys almost came to tears when i told him there was nothing short of resanding thats going to fix it and it wasnt some sort of defect.