Prefinished vs. Unfinished hardwood flooring. Which is better? Which costs less?

I'm often asked whether prefinished hardwood or unfinished hardwood is better.  We install both and the truth is it depends on which of below factors is most important to you.  The next question I get is, which is less expensive???
Just to make sure we are on the same page for definitions, prefinished means that it's all finished in the factory and then you just install it.  Unfinished means you have raw hardwood that needs to be nailed into the floor and then sanded & refinished on-site.


More scratch resistant/lasts longer.  Usually prefinished hardwood is 7-10x more scratch resistant than unfinished hardwood.  That's because when it's finished on site, you generally get 2-3 coats of poly while when it's factory made, you usually get at least 6-7 coats which are oven baked along w/ aluminum oxide, the worlds' 2^nd hardest substance.

 Less messy - Anyone who has lived through sanding & refinishing knows what I'm talking about.  It's a mess with all the sawdust.  Oh, and did I forget to mention the smell?

 Faster - Of course this depends on the space, but usually most of our prefinished jobs can be done in 1-2 days.  When  it's unfinished, it often takes 4-5 days + drying time, and you can't walk on the area at all during this time.

 For do-it-yourselfers, prefinished is certainly easier.  Some that are handy can just install it themselves vs. most do-it-yourselfers can't sand & refinish nor do they have easy access to these machines.  I would definitely leave this up to the pros - I've seen way too many botched up jobs when homeowners attempt this on their own.

Advantages of Unfinished hardwood flooring

Smooth edges - Most prefinished hardwood has a slight bevel at the edges.  Some customers prefer this because they think it looks more real; other customers like the smoothed out look when you sand the floors.  No right or wrong answer here; just a preference.

Matching color of existing - If you have hardwood in other parts of the home, using unfinished hardwood will be the easiest way to match it.  You can have your installer select and/or test the stain colors as well as make sure they get the matching wood (e.g. is it red oak or white oak and which grade).

Choosing  a very specific color - If you want to mix and match/blend stains and finishes you have this option vs. with prefinished, the color selections are sometimes a bit more limiting.

So which is less expensive????  Hard to say and it actually changes over time since the price of unfinished hardwood usually fluctuates.  The truth is, over time, if comparing apples to apples, they are prob. about equal in cost.  Last year and beginning of this year, it was less expensive to do unfinished; now, with all of the recent increases on oak, prefinished is currently a bit less expensive.

Essentially with prefinished hardwood, you are paying more for the wood and less for the labor; for unfinished hardwood, you are spending less on the wood and more on the labor.  Many general contractors prefer to do unfinished hardwood because  they make more money on this since there's more labor.  Cost is same to you, but more in their pocket.

I noted, before if you are "comparing apples to apples" and the issue is that often customers are not comparing apples to apples, esp if they are talking to a contractor they can't trust.  (Have you ever met one of these?).  It's very easy for a contractor to reduce the cost by giving you a lower grade of wood (e.g. No 1 common or worse No 2 common rather than select grade).  This means you'll have hardwood w/ more color variation and more knots and sometimes shorter lengths.  So be careful and hire someone you trust and check their references.

If you are in Westchester NY/Stamford CT area looking for flooring feel free to call us at 914-937-2950 or visit our website Floor Coverings International Westchester NY

Original post at Westchester Flooring - We bring the store to your door: Prefinished Hardwood vs. Unfinished Hardwood Flooring - Which is better? Which costs less?

Refinishing hardwood floors - Please use an expert even if it's not us

Sanding & refinishing hardwood floors is one of the easiest and cost effective ways to change the look of your (or you client's) home.

Sometimes it's done to repair all the scratches and just make it shiny and pretty.  Other times, it's to give your place a dramatic face lift (e.g. go from dark to light to brighten up the place or go from light to dark to give it a more formal appearance).  Either way, it really makes the place look like new.

If you're selling a home, it's usually a "must have."  If you are about to move into a new home, make the color your own (before you move the furniture in).  Most people find the cost is less expensive than they thought...and, it's certainly less than putting new flooring in, even less expensive than carpet.

What has baffled me these last few weeks is how many botched up sanding & refinishing jobs I've seen.  These have all been places where customers hired someone who doesn't do this professionally - a friend, or a handyman, or even in one case someone who claimed to be a "general contractor."
One of the places had pine floors.  Anyone who is in the flooring business knows that oak is different than pine, so if you're going to do repair work, please use the matching wood.  Pair pine w/ pine; red oak w/ red oak, white oak w/ white oak.  It makes a huge difference - the idea when you do repair work is not to notice the repair.  Pls also make sure the woods are the same width and please also weave in the hardwood rather than create a little box which was obviously a quick fix.  This will continue to show each time you sand & refinish.

Also, anyone who really understands hardwood knows that pine accepts the stain differently than oak.  So, if you're going to stain pine, you need to add a conditioner in first to open up the pore.  Otherwise, it will come out blotchy.

The worst one I saw was a few weeks ago in Ossining.  I couldn't help but laugh as to how many things were wrong with this floor.  It turns out the "general contractor" didn't even bother to sand the floors.  Instead, he just applied stain on top of the polyurethane that was already there.  You can't do that.  It doesn't work and it doesn't stick.  This poor woman had holes that had peeled away in under 2 months; blotches all over the floor, and 3 different gloss levels in one room.  It was pathetic.  In addition, of course, red oak was added to pine for repair work.  She asked me how long the job would take and I told her maybe 4-5 days including drying time, and she said, "Really?  Because this took him months to do."  I was dumbfounded.  I couldn't imagine it taking longer than a week to complete even when factoring in humidity conditions.

I've also had a few customers who said they needed to save money and so they decided to do the work themselves or to have friends do it and they rented the machines.  Besides that fact that it took them forever to do, these projects were a mess - both during (extremely dusty) and after - uneven floors from where the sander sanded a bit too much, and very blotchy work.  They don't buff in between coats, so the poly is not applied evenly nor does it last as long.  I know this, because I've seen these jobs afterwards.
As I mentioned before, sanding & refinishing is not that expensive.  It is not the place to try to save money.

It's fine to save money in moving the furniture and things like that, but please leave the sanding to the experts.  You may even be able to get away with painting yourselves.  But, unless you've done it before, please do not attempt to sand & refinish yourselves.  In the end, you may need to bring in a professional anyway to fix the work and/or need to sand & refinish much sooner than normal..

For more information about our company, please call us at 914-937-2950 or visit us at Floor Coverings International. And, here are some customer testimonials.

Originally posted at: Westchester Flooring - We bring the store to your door: Refinishing Hardwood Floors - Please use an expert, even if it's not us