I'm planning on replacing all the carpet in my house with hardwood. At this point, I'm looking at 3/4 solid planking in either hard maple or hickory.

What I can't decide on is prefinished or sand and finish on site. I have cats and dogs--they're all well past the house training stage, but there is still the occasional accident.

Sand and finish sounds like it would be a good idea with the animals because there would be no seams between the planks to wick or collect urine or vomit.

Prefinished sounds like it would be a good idea because of the shorter install time and the harder finish (true? I've been getting conflicting opinions on this one.)

I've also been told that if I go with sand and finish on site, I should wait 48-72 hours before moving furniture back on the floors. Since I'm really doing my entire house (everything but two bathrooms and the laundry rooms) it sounds like trying to live in my house while the finish is curing would be ... difficult. Not to mention trying to figure out where to store 2000 sq ft of furniture.

Thoughts?

The dust will be unbelievable. Go with a quality pre-finished and clean up spills promptly. The finish will be longer lasting in most cases with factory controlled finishes.

Make sure you pick a hard wood to install with lots of grain patterns (Oak,Ash etc..). Maple will look like hell in a short time due to the even graining, cats and dogs. It is also an unstable wood mostly best suited for strip flooring (not plank).

I wouldn't recommend a stained wood. Go with a natural finish so the scratches,dents aren't as visible.

well

a prefinished floor isnt flat, no matter how good it is installed. Ive installed them and had chairs rock back and forth, even tables.

The finish, a quality prefinished floor will have a harder finish, but material cost is very high, often higher then a site finished floor including all the labor. Quality prefinished materials that I have dealt with have been 7+ sqft, not including adding maple/hicory into the mix.

Moving the furnature is a big down side, the dust is also.
But you can do it in sections most likely, and dustless systems are availiable.

If you want a strong finish you can get some pretty tough ones. With a maple/hicory floor I would say go with natural (no stain) Let the beauty of the wood give you all the charetor(sp?) and traffic waterbased finish is really durable.

Just my .02

LOL, I bet you have!


(Bite'n tongue gently)

I have lol, actually a teak floor I did had some spots that werent flat, The company we did it for wanted us to sand the plywood seems flat, SO we did. Still wasnt flat, after inspection and some removal. Some of the boards were 1/16 almost a 1/8th on a few thicker than the rest. That was the final straw for me and prefinished.

THe dust is mostly all eliminated now with a simple vacuum system. There will be far more dust from installation than sanding.

Hickory is more unstable than maple. You might consider the lower grades of those species for a very interesting floor that won't show scratches and cracks. Who sells this in wide plank pre-finished solid?