Prefinished Vs Site Finished Hardwood Floors: Comparison Between Prefinished & Site Finished Wood Floors


Comparison Between Prefinished & Site Finished Hardwood Floors

When it comes to picking hardwood floors, you have the option of pre-finished or site finished in addition to solid and engineered hardwood. What is superior? Each has advantages, I suppose. The finishing method is a crucial choice if you want wood flooring in your house. The two flooring options—prefinished and site finished—will significantly affect the price and appearance of your floor. Both types of floors provide unique alternatives that astute homeowners may want to take advantage of, but both will look wonderful and last a lifetime.

What Is Pre-Finished Hardwood?

Pre-finished hardwood flooring has expanded significantly over the past fifteen years as a result of advancements in hardwood production technology that provide additional options for style, appearance, and performance. Prefinished hardwood flooring, as you might expect, includes the finish as part of the flooring manufacturing process and is delivered to your home ready for installation. Hence, it follows that:
  • Because of the aluminum oxide surface and the recently released Diamond 10 finish from Armstrong, the floorboards are especially durable.
  • Furniture may be placed on the floor right away after installation, which is quicker and easier.

While there may not be as many color and finish options, you can still entirely customize the outcome by adding borders and medallions.
Pre-Finished Advantages
  • The major advantage is that since the flooring already has a finish on it, you can use it right away after installation rather than having to wait a few days for the finish to cure. This significantly accelerates the entire procedure. Your home will return to normal sooner the faster your floor is completed.
  • Because they are done in a dust-free booth under ideal spraying conditions, factory finishes are typically exceedingly smooth and long-lasting (depending, of course, on the brands, applications, and finishes utilized). Many producers utilize ultra-tough aluminum oxide coatings that are UV-cured after being applied in numerous thin coats. The end product is a smooth and extremely durable covering.
  • Because the floor doesn't need to be sanded and completed after installation, pre-finished floors also result in significant time savings.

Pre-Finished Disadvantages
  • The bevels on the borders of pre-finished floors are their biggest and most noticeable flaw. These types of floors certainly cannot be flattened on location due to the factory finish. Hence, the boards are cut with bevels to make the thickness irregularities blend in across the installed floor in order to make up for any milling discrepancies. A pre-finished floor will therefore have several, glaringly evident v-shaped seams. Even those unfamiliar with flooring will be able to tell right away that this floor was finished in a factory rather than on the original installation site, which is how most people prefer their floors to look.
  • Many pre-finished clients lament how difficult it is to clean and keep dust out of the bevels. Another problem with the bevels is that your hardwood floor refinisher will need to get rid of a lot of wood in order to get the floor level to the bottom of the bevels when you need to sand and refinish your floors in the future (yes, even these tough aluminum oxide factory finishes will still scratch, dent, and wear). This will remove a significant amount of wood from your floor and shorten the lifespan of the floor by years. Either that, or they'll have to spend a lot of time manually scraping the polish off the bevels. It is a heavy price to pay in either case.
  • It could be difficult to acquire flooring that exactly matches your original floor boards years from now, if there is significant damage to your floors or if you want to install the same flooring to a connecting room. Individuals often forget who the original producers were (if they even knew), or as is frequently the case many years later, your particular line of flooring may no longer be manufactured.
  • With pre-finished floors, you also don't have many options for customizing your floor. Custom stain shades, sheens, and board thicknesses aren't always an option. Also, compared to site-finished flooring, unique inlays, borders, and intricate patterns are far more challenging to make look nice.

What Is Site Finished Hardwood?

If you choose site-finished hardwood, the flooring you buy will be delivered to your house unfinished, where it will be sanded, maybe stained, and finally sealed and finished with a protective layer. Although dustless refinishing is an option, the process is time-consuming and can be dirty due to the sanding, but it allows you to modify a lot of the installation's features, including:
  • Optional finishes include natural oil, polyurethane with an oil base, and water-based polyurethane.
  • High gloss, semi-gloss, and matte sheen levels.
  • Stain colors.
  • Herringbone, borders, inlays, and medallions are examples of unique installation patterns.
  • Attempting to replicate a wood floor identically in the future.

Moreover, finishing on-site gives you access to design options including non-beveled edge profiles. Typically, since time isn't as important a concern as when you've already occupied the space, you choose on-site finishing for a new building project. After all, it can take a while (between 3 and 5 days) to sand and clean the wood flooring, provide a stable atmosphere inside the room, apply the stain and topcoat (usually 3 to 4 coats), and allow time for each application to cure. Keep in mind that you cannot place furniture or walk on the floors during this time, and the scent of the finishing goods could be unpleasant.
Site-Finished Advantages
  • The major advantage of these flooring is that they are smooth and table-top flat across the surface without any bevels or grooves since they are sanded on-site before the finish is applied. This appearance is more popular than the beveled pre-finished appearance.
  • Because you don't need to worry about getting into all the grooves to get rid of the dust, site-finished floors are also considerably simpler to maintain.
  • These flooring give you a lot more freedom to design them anyway you want. Unfinished floors offer a blank slate for any stain color, inlay, border, bespoke medallion, custom pattern, finish sheen levels, as well as grades and species of wood. If you want, you may even add bevels to make them resemble pre-finished flooring, but with much more customizing choices (like the image below). A site-finished floor can be used for anything you can imagine, subject to time and financial constraints of course.
  • Site-finished floors are considerably easier to repair, add to, and match with the current floor if there is significant damage to your floor or if you wish to add more wood flooring to another adjoining room in the future. You don't need to track down the actual business that produced that particular line of flooring and hope it's still made or that it's still in operation.

Site-Finished Disadvantages
  • There will be small flaws in a site-finished floor because the finish is not applied in a climate-controlled and dust-proof environment like pre-finished flooring. This typically happens as the finish dries and little dust particles fall to the surface. Fortunately, most of these go away after a few weeks of walking on the floors, although they will never be as flawless as boards sprayed in a booth.
  • The installation and refinishing process on-site takes twice as long as installing pre-finished flooring.
  • You won't be able to walk on your flooring straight away, unlike pre-finished floors. It can be a hassle if you're on a strict schedule because the final coat of finish needs to dry at least overnight and furniture needs to wait a few days before it is placed back in the rooms.
Connect with GetRit GetRit.com Furniture Facebook GetRit.com Furniture Twitter
Copyrights (©) 2024 GetRit.Com   All Rights Reserved