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meems15

Large Gaps in Pre-Finished Wood Flooring

Michelle NJ
3 år sedan

Hi Houzzers!! (Note: final pic is dining room to be floored).
So we had our installer put in the pre-finished wood floors (3/4” thick, 5” wide) from Lumber Liquidators with glue and nails. Love the dark color but there are large gaps all over and light lines can be seen everywhere. Installer is very trustworthy and hard-working. Said it’s due to quality of flooring itself. Also because all pre-finished wood is beveled so will always be some gap. So Master Bedroom is completed. I can live with it there. But now have 800 square feet to install in living/DINING room! Super impractical with 4 messy kids and lots of friends in dining room, right? Milk and fruit punch will enter cracks in first 10 minutes for sure! Now option is to buy 5” unfinished instead (floor guy recommended I find “Select Grade”) and have them sand and stain it with polyurethane level on top. 1) Will this solve durability problem? 2)And will they be able to get it close to black if stain it? Want very modern look and want to resand in 15ish years when kids out of house so engineered wood or bamboo not preferred. Lumber Liquidators gave me quote of $3.89/sq ft for 3/4” x 5” Select grade unfinished Oak. 3) Is their “Select” same as others’ “Select”? Overall will cost $2000 more due to extra labor. If it’s durable and easy to clean, I’d pay it—despite the dusty mess as we are living on site.

Any thoughts out there? (I’ve included pics of master bedroom installed prefinished wood snd my current polyurethaned living room that’s easy to clean but too thin so will be replaced). Thanks!!

Utvalt svar
  • SJ McCarthy
    3 år sedan

    OK...I'm NOT seeing any gaps. The lower edge (lower than the centre) on the plank is called a bevel. I would say 99.9% of FACTORY FINISHED engineered hardwood has this as an edge. The 'dark short edges' are shadows. This is normal and natural for a bevelled edge plank floor to look in certain lighting situations. Ignore them. You won't see them once things are back to normal.


    I'm going to put in a good word for your installer. Those floors are WELL INSTALLED! In fact, he's done a VERY VERY good job with material that is known to be cr@p. Lumber Liquidators is known for 15% WASTE. They have horrible quality. Planks are often warped, poorly milled or even out of square. I was expecting to see an install that SHOWS all the issues with Lumber Liquidators. What you have is a great install.


    So long story short: you have a great installer doing his very very very best with cr@p quality wood to make your floors look better then good. They look great - considering that you have Lumber Liquidators.


    Do NOT do the upgrade. You don't need it. Just install more of what you have. Your installer is doing one H3LL of a job. Keep going with what you have....and please check to see how much of the planks are 'waste'. If you need more, you will need to purchase it VERY quickly. You don't want to be stuck with different colour lots.

    Kommentarer (13)

    • acm
      3 år sedan

      I'm not seeing any gaps. There are minimal grooves where the boards join, but they aren't open -- under that "space" is an overlap of tongue from one board and groove from the other, so it's not like spills just pour through to the underflooring. This is what it is like to have a wood floor. You sweep or vacuum to get stuff off of it, and that includes out of the grooves. If you love this flooring (and dark floors show dust and hair more than any other!), then I wouldn't pay extra for something else because... the wood isn't a continuous surface. It never will be.

    • PRO
      Peter B. Rice & Co
      3 år sedan

      What I see are referred to as micro bevels. Prefinished floors come that way from the manufacturer. Some manufacturers may have smaller micro bevels than others.

    • PRO
      Peter B. Rice & Co
      3 år sedan

      Whether its select or character grade wont change that the floor will have that micro bevel.

    • Jennifer Svensson
      3 år sedan

      Agree with above.

      Is this just the light making the short joints look darker?

