Which is better: Prefinished Hardwood Flooring vs unfinished Hardwood Flooring?
Each have pros and cons to contend with. Here we will explain and highlight the differences between the two options so you can make the decision that’s best for your circumstances.
Prefinished is generally lower cost than on-site finished hardwood
Cost is a very important thing to consider when pricing out just about anything. Sometimes we just want the frugal option. Sometimes, we want quality and we’re willing to pay more than the lowest cost item. Prefinished hardwood flooring is generally the lower cost option. Today’s prefinished Hardwood Flooring comes in all sorts of varieties, species, colours, and sheen levels. There has never been more options than there are now for prefinishing Hardwood Flooring. Often times, Prefinished hardwood flooring comes from overseas.
This may seem like a silly thing to write about but it’s a very important aspect to take note of. Once the flooring is down, it is clear that this flooring came out of a box. Why? Boards generally aren’t very wide, all the boards have bevels milled on them, shorter lengths, usually higher sheen levels, and very uniform in colour. This isn’t to say that it looks bad. That’s just that it looks prefinished and it will always like prefinished.
Prefinished Hardwood Flooring needs bevels
Unlike on-site finished Hardwood Flooring, prefinished Hardwood Flooring has bevels, sometimes called micro bevels. This characteristic is very undesirable as dirt and other contaminants and get stuck in the cracks. Aesthetically, the sheen is broken up between each row of boards.
Prefinished installation is quicker to install
This type of Hardwood Flooring is faster at getting to the completion stage as there’s no sanding and finishing to do. These stages happened during the manufacturing.
Unfinished Hardwood Flooring looks more custom
Due to the sanding and finishing process happening on-site, these types of floors look more organic, custom, and less processed.
Unfinished Hardwood Flooring can give control to all the variables of how the Hardwood Floor will look as the end product.
This means we can control the stain colour, texture, sheen level, species, board width, board lengths, regular milling or live edge flooring, and other factors.So which option be better? It totally depends on what you want. We pride ourselves at doing quality floors that last and can endurance dogs, children, and high traffic areas such as Restaurants and Stores. We also think Hardwood Flooring is an important aspect of any space. We therefore choose to supply only unfinished Hardwood Flooring and we sand and finish on-site. In the long run, this provides the best value to all spaces, and it’s appearance is unmatched. This article only touches on some of the differences between prefinished Hardwood Flooring and on-site finished Hardwood Flooring. Feel free to contact us with any questions you might have.
