I just bought an old 1930's Colonial that has all that old dark gumwood crown molding and huge baseboard trim. The hardwoods are in absolutely terrible shape and have so many problems they need to be replaced.

Anyways, the issue I have is I have to go with a darker looking wood floor to match the trim and the natural dark woods such as Brazilian Cherry are out of my price range (i'm looking at or around $4 sq. ft. and I want solid not engineered). So i'm pretty much stuck getting a stained wood and have come to the conclusion that Bruce Waltham in either Kenyan or Whiskey is a perfect fit-its 3/4 in. prefinished solid oak and is only 3.79 on this website.

The issue I have is after reading through a lot of old posts is that some people say that the only way to hide scratches in hardwoods is to have them finished in their naturual color because when a stained hardwood gets scratched you will see the natural color hardwood underneath and obviously the color difference between a real dark stain like i want and oak is going to stand out like a sore thumb. For people that have stained floors, do you find this a big problem? Obviously the floors are going to get scratched-thats a given-but do they really get scratched so bad down to the wood? I figured normal scratches were just in the finish? I'm planning on having a litttle 20lb furball dog or two-most of the hardwoods will not be accessible to them and I will put throw rugs on others but have anyone had any big problems with this? I don't want my floor to be zebra -looking with scratches showing the light oak and the rest being the dark stain after a few years!

Thanks for the reply. Apologize for the length of this post!

Nick

I wouldn't worry about a few scratches. You can touch those up with various scratch cover products like stain pens and such. Get what you like and can afford. The original floors were probably some kind of oak so get that Bruce floor you found. Wood floors are meant to be lived on. Don't worry about a few scratches.

Thanks gary...anyone have anymore thoughts?

Nick

I've never stained or installed a wood floor, but I've stained a lot of other wood and I'd like to share my opinion.

First, the top coat will help protect the actual wood from being scratched. Obviously some scratches make it through the topcoat, but the majority should not.

Secondly, the stain penetrates more than just the very top of the wood. Depending on the grain, I've had some wood take stain over 1/8" deep.

So it would take a very deep scratch to show the raw oak and even those can be touched up as Gary has mentioned.

Hope that helps,

Russell