    • Michelle NJ
      Författare
      3 år sedan

      I think the short joints look darker because the side “stripes” show up due to that bevel people are referring to. I imagine this would be more like a “macro” bevel!! I think for the bedroom already installed here I will attack those long spaces with some sharpies and Will have to wear socks or throw down a small rug (my husband’s poor dust allergies!). But I think with all this helpful info, sanding and staining unfinished wood in dining/living area is only way to go. Budget. Blown. :( Thank you, all for your guidance!! I really do appreciate it and have learned a lot for next time (which will be in a long long time) :)

    • Michelle NJ
      Författare
      3 år sedan

      Thanks so much, SJ. Yes—my installer is super honest, hardworking, and did his best with materials I had—I just wish I’d known earlier that quality at LL was so much worse than elsewhere. I’m curious if I want to sand and restain THESE prefinished LL floors in a few years, will the poor quality prevent me from getting less beveled grooves and/or consistent ebony stain color then? Thx!!

    • PRO
      JAN MOYER
      3 år sedan
      Ändrades senast: 3 år sedan

      You get what you pay for. You aren't going to get the look of a sand on site floor, unless you do a sand on site floor. : )

      Be grateful for the install.

      Your master is private space, I'd be wary of installing MORE of something you clearly don't like. "Crap" applies..........

    • SJ McCarthy
      3 år sedan

      @ Michelle...I wouldn't worry about the quality of the wood that is installed. The wood is just wood. The milling (how each board is cut, formed and dried) and the staining (the light lines on the edges = improper stain coverage) are the problems with LL. Once the GOOD planks are installed they are just 'wood planks'. Once the bad stuff has been culled (removed/discarded) you have a regular wood floor.


      Refinishing is a tough thing to predict. Some of these factory finishes are SUPER hard (Aluminum Oxide finish) which makes them SUPER hard to remove (can cost and extra $2/sf on top of the regular $5/sf for a sand/refinish).


      Sanding past the bevel can take 2 'life cycles' of flooring. That is to say, it takes 2 full sand/refinishing events to finally make it to a flat floor plank.


      If your objective is to sand/refinish in 15 years (not a bad plan....10 years early but it is your floor), you should expect to see some of the bevel remain. Not as deep, not as noticeable, but still there. Then you add another 25 years worth of service before the SECOND sand/refinish. At this point you can expect the bevel to disappear. In essence you will be waiting 40 - 50 years before the bevels are shaved down.


      Of course you could insist on speeding up the process by having the bevel completely removed...but that shortens the life of the wood. Instead of 80 years worth of life the floor will give you 40 years. You will shave off 1 full life cycle of the floor by shaving that deep.


    • Michelle NJ
      Författare
      3 år sedan

      So, SJ. Your vote is to continue with the prestained hardwood in the dining/living room? I need to count how many boxes remain but if you are accurate in all the wasted planks due to poor quality, these floors discontinued and out of stock do buying more isn’t an option. Assuming there is not enough, decision made for me. Any reason I should not go for the unfinished red oak 3/4” x 5”wide from LL in “Select” for $3.89 per sq ft? I’m going to count remaining boxes in my foyer now.

    • Michelle NJ
      Författare
      3 år sedan

      Ok. There are 36.5 boxes left with 22 sq feet per box. That equals exactly 803 sq feet. The dining/living room is needs 750 sq ft—not including overage for waste. Though pantry closet could be replaced with some other flooring and that’s about 32 sq ft. Thoughts? Thk u!!!

    • PRO
      HALLETT & Co.
      3 år sedan

      Ask your installer how much waste he had the first time. Maybe you were lucky and got a good run of product.

    • SJ McCarthy
      3 år sedan

      Keep going with what you have. A 32sf pantry can get a different product in the same colour. Red Oak is a wood that takes a bit of finessing to get a colour match.


      For the pantry, I would find a product that is VERY CLOSE IN COLOUR (ignore the plank thickness or width...we just need COLOUR match!) and lay it perpendicular to the rest of the floor. A transition strip can be used if the floors are different heights.


      The other thing: the pantry can have the off-cuts (culled/poorly milled boards) that have been discarded. This is one way to use up 'bad' boards so that you get the most out of your purchase.

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