If you are in the midst of shopping for pre-finished wood, I would encourage you to take a minute and brush up on the basics. You see, there are many people that are more than willing to sell you new pre-finished wood flooring. However, the number of those who will sell it to you and supply you with the proper information, is far less than the total number available.

For the purpose of this article, I am assuming that you have concluded that pre-finished wood flooring is what you really do want. There are other choices including linoleum, natural stone, ceramic tile, as well as laminate flooring, depending on the look that you are trying to capture. I am assuming that you have narrowed your choice down to pre-finished wood and this process should help you make the right choice.

The first part of any flooring experience should be to establish the basics of your lifestyle, living habits and general needs. This will help the salesperson with his selection and so too assist in the choice of flooring you finally make. It is simply not enough to find something you like the look of and then expect it to work with your living environment.

Beyond those basics, we are going to talk today about your ability, as the consumer, to help guide the buying process. These principles can be used in most purchasing situations - but this is specifically directed to pre-finished wood flooring. Remember that this is an 'interview sales format' and is similar to what your sales person should be asking you. Following the standard questioning I have added a few of my patented insights which I hope will help guide you to your own conclusions. Let's begin.

GOOD DAY TO YOU. THANKS FOR COMING IN - LET ME GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE PRE-FINISHED WOOD SHOPPING PROCESS BY ASKING YOU A FEW QUESTIONS. FIRST - WHAT AREAS OF THE HOME ARE YOU CONSIDERING INSTALLING WOOD FLOORING IN?

Because of the natural beauty of wood and the trend towards natural colour and texture, I have found that wood is used throughout the home. Many people have wood starting in their entry, going down the hallway into the kitchen and dining room. There are truly unlimited number of choices - but I personally consider wet areas off limits.

A critical component to this part of your decision is the technical feasibility on where the product is to be installed. For instance, if you want new wood in your kitchen and family room, that sounds like a good application. However, if you have vinyl in the kitchen with a ¾" particleboard underlayment and your family room has carpet, you now have a more complex installation. Most people want the new floor to be one level so you can do one of two things:

Raise the thickness of the family room by adding an underlayment, so that it matches the total thickness of the vinyl and particleboard. This can be done for most glue down, nail down and floating floors. But, you may create a thickness problem in the family room doorways. Don't forget to check tolerances at the slider door, and other transition points, to make sure that doors still work after adding both the underlayment as well as the new pre-finished flooring, which can be as thick as ¾ of an inch.

You may also need to consider whether your refrigerator will still fit under your cabinets and whether you will still be able to get your dishwasher out in the future with the addition of the new pre-finished wood flooring. What about a fireplace? Will you scribe cut to the bricks or masonry work or will you undercut? What is the impact on the baseboard? Remove the vinyl and underlayment in the kitchen and install the new flooring in the new area. This may sound simple at first - but let's investigate further.

Getting vinyl and underlayment off the sub-floor is a difficult and possibly dangerous task. You need to make sure your vinyl does not contain asbestos by getting it tested. If you do have asbestos, ask a local asbestos company for advice about how to proceed. If you do not have asbestos in your vinyl, you can move onto the next step, which would be cutting up the sub-floor (with the vinyl still attached) and removing it in chunks. Once you remove every single nail and staple what was left from that old sub-floor (pray that it was not screwed and glued down), you can then look at the damage you just inflicted on your cabinets. If you are careful you won't hit them or scratch them - but be aware of this possibility during the demolition so that you don't end up spending more time and money due to carelessness. Once you have removed the carpet,underlay and tack strip.

That is basically all you'll need - but you'll still need to be aware of transition points and how they will work with the flooring. One other problem is the chance that your baseboard will now be lower than before and that may leave an exposed area of wall that does not have paint or wallpaper on it, and therefore, may require additional cost and attention.

Whew! How exhausting! My object with the above accounting, about what goes into the typical process, is not to scare you. I simply want to make sure you anticipate every detail prior to the job starting and not have it surprise you once you are in the midst of it.

There are literally hundreds of variables with your home and the potential choices for flooring, but here is what impacts the technical part of your job the most:

Installation method Thickness of new wood floor Existing sub-floor where new floor will be installed Transition points in the room and availability of transitions Usage of the room and applicability of the proposed material

If you are trying to match wood that has been installed previously, you will really need to determine what you mean by match. If you mean match dead on - you are headed for trouble. If you mean match as close as is reasonable - you will need to duplicate the previous floor to the best of your abilities. That means, if your floor was installed, sanded and finished in place, you will need to use that same process again, which means you can quit reading this. If, on the other hand, you want to use a pre-finished wood that ties in and has a good flow, then read on!

NOW THAT YOU HAVE DETERMINED WHERE IN THE HOME TO INSTALL THE WOOD, WE NEED TO ESTABLISH WHAT KIND OF TRAFFIC THOSE AREAS WILL HAVE TO HANDLE. DO YOU HAVE ANY FACTORS THAT MAKE YOUR AREA A HIGH TRAFFIC AREA?

This key question should be answered as honestly as possible. If you have kids and pets, you should already know the answer. Large dogs in particular can be a tax on your wood floor so be prepared to choose a better quality flooring that can withstand your needs.

For instance, there are some really beautiful high gloss wood floors, from brands like Mirage, Bruce, Hartco, Mercier and many more. These sleek ultra sheen floors have almost a wet look. Some people really really like this look. However, a general rule is that the higher the gloss, the more likely you will see flooring imperfections and scratches. Therefore, if you have a high traffic area - do not put in a high gloss. Use a satin or semi-gloss finish.

