My wife and I want to install 1100sf of tigerwood flooring 3/4 x 5 1/2 prefinished. I have been trying to research both companies online and come up with little luck, besides this website. I have read BR111 has six coats of aluminum oxide and Scandian has ten. Will this make a big difference in scratch resistance and dents? Scandian is 50 cents more a sq. ft., Who would you use? Also using wider boards I understand I may have problems with buckling, and splitting; Is this only caused by humidity levels and will a whole house humidifier/dehumidifier prevent this

Thanks Ryan

I can tell you to stay away from the BR-111 engineered Tigerwood. Solid is a good product. The engineered product has a paper thin top layer. I have seen problems with it delaminating.

Thanks, we planed on 3/4 solid tigerwood. Is there any difference in the aluminum oxide coats between manufactures?

Good question!
I'm not sure if there are guidlines referring to what a manufacturer can call a "coat". If there isn't, there should be. All the manufacturers claim fame to their number of coats. I haven't heard of a coat being a unit of measure

Generally, aluminum oxide is only imbedded in the top coats(s) of finish.
So the total coat count is irrelevant to the durability of the finish.

added: the aluminum oxide does tend to cloud the finish somewhat on a microscopic level, so the more coats of finish that has this, the less transparent the overall look of the floor will be.

The more coats the better. Prefinished coats are a lot thinner than your onsite finish jobs.

# of coats doesn't mean much, and the # of coats of aluminum oxide means even less. On prefinished floors nowadays, the aluminum oxide is suspended throughout the finish layers, and not confined just to the topcoat. A manufacturer will tell you how many coats of finish they have, but they aren't going to tell you exactly how much aluminum oxide is added to that finish. Also, the # of coats doesn't matter unless you are dealing with the same millage per coat. 4 coats of finish by one manufacturer may be as thick as 7 coats by another, and have the same amount of AO suspended throughout. So, I would always try to purchase based on consumer reviews and reputation, not by the marketing department.

Exactly what I thought, but wasnt sure, ( just a marketing thing ). IMO there shoud be a unit of measure for finish , with an aluminum oxide standard, for manufacturer's to abide by

Hey, Isn't anybody working today

What do consumers know really? Not much. They all have different maintenance issues and all treat the floor differently. I stick to my post the more the merrier because you really just don't know.

Different manufacturers will bring in similar wood from different areas of a country & different countries, cut from different age trees. They may call this similar wood, Tigerwood, or Koa. It enters into it, but IMO alot of times it doesnt matter if a wood has 5 or 7 coats of finish, without knowing the thickness of coats. What will matter is all these "same woods" have slightly different densities.

I have definetely run accross these "same specie" exotic woods, that vary in density.

Wow... that just gave me a heart attack because I am a day away from ordering 1200 sqft of BR-111's Zinfandel Tigerwood from their Antiquity hand scraped engineered line. I am assuming that you are referring to the BR-111 5/16 x 6-1/4" engineered line that does have a ridiculously thin wear layer. Correct? The Antiquity engineered line appears to have a similar wear layer (at least 3mm) as their Triangulo line which are a much better and obviously pricier product.

Finished a Hartco Tigerwood a month ago that had a big fat sawn wear layer. Yes thats a new term. I'd say it was easily 3/16. Too bad there was twenty paper thin ply's under it. I hate that.

Saw some new Bruce 3 ply 3/8 2 1/4 engineered. It was actually a balanced construction that I have not seen in years. All plys were the same thickness.

Yes, The product I was referring to is an engineered 5/16 x 3 . Have had delamination issues, out of the box. Actually a lot of it was installed, then clearly visable in the right light . Other than their "paper thin top layer products", I've always liked BR-111's other products. Haven't installed it in a while, not familiar with the lines your mentioning.

That's a relief and thanks for the follow-ups. I never have stumbled across much Hartco but that sounds like one nice wear layer. When I originally was solely looking at smooth finishes I was pretty adamant about nothing less than a 4mm wear layer. However, I have realized that the advice regarding engineered hand scraped products and sanding is probably pretty accurate, i.e., you cannot really do so.

Thus, now I am just looking for a good wear layer to begin with and will deal with scratches and dents along the way by blending them into the hand scraping and distressing. In fact the BR-111 engineered antiquity line has a french bleed affect so I can likely hide some decent dents/dings with black fill-in.

One last question for you guys since both of you are in the desert climate as well (I'm here in AZ). At 2160 Tigerwood is a little less dense than the native Mesquite of the area. Thus, I am assuming that it should fare well with the lower humidity. Also, I am going for a sawn cut wear layer given that I have heard they hold up better in the lower humidity climates than rotary peeled does. What do you think?

You really cannot put much faith in hardness readings on most engineered products, unless the core underneath is a similar hardness. However the thicker the layer the more resistant it will be, but not to true form.

The hardness test takes into account using solid hardwoods. I have not seen any studies with engineered in mind. They couldn't really fashion one for engineered because manufacturers use different types of material in their construction.

Curious?

Anybody know "how hard" that HDF stuff is that some are now using under veneers?