Hardwood floors 101
 

Hi,

Do new hardwood floor materials come polyurethaned or is that step
required post installation? Also, Is sanding required post
installation?

Thanks,

Aaron

Hardwood floors 101
 

On Sep 25, 9:24*pm, wrote:
Hi,

Do new hardwood floor materials come polyurethaned or is that step
required post installation? Also, Is sanding required post
installation?

Thanks,

Aaron


Both, you can get pre-finished hardwood or unfinished, unfinished is
usually 3/4 inch thich T&G strips. Prefinished can be engineered
(multiple layers of various materials) or solid wood, or veneer on
simple pressed board, prefinished can snap together or glue together.

If you get unfinished "real" flooring, you have to sand then finish.
Most pre-finished flooring does not equal the beauty and integrity of
a real unfinished job IMHO. The pre-finished stuff frequently has an
ugly relief on the board edges that leaves V grooves on the floor,
unfinished is perfectly flat and smooth with no unsightly V grooves
that capture dirt and feel weird when walking.

I suggest you visit a store like Lumber Liquidators that has all types
of flooring on display.

Hardwood floors 101
 

On Sep 25, 11:18*pm, RickH wrote:
On Sep 25, 9:24*pm, wrote:

Hi,

Do new hardwood floor materials come polyurethaned or is that step
required post installation? Also, Is sanding required post
installation?

Thanks,

Aaron

Both, you can get pre-finished hardwood or unfinished, unfinished is
usually 3/4 inch thich T&G strips. *Prefinished can be engineered
(multiple layers of various materials) or solid wood, or veneer on
simple pressed board, prefinished can snap together or glue together.

If you get unfinished "real" flooring, you have to sand then finish.
Most pre-finished flooring does not equal the beauty and integrity of
a real unfinished job IMHO. *The pre-finished stuff frequently has an
ugly relief on the board edges that leaves V grooves on the floor,
unfinished is perfectly flat and smooth with no unsightly V grooves
that capture dirt and feel weird when walking.

I suggest you visit a store like Lumber Liquidators that has all types
of flooring on display.

Hi, thanks for the response. I would definitely prefer to go the "real
wood" route to match the rest of my beautiful old house.
What kind of sanding are we talking about? A random orbit or a
finishing sander OR something more heavy duty like belt, disk or drum?
Also, I will have radiant floor heating. What type of would is the
best conductor?

Hardwood floors 101
 

Hardwood floors 101
 

In article ,
"SteveBell" wrote:



You'll use a walk-behind drum sander designed for floors. It takes a
little practice to prevent sanding divots.

Drum sanders are last-century. The new floor machines use a group of
coplanar random orbital sanders. Much easier to use, and no risk of
scalloping the floor.

Hardwood floors 101
 

Smitty Two wrote:
....
coplanar random orbital sanders. Much easier to use, and no risk of
scalloping the floor.

_LESS_ risk...any time you attack something w/ that coarse a grit paper,
a misstep has potential for dire consequences...

--

Hardwood floors 101
 

In article , dpb wrote:

Smitty Two wrote:
...
coplanar random orbital sanders. Much easier to use, and no risk of
scalloping the floor.

_LESS_ risk...any time you attack something w/ that coarse a grit paper,
a misstep has potential for dire consequences...

--

Agreed. Still, I'd say we're talking at least one order of magnitude *
rather than an incremental * minimization of hazard.

Hardwood floors 101
 

On Sep 25, 9:24*pm, wrote:
Hi,

Do new hardwood floor materials come polyurethaned or is that step
required post installation? Also, Is sanding required post
installation?

Thanks,

Aaron


The type of wood for radiant heat conduction is not important, any
hardwood is fine. For wood floors the important thing is to not short-
cycle your radiant heating system over the winter. IOW never use a
"set back" thermostat on radiant, you want to set it to a comfortable
temperature and simply leave it there all winter. This will be
infinitely easier on the wood shrinking and swelling with the
thermostat, your boiler will last longer, and it will run just as
cheaply as if you turned the heat down then back up each day. As long
as your return manifolds feel cool and your send manifolds feel hot
(for any given loop) then you know that loop is releasing all that
energy efficiently into the house. If a return manifold is warm then
it could be that loop is too short to give up its heat for the amount
of water its getting, in that case you just close the manifold valve
on that loop a little to give it less water flow.

Hardwood floors 101
 

wrote:
On Sep 25, 11:18 pm, RickH wrote:
On Sep 25, 9:24 pm, wrote:

Hi,

Do new hardwood floor materials come polyurethaned or is that step
required post installation? Also, Is sanding required post
installation?

Thanks,

Aaron

Both, you can get pre-finished hardwood or unfinished, unfinished is
usually 3/4 inch thich T&G strips. Prefinished can be engineered
(multiple layers of various materials) or solid wood, or veneer on
simple pressed board, prefinished can snap together or glue together.

If you get unfinished "real" flooring, you have to sand then finish.
Most pre-finished flooring does not equal the beauty and integrity of
a real unfinished job IMHO. The pre-finished stuff frequently has an
ugly relief on the board edges that leaves V grooves on the floor,
unfinished is perfectly flat and smooth with no unsightly V grooves
that capture dirt and feel weird when walking.

I suggest you visit a store like Lumber Liquidators that has all
types of flooring on display.

Hi, thanks for the response. I would definitely prefer to go the "real
wood" route to match the rest of my beautiful old house.
What kind of sanding are we talking about? A random orbit or a
finishing sander OR something more heavy duty like belt, disk or drum?
Also, I will have radiant floor heating. What type of would is the
best conductor?

Before you use real hardwood over a radiant heating system, do a lot of
homework. It's possible, but risky.

Start he
http://www.hoskinghardwood.com/radiant-heat/default.asp