We've being shopping last 4 weeks for a hardwood floor for our house (about 1300 sq). Finally we narrowed down two manufactures Mirage and Lauzon, both Canadian with wood mills in Canada, very good quality. Also, me and my wife, like the African Sapele and both, Mirage and Lauzon, have this type of wood. Now we stuck with decision on two topics: 1. What finish we should buy semi-gloss or cashmere (only Mirage has cashmere); 2. What edges we should buy, micro-v or square edges (only Lauzon carries square edges). For #1, I've search on the net and found different opinions on matt/satin vs semi-gloss finish. Pros for matt/satin it does not show scratches and better hides dust, etc. bottom line less cleaning (low maintenance). Cons - walking in the house bare food (which i do all years long, can't stand socks of sleepers) leaves more visible foot prints on the floor, also we have a dog who plays with the toys and "wet" toys leaves marks on the floor which probably also will be more visible on matt/satin finish then semi-gloss. We did little experiment we took Sapele cashmere and Sapele semi-gloss (Mirage) boards from the store and simply tried to have a grease marks by pressing finger on the board and it appears that cashmere has more noticeable mark then semi-gloss, so i assume walking bare food will leave more marks on matt/satin/cashmere finish then on semi-gloss. Does any one had this problem with satin finish? For #2 we really like the solid look of floor so the square edges will work for us (in this case it will be semi-gloss because Lauzon carries only semi-gloss for square-edge) but my big concern is installation, we have plywood sub-floor and what I've read on net it's better to glue down engineered square edge vs staple/nail down and it's not common to glue down to plywood sub-floor also splinter and sock ripping edges sticking out. Another big concern for square edge is wood contraction (summer/winter temperature/humid) which might create gaps in the floor and with square edges it will be more noticeable then micro-v. So do i really have a valid concerns or i simply overthinking and overresearchin on all of it.
Currently we have a 3 inch Daru-Daru solid wood in our house, more gloss then semi-gloss. I've DIY 5 years ago, after installation it was gorgeous but now it's a disaster. We have gaps (in some places quarter inch) all over our house, i can simply count planks that are firmly attached to each other (only couple dozen in whole house). We did a big mistake when we bought this floor: first it was No Name brand made in China, second it was super exotic wood so i could not get any information about it such as durability, expansion rate, etc. we simply fell in love with color and price, BIG, BIG, BIG mistake. So after such a disaster i am little bit paranoid about contraction and gaps in our future new floor and my wife in "cleaning" paranoia due to every other day cleaning of current floor.

I would really appreciate any thoughts, advice and pictures.

Have you done research about Saplele and how it's harvested? I read that it is a protected species in some African country's and is on the endangered list. I would hate to think the floor in my house was illegally harvested and caused the destruction of old world forests that are being clear cut.

Sure is a beautiful wood though.

And how it's helping me with square edge vs micro-v and semigloss vs cashmere(matt)???
B.t.w. Yes I did and you (floormeintucson) wrong. Sapele as any other exotic wood is certified for import so it is not endangered, can't imagine that almost every hardwood floor company is a smugler. Wood supplier/importer might import sapele as any other exotic wood from endanger forest but it has nothing to do with speciese it self, it's like you cutting pine tree in the national park, does it make pine tree be endangered speciese?
And yes, it is beautiful.
thank you for post any way.

This is very odd. The original post from sharaga could not possibly have been written by the same person as the second post.
However, that is not germaine to this conversation.
Sapele (African Walnut) as manufactured by Mirage is FSC certified and as such is harvested from properly managed forestry. Presumably so is the Lauzon product, but since I dont work with this manufacturer, I cannot be sure.
I am hesitant to use a square edge pre-finished floor simply because the micro-bevel will alleviate any miniscule variances in the edge joints.
Matte finishes will help conceal (not avoid) minor scratches and scuffs that are inevitable with day to day living. I cannot however see why one would show footprints more than the other.
Good luck with your choice, and may I recommend that you have your HVAC system, air-conditiong, and humidification systems checked so that you are better able to reduce seasonal humidity fluctuations. This will help avoid the gapping problem you have with your current floor.

