Pre-Finished Hardwood Flooring

You have a choice between unfinished and pre-finished hardwood flooring if you have selected solid hardwood for your home. There’s no doubt that hardwood flooring not only provides old-world reliability, structural strength and a strong selling point for your home but also a sense of hominess, warmth and permanence. This video by Emerald Hardwood Floors will help you understand the differences between prefinished solid wood, prefinished engineered wood and prefinished wood floating flooring:

Pre-finished hardwood flooring is a good choice if you want to enjoy the benefits of your new floor immediately after installation without having to do any finishing or sanding. Pre-finished wood floors come pre-sanded and pre-coated and are ready for immediate installation. Less time, effort and energy are required for installation, and no time is required for setting.

With unfinished floor boards, the finish is applied over the hardwood floor surface as a whole after the boards are installed. Pre-finished hardwood flooring, however, is finished on a plank by plank basis, so the finish that seals the board does not seal small spaces between the boards in the same manner. Many subcontractors will choose unfinished hardwood flooring because of this valued characteristic.

So how do you decide between unfinished and pre-finished hardwood flooring? Homeowners who don’t want to clean up the mess left by sanding or tolerate fumes from the finish but do want a quick installation should choose pre-finished hardwood. Subcontractors will probably prefer an unfinished floor as they can achieve a more uniform finish as well as added moisture protection from the overall sealing process on the whole floor. No matter what you choose, however, you will need to determine which stain or finish is most appropriate for the type of hardwood you purchased.

Whether you choose unfinished or pre-finished hardwood flooring, you will enjoy the attractive look and feel of your hardwood floor as well as the added structural benefits for a very long time.