Ever since wood floors
started becoming popular, around the 17-18th
centuries, people have strived to make them easier to install and more
polished and comfortable. However, up until mass production of hardwood
floors, around 1850, they all needed some form of finishing touches
after installation.
Around the late 19th century however, prefinished floors started
breaking into the market and they were deemed as the next best thing.
Unfinished hardwood floor looked doomed around that time, but despite
that it held strong and nowadays, the battle for supremacy between
unfinished and pre finished hardwood floors is still on.
The main advantage of prefinished hardwood floors, over unfinished
ones, should be pretty obvious: comfort and speed.
It’s a lot faster and more comfortable to simply stick the
prefinished floors together and end up with a solid floor at the
end of
the day, rather than install the unfinished ones over the same amount
of time, then spend twice as that on sanding and finishing it.
Besides, installing the floor, be it pre finished or not is not that
difficult, but when it comes to sanding and buffing, it’s not
that easy anymore.
Basically, for homeowners, prefinished hardwood flooring is the more
reasonable choice, since you won’t really feel the advantages
of unfinished (more stability) but you’ll feel the
disadvantages of it quite hard (installation time and energy spent).
Unless you’re really forced to use unfinished hardwood in
your home (due to having to change just a single room’s
floors and not finding the right prefinished
hardwood floors to match),
or you’re really bent on getting ultimate comfort (which,
again, is hardly noticeable in a household when comparing prefinished
hardwood floors to unfinished ones) there’s no other choice
but prefinished.
Also, installing prefinished hardwood floors is a lot more newbie
friendly, in that it doesn’t even take experience in DIY to
do it.
Unfinished hardwood flooring requires a lot of tools and it’s
a more precise process that not everyone can go through. This makes
them scare off newcomers to the hardwood floor installation field.
In terms of maintenance, pre finished hardwood floors have a somewhat
shorter lifespan, due to the lack
of sanding. Still, they can be easily
refinished, getting their polish and pigment back up in no time (well
in SOME time, because it takes a few full days for refinishing).
All in all, pre finished hardwood flooring is a great choice and it is
usually the more comfortable, cheaper way to go when fixing your house
with a new floor. If you’re more into stability, lengthy life
span of floors and customization, you’re better off with
unfinished ones.
Did you go with a pre finished hardwood floor?
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Choosing PreFinished Hardwood Floor Not rated yet After moving into our first home in a historical neighborhood and determined to fix-it-up with all period perfect details and quality of work, well as …
