Okay, so I nixed the Pinnacle Americana after perfoming a bit more research, and it seems that site-finishing might be the best option for me in light of my budget and the fact that I have two 90+ pound Giant Schnauzers and one 17-pound Miniature Schnauzer who live inside. Since floating appears to be the simplest installation for a DIYer, I think this is definitely the route to take. It also appears -- from reading posts here -- that I may achieve a pretty durable finish using Bona Traffic or like products. That being said, I have several questions for the experts. The following link is to my yahoo photo album containing a copy of my floorplan and a couple of pictures of the areas about which I am most concerned: http://new.photos.yahoo.com/cini40/album/576460762357253226

1. Acclimatization. While I do understand that RH is more important than amount of time insofar as acclimatization is concerned, I am curious as to how long one would allow unfinished maple straight from the factory (meaning, 750 sf bundled on a shrink-wrapped pallet, as opposed to boxed in 20sf lots) to sit in my house before attempting to install? I would think a couple of weeks would be sufficient, and of course, I will perform moisture tests periodically to determine whether or not the wood has adjusted. Are there any specific concerns I should have about the wood not being "packaged" in small lots with respect to acclimatization? In other words, should I remove the shrink-wrap and let it acclimatize or leave it on? Should I break down the pallet into small lots? Especially since first 750sf to be installed as soon as properly acclimatized and remaining 750 sf to be installed over time.

2. Starting Point. I'm not sure where to start laying. As you can see from the floorplan, there is a 15' long hallway into the family room (on the left) and a vestibule into the master (on the right). There is also an angled wall at the end of the hallway the straightens out along the bar and then opens into the family room. I was thinking I should start in the hallway, since once I cross the vestibule it lines up with what is probably the longest wall in the room? You may be able to tell from the pics what I mean. Would it be better to start in the middle of the family room, and then work in both directions?

3. Finishing/Sealing. Is sealing and finishing as easy as it appears? I want to leave to maple natural, but I want the finish to be able to stand up to my dogs. Would Bona Traffic be my best bet? If so, what other Bona products do I need to purchase? Most of the instructions are for refinishing; finishing a new, unfinished floor is similar, but I don't think as much sanding is involved. I would purchase all of the Bona tools/cleaning stuff, too. Would that be the correct approach? If there is a superior product (as far as finish goes), what would you recommend? Although Bona is "for professional use only," would it be that difficult for a reasonably mechanically inclined female to install? If not, please indicate why?

4. Installation Tools/Help. One of the "flooring specialists" at HD has offered to help me with the install, as well as supply the tools (including table saw, etc.) that I need in exchange for one of my GS's puppies. Other than memorializing any agreement in writing, is there anything else I should be aware of? (I'm really not concerned too much about warranty).

5. Durability/Scratching of Maple when Dogs are in the Picture. I know that ANY wood is gonna scratch with dogs in the picture; however, it seems to me from reading that going with site-finished, using a water-based urethane finish will probably hold up pretty well. Any opinions on this besides keeping nails trimmed/wearing boots/getting the nail taps? Other alternative is handscraped; however, just putting it in my family room costs more than 1,500 sf of unfinished H-T maple.

6. Headache Factor. Considering the anticipated headache/backache/muscleache factor, and the fact that I'm anal enough to follow directions to the letter, is a DIY site-finish worth the savings?

7. Longest Time to Leave Installed Floor Unfinished. Okay, say I install 750 sf of this door in a day or two over a weekend. What is the safest amount of time to leave it unfinished (I know stains will get into unfinished wood). If I have to leave it unfinished for say five days, can I put something over it to protect it until the following weekend? I heard mention of something called masonite, but I don't know what it is. Is that anything like drywall? And is it expensive?

8. D/FW Area Professional Finisher. If site-finishing this as a DIY is too ambitious an undertaking, can anyone recommend anyone in the DFW area with a reasonable rate? I will provide the sealing/finishing materials -- I'm talking strictly labor on a new installed, unfinished maple floor, which only needs sealing/finishing. What is considered reasonable, as the rates on the HWI's site only show average rates for refinishing.

I'm sure I'll have more questions as this project moves along. I would appreciate a quick response, as I plan to order the maple and it only takes about three days to receive. Therefore, please save me from myself if I'm making a big mistake. I didn't realize choosing a floor would be so difficult. If this option doesn't work, I'll probably go with the handscraped and just relegate myself to doing one room at a time over the next couple of years.

