Hardwood flooring questions (plural)

[vaking]

I have a big flooring project coming up and need advice. I have never before done a real hardwood floor so I am a newby at this.
I have 2 rooms and a hallway to deal with - combined somewhere around 1000 SF. The original floor was made in 1927, 3/8" thick square edge (not T%G) nailed down. Many times refinished since then, down to 1/4" in thickness, visible gaps between boards, lifting up in some places and the previous owner even tried to nail it down all over again adding raws of ugly visible nails. I had 2 contractors look at it. One suggests tearing that floor out and replacing it completely, another thinks it is possible to drive nails down, plug and fix existing floor. Should I believe the second guy or is he just saying what I want to hear?
Presuming I need to replace the floor - I want to put a normal prefinished hardwood floor, no engineered products.
I can buy traditional oak 3/4" thick (around $4/sf in my area);
I can get some exotic hardwood floor like Brazilian rosewood surprisingly cheaper than oak ($3.3/sf);
I can get bamboo floor at Costco for $1.80/sf. The Bamboo floor is 5/8" thick, all others are 3/4".
Which floor do you think is better? I like exotic woods but the idea of pink floor is a bit scary.
Should I expect this project to be very hard? How much work should I expect on the subfloor based on the current condition of the floor and its age? Any experience? Any other advice?

[bigfoot]

Go with the tear up replace, if the original is down to 1/4", you'll be better off.
Honestly, I would go the engineered route, it's a lot more stable, a lot less seasonal shrinkage/growth. At the price, I would bet that rosewood is a veneer on something, and I would wager the bamboo is also. Bear in mind, bamboo is a grass, not a wood, it is formed into planks by glueing and pressing. Right now there is a ton of Jatoba (Brazilian cherry) on the market, every mfg makes something in jatoba, and it's a nice looking wood. Of the woods we use where I work, it is the hardest of the hard.

Only other advice I could give is either go with a click/floating type, or a nailed t&g. Stay away from glued down flooring, it's just a nasty mess.

[Hellrazor]

Depends what you want out of it. Oak would be a forever fix for you , but its expensive and you need to finish it. Laminates are a cheap fix, but they are a 'wear item'. I'd get away from the bamboo/etc exotic stuff, its a laminated layer.

Overall its a tear out for any of the solutions.

[bigfoot]

Depends what you want out of it. Oak would be a forever fix for you , but its expensive and you need to finish it. Laminates are a cheap fix, but they are a 'wear item'. I'd get away from the bamboo/etc exotic stuff, its a laminated layer.

Overall its a tear out for any of the solutions.

I wouldn't knock the laminated layer, depending on the company and the finish, some are warranted for up to 50 years.

[Hellrazor]

You are going through all the hassles of installing a solid hardwood floor with a laminated surface. You can buy a laminate floor a lot cheaper and have the same thickness of lamination and 1/2 the effort to install it. You can not sand a laminated surface the same way you can solid oak flooring in order to refinish it. I do not like warranties because you have to jump through hoops to get anywhere or the place goes out of business.

A good example of a warranty: My parents have a "lifetime" warranted steel entry door thats about 10 years old. The plastic capping broke where the locksets latches install through. They call the company to get it fixed. "That line of door is no longer made so we can't service it." They were bought out by XYZ brand and we can send you literature for a replacement door. Or we can send a tech out to see if he can fix it and you pay for a service call at minimum.

[bigfoot]

[QUOTE=Hellrazor;218662]You are going through all the hassles of installing a solid hardwood floor with a laminated surface. You can buy a laminate floor a lot cheaper and have the same thickness of lamination and 1/2 the effort to install it. You can not sand a laminated surface the same way you can solid oak flooring in order to refinish it. I do not like warranties because you have to jump through hoops to get anywhere or the place goes out of business.

I think we are having a terminology clash here. A 'laminate' floor is a vinyl laminate, a "picture" of a floor so to speak, an ENGINEERED floor is a hardwood veneer LAMINATED to a plywood or HDF core, with either a pine veneer or composite material laminated to the bottom as a backer.

And click is click no matter what the material, one is no harder to install than the other.

As to refinishing, most solid wood prefinished floors have a taper to the tongue and groove that opens gaps after sanding about 1/16th from surface.
<NOTE*** I DID NOT SAY ALL ***NOTE> In the case of those flooring materials, there is actually more on an engineered floor with 3/16 laminated on top.