A satin or lower gloss look can be absolutely stunning and show less day to day wear and tear than the high gloss looks. I recommend people with high traffic go with the lower gloss levels.

If you are looking for a super formal look, or have a low traffic area, a higher gloss level can work out fine.

Pre-finished wood can be an excellent choice for someone who wants to do an installation by themselves, or with a friend. The product gives you the benefit of installing without sanding and finishing, this means a cleaner job-site, too. Price is not usually an advantage to be perfectly honest.. As usual, you can expect lower priced floors to have a shorter life span than those at the top end of the scale.

Other benefits of pre-finished flooring include a clean clear finish with very few defects. Although a floor will never have a "table-top" finish, you will generally find a cleaner finish because of the factory making the product under very strict controls.

Pre-finished floors can also give you a bit more variety than standard sand and finish floors. Sure, you can get any species in the raw form and have a finish applied - it just seems that few people choose non-standard floors when using the sand and finish process.

I think that a benefit of pre-finished engineered woods is dimensional stability. That means, that if your floor is an engineered construction, it usually has multiple layers that composed the flooring. This can be two layers, three layers up to five different layers. The benefit of this process is that when the wood tries to expand and contract, it will actually pull against itself. These layers create a self-balanced board which leaves your overall installation subject to less movement. This is especially important for concrete floors and radiant heat floors, that can have a lot of movement. The layers are usually applied in different directions using a system called "cross-ply-lamination". This process is not to be confused with laminate flooring. Lamination simply refers to the process of glueing the layers together. The industry now refers to these kinds of floors as "engineered wood flooring". Not all pre-finished floors are engineered. Some are ¾" solid wood. It just depends on your application for which one you should choose.

Finally, I like the idea of having a warranty of some kind on the flooring. Typically, the warranties are hollow and leave almost no recourse for actual problems. Most of the time, the manufacturer's will blame everything on the installer. However, in spite of this fact, there seems to be some sense of comfort in knowing that a pre-finished floor has something to refer to in case of problems. The standard warranty with sand and finished floors is something like when you can't see the tail lights of the work truck anymore, your warranty has just expired. Now, before all you wood floor professionals start sending me flaming e-mails, let us agree on one point. - Most good guys stand behind their work, but the lack of written warranties in the sand and finish business is not a consumer benefit. Pre-finished floors have a wide range of warranties. Some are builder grade products, which just warrant against manufacturing defects and others have a 25 year guarantee that you won't have to refinish floor.

Please, let me say that warranties are not the reason to choose one thing over another, based solely on that criteria. They are a component in the overall decision.

NOW WE KNOW WHERE THE WOOD IS GOING AND WHAT KIND OF TRAFFIC TO EXPECT. DO YOU HAVE A PREFERENCE ON THE SPECIES OF WOOD?

Most floors today are still made in oak species. Red oak is the most common, but white oak is used as well. Oak is a good floor for almost any staining situation imaginable. Oak has a very pronounced grain and hides lots of little things.

Maple has gained a great amount of popularity over the past 3-5 years and is used is many homes. Maple has a very subtle grain to it and a light yellowish colouration. Because these features you can see more things like small gaps and minor imperfections in maple than you can in a darker colour.

Ash has a similar grain to oak, however, has a more yellowish tone to it. So if you have cabinets that you would like to tie in the colour ways with the floor - but either can't get oak to match or don't want the "same old look" check out ash. It is a hardwood and compares very well to oak in terms of hardness.

Bamboo is a fast growing grass, it can be as tough as oak when it is all put together and typically has a few lighter shades available in it. Bamboo has a vertical and horizontal grain layout so you'll want to figure out which look you like the best.

Cherry may be one of the most misunderstood woods of all. If you pick up one cherry board and you like the look of it, please remember this may not be a good indicator for the entire look of the floor. Cherry starts as a light wood with a reddish cast and very soft graining, however cherry changes dramatically with time due to sunlight and electrical light. This means that if you have an area rug over part of the floor and you move it months later there will be a very obvious spot where the rug was. All cherry darkens with time and it is considered a soft wood.

NOW YOU HAVE A GENERAL SENSE ABOUT WHAT LOOK YOU LIKE - BUT HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY KNOW WHAT KIND OF FINISH TO CHOOSE?

There are literally too many finishes for me to keep track of but I am going to list a couple that you are likely to hear about.

A polyurethane finish is very popular and up until recently, was the number one finish used on the majority of all pre-finished floors. The process still can be very good and it can be stained and quite versatile as a finish. There are many different kinds of polyurethane and many blends as well. For instance Kahrs flooring uses an acrylic and polyurethane mix to achieve a very tough finish. This can be a good choice for you. Maintenance is ok and spot repairs can be done, but they are easy to spot.

An acrylic impregnated floor, which can be found in Bruce floors, can really add an excellent durability factor to your flooring. One benefit of this process is that the finish is actually forced into the floor itself which creates a finish that is all the way through the top wear surface. I have seen wonderful results from this kind of flooring. In fact many commercial areas use this flooring because it is so tough.

By: Adrian Lee
Managing Director for FlooringSupplies.co.uk
You can visit the website at: http://www.flooringsupplies.co.uk
Please call 0871 250 1066 or e-mail: sales@flooringsupplies.co.uk for more information.

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