Thanks in advance for your input![/i]

Lots of questions here. I'll take a shot.
1) If you are planning to install the Harris-Tarkett Longstrip floating floor UNFINISHED, then do NOT remove shrink wrap or plastic from individual cartons. If they plastic wrapped the pallet, then you can take the pallet wrap off but don't remove the wood from the cartons. 72 to 48 hrs. is adequate acclimation time for an engineered floater. Interior temp and humidity must be at normal living conditions.
2) With a floater, it is easiest to start at one side of the install and work all the way across. You can start in the center but you will need backer boards and a good fitting spline to reverse dirctions.
3) NO! It is actually much more difficult than it appears. BONA Traffic is as good as it gets at the moment. You may have trouble getting someone to sell it to you. What I'm having trouble with is this. The HT flooring is normally supplied factory finished. Why are you not going that route? It will cost LESS than sanding and finishing in place, especially considering the cost of Traffic floor finish.
4) What's the question here?
5) The dogs will tear up your floors. It's a fact. Get used to it. However, it will be gradual, over time so you won't notice it much. Now my turn for a question. Your family room is 1500 sq.ft.? DANG, how big is your house? Maybe you should get an equity line of credit and hire someone.
6) There will be NO savings finishing the HT Longstrip in place. In every case, the cost of unfinished compared to prefinished is usually only about a $.50 per sq.ft. savings, maybe slightly more. I typically factor in approx. $1.00 per sq.ft. for sanding and finishing supplies, more for Traffic.
7)
Masonite is a tempered hardboard. You can get it in thin, 1/4" x 4x8 ft. sheets. Lay it down and cover the floors from damage by the dogs. With a floating floor unfinished, I'd want get it sealed and finished asap. You can wait till you have the opportunity; just no longer than a couple of months.

Gary, as usual, you have great advice, and have given me quite a lot to think about. ***SIGH*** When I pulled up the carpet in my family room, I had no idea it would that deciding on the proper floor would be such an agonizing (for me, at least) decision. As I've stated, I am single, live alone, am a Chicago transplant (so I really don't know many people here well enough to ask for referrals and/or help), and have a VERY limited budget to work with. As much as I'd LOVE to put in some nice solid wenge/ipe/brazilian walnut, the reality is I cannot afford to do so. Dogs and white carpet really don't mix (what was I thinking getting not one, but THREE pups at one time). I believe my youngest pup (the male GS) thought carpet and grass were identical and, as such, deciding peeing in on the carpet was OK. NOT! Needless to say, steam cleaning white carpet ever other week probably wears out the carpet, but, more importantly, no matter how clean it looks or smells, the odor is there and consequently the the pup continued to pee. That is, until I pulled up the carpet in the family room and exposed bare concrete. (And I do have a doggie door.) So, going along the theme of "all I want was Christmas is . . . some new solid flooring," I plan to use a sizeable (again, to me) portion of my Christmas bonus to get new flooring. However, I also need to have my ducts cleaned and get a few parts for my car (yeah, I'm a tomboy, and I do a lot of mechanic work on my '94 SAAB). My dad taught both electrical and mechanical engineering at what is now UAPB in Arkansas, and was emphatic that I know how to use my hands (for example, in HS I blew the engine in a '72 Mustang Mach I, and he made me (and one of his students) do a rebuild before I could drive again. Said that to say, I really don't mind getting my hands dirty and am relatively competent working with most tools. Plus, I consider myself a quick study when it comes to learning something new. (If my long-winded posts haven't clued you in to my level of anal retentiveness, be assured that I perform exhaustive research -- of course, after being pointed in the right direction by an expert such as yourself -- prior to actually commencing any type of project. Bottom line is, I had no idea how much dust is attracted to carpet! To think, all this time I thought my vacuum was sucking up carpet freshener only to discover that's actually the dust floating about in the air. Yuck! The hardest part of this particular product is trying to make the best decision. Yes, I want to get quality material at a good price. Yes, my first choice would be that floating handscraped black-stained engineered maple that I found for $4.00 per square foot. And if I were a bit more patient, I could go ahead and get 500 square feet of the hs maple, install it in the family room and wait a couple of months until I have another $2K or so to install it in the master -- I'd be doing room-at-a-time installs, and it would take close to another year to get it all completed. The practical side of me says, though, "hey, you can get 1500 sf of the unfinished for LESS than the cost of the handscraped for one room." I figured if I installed the unfinished and used the Bona K seal/finish products, I'd only need about six gallons of Traffic (two coats?) at $480.00 bucks or so, and four gallons of Bona Sealer at $120.00 or so. Add in another $100.00 for t-bars, maroon pads, etc., and I'd only be spending about $700.00 for finish stuff, and leave about $300.00 for unstained trim. Probably another $600.00 for underlayment. Even with this, I would only be at about $3,600.00 bucks for the whole house. Of course, I'd be performing all the labor myself; but heck, I've been performing all the labor at my house since construction was completed in 2002. LOL!

