I am planning a DIY (first time) installation of 3/4" hardwood (Brazilian Cherry) in my own home. I am an experienced, well-equipped, and competent DIY'er. My recent kitchen remodel (complete gut) is now complete, except for the floor. My installation will be on the entire main floor of our 4-level split, which includes the kitchen, dining area, living room, and foyer. The installation continues up 7 steps, and into a small (about 12 foot long) hallway. I am terminating the new floor at each of the four bedroom doors, and those rooms will be carpeted. (for now at least). The job involves removing glued-down parquet, and repairing a lot of squeaks in the subfloor. There is also some water damage to the subfloor in a few small areas.

I have done considerable research on flooring options, and have settled on only one factor, which is 3/4" X 3" (or 3 1/4") Brazilian Cherry.

I hope some of you can express your opinions on the following questions? And, my logic?

1. Pre-finished or un-finished? I am 99% decided on pre-finished. While I like the end-result look of a site-finished floor (i.e. mostly no-micro-bevels), I am skeptical, not so much of my skills in performing the sanding and finishing, but of my lack of experience in getting it done right on this first-time job. It also seems that pre-finished floors are more durable than site-finished, but that may be just my take from a lot of marketing.

2. Brand. I am leaning heavily towards BR-111. There seems to be about a half a dozen (larger) brands that carry Brazilian Cherry, but I seem to always come back to BR-111. I have a few samples from them, along with some from Lumber Liquidators. I actually like LL better because of the lack of micro-bevel (maybe not a good thing), and from the look of their finish. However, the many bad reviews of LL that I have seen, seems to cancel out those advantages. My only other experience is with my daughter's home, which has a recent Mullican BC installation. It seems OK, but I don't like the higher gloss finish that it has.

3. Stairs. My plan is to create stair treads from a combination of floor boards, and a piece of nosing. The staircase is open on the left side, and using this method seems to be a better option as the nosing (from BR-111) comes pre-finished and the treads do not, which will also benefit me in cutting and making the returns. The risers will be painted white, and I will either re-use what is already in place (oak panels), or install new. I've explored a number of sources for treads, with or without returns, and keep coming back to my original plan. I know that the purists out there seem to prefer treads over pieced treads, but I don't really have a strong opinion about it either way.

4. Installation. The main level is basically a 20X25 foot room with a zig-zagged wall in the middle dividing the kitchen. My plan is to start the installation somewhat in the middle of the room (in the kitchen), where the sight-line from the stairs through the kitchen is most obvious (boards will be perpendicular to stairs). This means a run of about 8 feet in one direction, and 17 feet in the other. On the second level, it is pretty straight-forward. However, my plan at the doorway transitions is to simply install a piece of floorboard in the perpendicular doorways as a transition to the carpet. I'll fold and nail the carpet in front of it for the time being, as I plan to leave the existing parquet in place in those rooms. The bathroom has a marble threshold, which will need to be undercut to make up for the thickness difference when the parquet comes out and the hardwood goes in.

I hope for some help here. I am ready to pull the trigger on this project, and purchase some material.

Thanks in advance. I am open to any suggestions.

Jgwalter sounds like you got things going on please ck mill of wood before buying it, understanding that you are going to installed wood ck sub floor string line/ level prefinish would be your best bet due to the type of wood brazillian cherry is beautiful.

Best of luck on project wentzwood

"mill of wood" ??

I started to swing back towards Lumber Liquidators in my decision, mostly because of the micro-bevel issue, and the fact that they usually have this popular wood in stock, and I can just put it on my truck.

However, while their display board did not show the micro-bevels, their current samples did, and their salesperson stated that they were present. No big deal, but this time the finish looked glossier than I liked. Oh, well.

Price is a bit of a factor also, with LL currently at $5.79. I have not found BR-111 much under $7.00.

Decision tomorrow.