Otherwise I agree that we can disagree. I respect your opinion, and hope you feel the same on mine. We could beat this dead horse all day, but really, why bother.

[mschrank]

I can get bamboo floor at Costco for $1.80/sf. The Bamboo floor is 5/8" thick, all others are 3/4".

I'm getting ready to put some type of wood floor throughout my home, and have done a lot of research on bamboo. I suggest you do the same. Seems there is A LOT of quality variation out there. Bamboo is the latest trendy flooring, environmentally responsible etc, but seems many companies are jumping on the bandwagon and producing an inferior product prone to easily scratching, denting, cupping and shrinking.

I haven't ruled it out, but if I go with it, I'm leaning towards either Plyboo or Teregren brands. I'd stay away from anything sold at Costco, Sam's, or the other big box stores.

My .02

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I would remove the 1/4" that you have left regardless of what you are putting back.

I would 100% recommend prefinished material. You don't want to have to finish the floor after installation. Factory applied finish should be more consistent and tougher than what you can apply as well.

I would not install laminate. Yes, there are laminate floors that have 50 year warranties, however only against normal wear and tear. Try having a ice maker supply line or washing machine hose burst and you will quickly learn the severe weaknesses of laminate. Also, unless you purchase a few hundred extra sq ft when you buy it, you will run into matching problems in the future should repairs be needed.

I would not install engineered hard wood flooring except in cases of installation over cement floor (which is not your case since you have hardwood floors already). You can get one refinish out of an engineered floor whereas you can get 4 or more refinishes out of a real hard wood floor. Typically engineered product is the same or even slightly higher in price than solid wood flooring.

Real bamboo flooring is getting to the $2-3 range for 5/8" (standard). I don't think what he is looking at is a laminate. It is very trendy however and something you may not love so much in 10 - 20 years. I don't like a lot of the colors out there either.

Big box stores (currently Lowes) have Armstrong brand red oak for $3 sq ft. Find a 10% coupon on ebay and you are looking at $2.70 sq foot. Prefinished with limited warrenty. I think it is a great deal. The flooring is pretty consistent. There are some off brands out there for $3 that have less than select boards in the package. Open a couple boxes and look at the quality of what you are buying.

My guess is that the Jatoba (Brazilian cherry) is solid wood, but is probably a lower quality at that price. Have you actually put your hands on the product being sold at that price? You have to watch a lot of these places like Lumber Liquidators, lots of lost cost teasers not in stock or just really bad quality.

Solid will be more work to install than engineered. Engineered is a highly superior product to laminated (Pergo style) flooring. Engineered cost is more similar to solid wood, sometimes slightly more in the case of common hard wood flooring. I would look at laminate exactly like carpeting. It is cheap but will be replaced much sooner than hardwood floowing.

[vaking]

Thanks for all replies.
I have looked at some data. Exotic woods like Brazilian rosewood are real, 3/4" thickness, no laminates. The place I saw at a home-impprovement show has few exotics to choose from. Walnut floor at $6/sf looks attractive. Prices are good if you want exotic. My problem is - it is a floor, not a fine furniture. Furniture can be replaced, floor cannot. You are correct about trendy - rosewood floor may be nice at the beginning, who knows what will happen in the future? Oak is eternal.
Bamboo is also real. I don't know about the quality but Brian mentioned correct thing - Bamboo is not a regular hardwood, it is hard on the surface but the inside is different. I got confirmatiom on the web that you can nail it in the tongue, but not on the surface. In other words - I am questioning that Bamboo floor is possible to refinish. And this is something you will not know until 10 years later. Again - trendy does not mean good. Looks like oak floor is the tried and true way to go.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Walnut floor at $6/sf looks attractive.

Looks like oak floor is the tried and true way to go.

Walnut is $3.99 sq at HD, Armstrong Flooring 3/4" solid. But, if you're gonna do that you HAVE to go ahead and spend $4.99 sq ft for hand scraped walnut. Have you had an opportunity to look at that stuff. Killer. Awesome. Particularly for a wood worker. Only problem I see with hand scraped is refinished in the future. You would have to have some type of wide flapper style sander or something.