Now, as to your enummerated responses, I can tell you this:

1. It is Harris-Tarkett long-strip, but I believe these boards are only 22-3/4" long (from a close-out/clearance). Yeah, I know they're short, but I don't know that it matters since it's three-strip maple; will probably just take much longer to install the true long-strip. The boards are bundled/stacked on a pallet and then shrink-wrapped -- there are no individual cartons.

2. Yes, I thought starting on one side would be the best starting point, but I'm wondering what to do where the hallway, family room and vestibule meet. I was thinking start in the hallway, continuing accross the vestibule to the next wall, then go back and lay the vestibule, followed by the family room. Make sense? Any reason not to do this way?

3. Price is the motivating factor. I can get two pallets for $0.94 per square foot. Now I know you get what you pay for, but I really need something down until I can afford the really good stuff. Funny thing is, the only rooms in my house I use are the master, family room and kitchen -- another reason I'm not too concerned about putting anything too expensive in. Figured if I just sealed and finished, I could get a nice look. While Boma is considered by many to be the best, in your opinion would I be wasting money applying it to this wood? Alternatively, is there a less expensive sealing/finishing option that would be pretty durable? I think I saw some Boma product for DIY -- it had a hyphenated name attached to it; something like Boma Preston-Leggett. Would something like this or Duraseal work just as well. Heck, even just sealing/waxing (yep -- the good old-fashioned way); I grew up with solid oak flooring that we hand-waxed with Johnson wax twice a year. Why do people no do this anymore? Okay, I'm rambling now.

4. Pretty much thinking out loud. I know I'm pretty particular about following directions to the letter, and won't take shortcuts (i.e., using poly instead of a 3-in-1 underlayment). If I allow this guy to help -- more importantly, if I give him a pup which would sell for anywhere from $500 to $1,500.00 -- I expect him to follow instructions. Yeah, I know most installers hate quarterbacking from clients, but I would think bartering for services is akin to paying for services. Are my expectations too high? (And before anyone says it, I already know that "flooring specialists" at HD are not the same as installers.)

5. LOL! No, my family room is only 463 sf. The house is 2,500 sf, and the total square footage of areas in which I want to replace the carpet is about 1,400 sf; remainder is ceramic tile. Dogs tearing up the floor? Yet another reason I don't want to invest too much in flooring until my pups have matured and settled down (another year or two). I do want something that's aesthetically pleasing, and understand that it will show wear. I just have to get something down post haste, because the concrete and dust are pretty ugly.

6. I understand what you are saying here, but I doubt that I can find a floating, engineered longstrip for $1.50/square foot. If you know of where I can find it, let me know and I will buy it instead! (Seriously.) Did have someone offer me a white oak longstrip for $1.49/square foot, but I don't know if I like white oak. I prefer the tight grain pattern of maple. Heck, if I can even get my hands on 500-800 square feet of floating engineered maple longstrip in the $2.00-$2.50 square foot range, I'd probably go for that. I'm not really looking foward to sanding/finishing, but I do what I have to do. If I can get it prefinished and just have to float, that's gravy. I just haven't been able to find it. If you have a suggestion for a floating engineered, by all means let me know! This deal is not yet cast in stone. In fact, I'm so glad you responded, as I was preparing to place my order. I'm going to hold off for now.

7. I would think that the longest time the floor would go unfinished after install would be about five days (as in the following weekend). Depending upon when it arrives, there may be no delay in finishing as I've got five vacation days left over that I need to take by year-end -- I just can't plan those days off until I know what I'm getting and when it will arrive.

And to be honest, while laminate may be the best application for people with dogs/active kids, there's just nothing as beautiful to me as real wood. And frankly, the only laminates that even come close to mimicking the look and texture of real wood cost way more than I would want to spend for plastic. I'd rather put in $0.99 maple and replace it in a few years, than have some cheap-looking picture of wood on the floor. And there's a lot of that out there.

I know this is a long most (heck, what post of mine isn't?), but I don't really have many people on whom I can rely for guidance. The people in the retail stores try and steer me to some inferior product at an extremely jacked up price -- sometimes three-five times higher than here on this and other internet sites, or something that isn't even remotely close to what I'm looking for. It's really frustrating. Heck, the thing that turned me off about the guy at the store with the Americana is the fact that he tried to steer me to some off-brand, pad applied crap that was actually FLAKING and tell me that it was a superior product to the QS Perspective. Hah! Then he tried to steer me to red oak. Red oak is a beautiful wood, but it doesn't work with my decor -- something I made quite obvious from the beginning. *****SIGH***** I swear, I had no idea I'd be this torn up over getting flooring. If anyone can suggest a prefinished floater with a tight grain pattern (similar to maple), by all means let me know!