thank you dennis, yeah some time i want to recall my first thoughts but it's late the submit button was pressed Honestly i was trying to get professional opinion on specific subject where i am not really certain but instead getting "tree hugging" lecture.
Any way. Speaking about matt finish it was just my personal experiment exact same wood (two boards of Mirage sapele semigloss and cashmere) press your thumb on both boards and look at certain angle to see mark and to my personal opinion that mark stands out more on matt, i might be completely wrong.
I am too about square edge and that is why i start looking at Owens who currently owned by Quanex Homeshield LLC but finishing the floor little bit scares me. I am not new to the wood, as a hobby i'm building furniture finishing etc., but never done any finishing job on floor.

You must not have gotten the same info as I have sharga. Yes, I love trees and wood as well. It can be possible.

Lots of manufacturer's use responsibly harvested products and even if there is spec of a possibility that wood is not being harvested correctly they don't import it. And there is that spec. I try and point that out to my clients.

As I said in some country's it is protected due to over cutting. In some others they simply do not care. I know it is a popular wood amoung furniture makers as well as musical instruments.

You spoke about that super duper exotic wood your having issues with and now you want another? Okey dokey.

http://www.arkive.org/sapele/entandroph ... /info.html

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/the- ... ise-098910

Dear floormeintucson, thank you for your post again let's take nature discussion to some other forums, i am really interested in square edge and matt finish

Denada sharga. Socks or booty's, slippers always help those olis off the foot and or skin from soiling the surface of any flooring.

I'm with Dennis on the square edge, go micro bevel with a thick veneer

thank you floormeintucson, so two for micro-v, but solid look just banging in my head, "I'm better, I'm better, ..." and my wife too, "solid, solid, solid" I am sure some people have just different taste and they like the micro-v because it shows that you have real wood planks and not laminate, i guess i have different taste. Any professional opinion on former Owen Flooring unfinished engineered Plank floor? Looks like they US based with manufactures in WI (which i really like, can't get over Chinese quality) but since they went under and now owned by Home-Shield do they have same quality as couple year ago? Any resent projects with them?

How about a U.S. manufacture?

Here's a high end engineered manufacturer err actually two I would use if I had your kinda coin to spend :

http://www.floorlayers.com/collections.htm

http://www.usfloorsllc.com/products/nav ... ed-floors/

well, it is not that i have coin to spend but i am looking for a good quality product and don't want to end up with similar problem(s) that i currently have. I went through several manufactures but none of them has same amount of positive review level as Owen Flooring. Here is what i looked at: www.floorlayers.com, www.usfloorsllc.com and www.schaferhardwoodflooring.com. Does any one working with any of these brands?

I've worked with a few USfloors products. It's top shelf stuff.

i'll try to find them locally. What about Owens? i called them and they still in the business, as Owens Flooring by Colonial Craft, selling same type of floor, i'll try to talk to then on Tuesday just to make sure that nothing has being changed in production (hope it still in US) and i'll get quote on them on Tuesday from local retailer.
Have a great Memorial Day.

Not sure if the manufacturing has stayed the same on the Owens products, be interested to know what you find out. I dont have a local source for them anymore If they are producing the same product, it's second to none.

Here is direct quote from National Account Manager of Owens by Colonial Craft

"All product is still produced at the state of the art Owens facility in Shawano WI. The quality of product is the same high quality product that Owens is know for. The company that purchased us is know for quality in all of the product they make and one of the reasons that they purchased the assets of Owens. Owens is, and always will be committed to making the highest quality engineered flooring in the industry. Owens will always keep the bar high and make our competition strive to match us."

So looks like it is the same high quality Owens Flooring and most likely i'll go with them, it will depends on price which i'll get on Tuesday from my local retailer.