Solid Hardwood Flooring

Hardwood floors are beautiful—but where do you start?

Solid hardwood, made of thick, solid planks of wood, joined with a tongue and groove along each side. Many people like the full authenticity and feel of solid hardwood floors; they’re also a better option for long-term flooring. You can sand down and refinish these hardwood floors multiple times since the boards are usually thicker than engineered wood planks.

Am I eligible for Solid Hardwood Flooring?

The first question I ask our clients interested in installing solid hardwood, is if they have a concrete or plywood subfloor. Solid hardwood must be nailed down into plywood, meaning, if you already have a raised foundation, great! But if you have a concrete subfloor, we must install (glue down) 3/4” sheets of plywood across the subfloor so we can nail the new solid hardwood to it.

The next series of questions I bring up to our new clients interested in solid hardwood, is about their timeline for the project. Typically the timeline for solid hardwood is as follows:

• Delivery of new flooring on site to acclimate 1 week minimum

  • flooring is sitting on site to gain the moisture content of the home

• Installation of the material usually takes 1 week for approx. 1,000 sq feet of flooring

• 1 week minimum for the new flooring to just sit installed in place.

  • again, the flooring needs this time to acclimatize to the home’s moisture. this will allow the flooring to move and settle in place before we sand and finish

• 1 week minimum for us to sand and finish the flooring. remember, solid hardwood comes UNFINISHED, meaning it needs to be sanded with finish applied for protection!

  • for a 1000 sq foot home, it takes approx. 2.5 days to sand and prep the floors, followed by a minimum of 3 coats of finish, (each taking approximately 1 day to dry.)

The standard new solid hardwood flooring install followed by sanding and finish usually takes 4 weeks from start to finish…do you have this luxury to wait?

If you dont, engineered prefinished hardwood flooring is likely your best option!

Is it worth it?

Solid hardwood has a much longer lifespan than engineered or vinyl flooring. Many homes in San Digeo built in the 50s still have original solid oak hardwood in them! Solid hardwood is also generally much easier to repair, especially if you have water damage (e.g. from a flood, broken pipe, broken appliance) or pet stains.  When this happens (and it’s only on part of the floor), it’s often easy for a professional to match the wood (especially if it is oak) and then sand and refinish the whole room. Engineered hardwood flooring is often hard to match as well as repair, and you may need to replace the whole floor, if you have damage. Also, solid hardwood is easier to work with if you are remodeling and/or expanding your area. Sometimes, customers remove walls (especially in kitchen area) and they will have small missing sections of hardwood. With solid hardwood, it’s easy to add more wood and/or weave it into the gap.