Okay, I think I can take a deep breath now. I just want to find something within the next two weeks so I can let it acclimatize and hopefully get it installed before the end of the year (not in time for Xmas, just trying to tie install in with unused vacation time). I've even considered the BR-111 Tigerwood on here, but I'm a little concerned about the thin wear layer. Any thoughts on that? It seems that the Triangulo is a better product with respect to wear, but it's out of my budget for now. Bottom line is, the family room MUST be done ASAP. It measures 463 square feet. If I have to increase my budget and only do the family room in order to get a more realiable/durable product that may be what I have to do. What I don't want to do is bump up my budget to $4-5/sq foot for flooring that will be a DIY install and have problems down the line, and have the manufacturer tell me my warranty is no good.


As always, any input is appreciated. Thanks for listening . . . er, reading.

tight grain or do you mean straight grain?


Birch has a straight grain, but will dent easier then oak.

I probably mean "straight" grain or "closed(?)" grain -- woods that have a similar appearance to Maple. I have samples of pecan, and it's similar. I don't think I've looked at birch (perhaps I should).

I did not realize you were going to buy all the shorts that come with a HT longstrip floor. You see, HT puts in one or two short starter boards per carton but most are full length (about 7.5'). So yes, less than a buck a ft. Now I know you may have already thought of this but what about an inexpensive laminate. It will wear better than that maple. But you should get what you like and can afford. In your finishing calculations, you are forgeting to include renting a buffer/sander and sanding supplies. At minimum, the floor should be screened. Preferably hardplated first, then screened. And is the HT flooring you are buying the newer click together or the older glue-up type? If gluing, need to add in the cost of the glue (not much, it's Titebond 11). Well, sounds as if you have thought it through. Only other wood flooring that is inexpensive is a finger block parquet. Good luck.

Hey, Gary. Thanks again for your insight. And yes, I seriously considered a cheap laminate, but when I saw the sample it looked REALLY cheesy -- literally looked like a piece of brown paper. In essence, I'd rather have this cheap maple "parquet" (not really, my description since they're shorts) than the really cheap lam. This H-T is the older glue-on-the-T&G type. I missed out on the prefinished true long-strip (7') maple at $1.49 -- it sold out. I can still get pre-finished 7' white oak at that price, but we're back to whether or not I like it. Plus, I believe the prefinished ones have an aluminum oxide finish with a very thin wear layer (something like 1mm if I recall correctly), which is why I thought if I put down unfinished and then put a sealer and Traffic on it, it might hold up better than the prefinished --even though I do understand that with the dogs I'm gonna get some wear. I assumed I'd have to screen first, but what is hardplating? I'm not familiar with that term. I am also prepared to replace this floor three to five years down the line with what I really want -- I just need something in the family room now to serve the basic purpose of having something solid underfoot. Saw a picture of the short maple finish installed with a natural finish applied, and it looked pretty nice. And it looked waaaaaay better than laminate.

Here's a question for you: if you were in my position (that is, only have about $3,000-$4,000 to work with and having the dogs), would you go ahead and purchase just enough of the prefinished engineered floating handscraped (5/8" wide x 1/2" thick, random lengths [70% 72"], 3mm wearlayer) to complete the family room and worry about the rest of the house later, or get enough of the unfinished for the whole house at less than the cost of the one room. My biggest concern about going this route would be transitioning to carpet in the master (which will need to be steam-cleaned periodically -- wood and water don't mix, and all that jive). Double doors lead into the master off the vestibule. I prefer the look of just making a header from a plank to using an endcap or t-molding, although I would probably replace whatever is there with a t-molding when I purchase additional wood for the master. I know this is a personal decision, but it would help to know how others would choose. And yes, the handscraped is not only my favorite, but it is also stained black -- which is what I really want. I'm pretty sure that handscraped would hold up to the dogs better. Only going for the natural finish because I don't think I wanna go through the headache of trying to get a black stain, and I'd imagine scratches/indentations won't be as visible.

[/i]

First thing, I would not have three large dogs living in a house with me. I cannot imagine the amount of hair, and other issues, that it would entail. But that is a personal preference. My brother has two and they tear up the house and floors IMO. Be that as it may, IF I had to have dogs and floors, I'd probably choose a tough ceramic or porcilan tile. It would out last any wood floor product and you won't be having to redo it in 3-5 yrs. But that is what I would do. However, if your sold on wood and don't mind the extra upkeep, then get what you like. As far as scraped, I prefer the look of distressed and wire brushed over scraped. But that is just my taste. Just installed some Kahrs Cottage and Castle and I really liked it over scraped. And keep in mind, all these distressed floors will be MORE difficult to recoat down the road and if they ever need sanding, that will be more expensive and you will lose the factory distressing. Something to consider as well.