The Real Thing

By: Tim Snyder (Page 4 of 6)

Photo: Courtesy of Bruce Hardwood Floors

Photo: Courtesy of Bruce Hardwood Floors

Engineered flooring looks like solid wood, but it's made from thin, cross-laminated wood plies that are glued together to form strips or planks. A factory-applied finish like the one on this Maple Harborlight flooring from Bruce Hardwood Floors is very durable, so you can walk on this floor as soon as it's installed.

Photo: Courtesy of Bruce Hardwood Floors

Solid-wood Strip flooring, popular in new construction, can be refinished many times. This solid-maple Kennedale Prestige Plank from Bruce Hardwood Floors contrasts nicely with the dark-stained wood furniture and painted walls.

Photo: Courtesy of Bruce Hardwood Floors

Parquet Flooring comes in square pieces instead of in strips or planks. This Harris Square oak parquet floor from Harris-Tarkett was installed in a conventional basketweave pattern.

Photo: Courtesy of Bruce Hardwood Floors

Exotic and antique wood floors from smaller companies are other options to consider. Most of these suppliers specialize in certain types of flooring—wide planks or floor boards made from salvaged timber, for example. Seen here are Santos mahogany flooring from Indusparquet and antique-pine wide planks from Goodwin Heart Pine Company.

Photo: Courtesy of Bruce Hardwood Floors

A decorative border like this one from Historic Floors of Oshkosh adds visual appeal and can also help to delineate space, as in this dining room. For ease of installation, the border should have the same thickness and edge detail as the flooring that joins it.

Browse Images

On Newsstands Now

In the Magazine

Easy Upgrades That Say Welcome Home

What You'll Learn:

Smart Shopping

Lumberyards, home centers and flooring dealers all sell wood floors. However, dealers that sell carpeting, vinyl flooring and tile will probably offer a broader selection of wood flooring than lumberyards and home centers do. You'll also be able to get quotes on installation prices for different types of floors from dealers.

Both solid-wood and engineered flooring are discounted frequently. Unfinished solid- oak strips that normally sell for $3.75 per square foot can go for $2.50 per square foot. That's a savings of about $300 on a typical living room floor. Smart shopping can earn you similar savings on engineered flooring. Installation costs tend to be similar from one region to the next, with square-foot prices in the $2 to $3 range common. It costs about the same to install and finish an unfinished floor as it does to lay a prefinished one (prefinished flooring must be handled more carefully).

If you want to do the job yourself, equipment-rental agencies have the tools and materials for this kind of work. A hammer-actuated nailer will run about $15 per day; add $15 or so for the nails required to do a 200-square-foot room. If you're installing unfinished flooring, sanding equipment (drum sander, edge sander and sandpaper) will come to about $75 per day.