Prefinished Hardwood – Enjoy Your Floors Faster
Today, you have two options for installing hardwood flooring in your home.
First, you can select the traditional method of site-finished floors. As that implies, you install unfinished wood flooring. Once installed, you proceed with finishing the floors to complete the installation.
Second, you can select an increasingly popular option, prefinished hardwood flooring. As its name implies, you receive the finished flooring ready for installation.
Is one option better than the other? Let’s find out.
Myths About Prefinished Flooring
We’ll start by dispelling a couple of myths about prefinished flooring.
Prefinished wood flooring isn’t the same thing as engineered hardwood flooring. However, engineered hardwood floors typically come prefinished. For that matter, solid hardwood floors often come prefinished.
Prefinishing refers to the process of applying a finish to solid or engineered wood at either the manufacturer’s facility or the end-user’s site.
You may also hear the term’ prestained hardwood flooring.’ Don’t let that confuse you. Prestained is another term for prefinished hardwood flooring.
What is Prefinished Hardwood Flooring?
With that out of the way, we’ll give you a better understanding of what prefinished hardwood is.
Prefinished hardwood flooring is wood flooring that has been finished at the factory before it is installed. Instead of applying stains, sealants, and topcoats in your home, the manufacturer typically applies them.
As mentioned, the process applies to solid wood floors and engineered floors.
Installing Prefinished Hardwood
Here’s where prefinished wood floors shine. You receive wood flooring that’s ready to install. Once installed, it’s ready to go, allowing you to enjoy your new wood floors sooner.
That makes installation much more manageable, so prefinished floors are perfect for DIY folks. You can unpack the flooring, lay it clean, and move your furniture back in. Job complete.
Installing Site-Finished Hardwood
Compare that with site-finished flooring, where laying your floors only marks the beginning of the process. Then, the installer must sand, stain, and finish them. Typically, they’ll apply several sealant coats. Additionally, the room must remain as dust-free as possible, or it can impact the finish.
That process can take days, even weeks. Moreover, the process is. Therefore, it is best to stay out of your home until the flooring has cured.
Considering all that, you’ll want to hire a pro to install your flooring.
As you can see, prestained floors make the installation process simple, fast, and safer.
Can You Tell the Difference Between Prestained and Site-Finished Floors?
Typically, yes, owing to microbevels. For example, manufacturers add bevels on the edges of prefinished flooring to create a smooth plank surface. These micro bevels create a slight indent or groove along the floor’s edges.
Once installed, the floors present a visible groove separating planks. Think of it as a “V” between each plank.
Whether those grooves bother you is a matter of personal taste. Most people have little issue with them. There’s little downside other than the grooves might capture some debris.
However, you’ll likely prefer site-finished floors if you want a smooth finish.
What are the Benefits of Prefinished Hardwood Floors?
You’ve likely uncovered one chief benefit of prestained floors. You can visit a local home center, select a floor, have it delivered, and install it almost immediately after it has acclimated. If the room is small, you can return your furniture and relax on the same day that the floor is installed.
But their benefits don’t end there.
Improved Durability
The finish applied at the factory is generally aluminum oxide. And that finish is tough, really tough.
You probably have never heard of the Mohs hardness rating. It measures the resistance of a smooth surface to scratching or abrasion. And after all, you want your flooring to be just that — scratch resistant.
Diamonds have a 10 rating, the highest on the Mohs scale. Aluminum oxide has a 9 rating. To give you a perspective on how hard that is, consider that steel has a rating of 4.
The Flooring Looks Good Longer
That translates to high-quality flooring that is scratch and dent-resistant. Coupled with a harder wood species, such as popular oak flooring, you end up with flooring that can withstand high traffic. And it looks good doing so for 25 to 30 years.
Site-finished floors can lose their luster in five to seven years.
It’s little wonder manufacturers like Hartco include a 50-year limited warranty on engineered wood flooring like Prime Harvest®.
Uniform Finish
In addition to being durable, prefinished hardwood has a more uniform finish than site-finished wood.
Prestained floors receive their finish in a factory-controlled environment. That eliminates issues like dust and debris that could impact it.
You lack that kind of control with on-site finished floors. Eliminating dust from potentially falling onto the finish during application is virtually impossible. The risk carries on during the drying process.
Disadvantages of Prefinished Wood Floors
We all know nothing is perfect. So, what are some of the concerns about prestained floors? We mentioned one already, the micro bevels.
For some people, it detracts from the look of the floors. They’re also cautious about cleaning because those grooves can collect dirt.
Lesser Selection of Styles
The other downside is that you have a fixed number of styles and designs. Prefinished floors can’t cover every color or treatment. If you want a unique appearance, site-finished hardwood allows for customization, with many options and design possibilities.
Prefinished flooring is like a computer editing program. You may have heard the acronym WYSIWYG – ‘what you see is what you get.’ Well, that’s the case with prestained floors. Conversely, you might select a stain and finish for site-finished floors that look drastically different from what you had hoped.
Can You Refinish Prefinished Hardwood Floors?
Many people have a common concern about prefinished hardwood flooring. And that’s whether you can refinish them. The answer is yes.
The process does require a good bit of sanding to remove the aluminum oxide finish. But once done, you effectively have a site-finished floor to work with. You can apply a similar or new stain color and finish.
With solid hardwood floors, you can sand and refinish your flooring up to five times. Less so with engineered wood floors that have a thin hardwood veneer layer on their surface. Depending on the veneer’s thickness, it can be refinished up to three times.
Maintenance Tips for Prefinished Hardwood
Maintaining prefinished hardwood flooring is relatively straightforward and can help prolong its lifespan:
- Regular Cleaning: Sweep or vacuum your floors regularly to remove dirt and debris. Use a damp (not wet) mop with a hardwood floor cleaner recommended by the manufacturer for periodic cleaning.
- Protect from Scratches: Place felt protectors under furniture legs to avoid dents. Use rugs or mats in high-traffic areas to prevent scratches and dents.
- Control Humidity: Maintain consistent indoor humidity levels to prevent the wood from shrinking or expanding. Use a humidifier in dry conditions and a dehumidifier in humid conditions.
- Avoid Excessive Moisture: Wipe up spills promptly to prevent water damage and minimize the use of excessive water when cleaning.
Hartco® Has a Wide Selection of Real Hardwood Flooring
Whether you’re a fan of solid or engineered hardwood, Hartco offers prefinished hardwood to complement your decor.
You can select from popular species, like hickory, maple, and oak. Add finishes like hand scraping or wire brushing for a more rustic look. There’s also a wide selection of traditional hardwood styles.
You can find Hartco products at flooring retailers across the nation.