Before we even moved in, I spent a considerable amount of time researching flooring options in the living room area of the house. That terrible red wall-to-wall carpeting needs to go! I originally wanted to tackle this project first, but the foundation needs to get fixed beforehand to avoid an installation failure down the road.
Spring (foundation time!) is around the corner (well, not really), and I’m ready to make a final selection of flooring material. I absolutely did not want laminate or any other fake wood. I considered bamboo for a while because of it’s durability, but the amount of adhesives used in producing the flooring puts me off. I want REAL solid hardwood, that’s DURABLE.
As for looks, I LOVE natural cherry. The problem is it’s too soft and prone to scratches and we’d trash it immediately. So I’ve been looking for something that looks similar, but is much harder.
Wanting what I can’t have – natural cherry flooring
While in Home Depot to pick up a few more things for the bathroom, I strolled down the flooring aisle. I was planning on buying flooring from BuildDirect, but their high shipping charges keep them from being competetive for the small amount of flooring I need. Lumber liquidators was also an option, but I have a 10% coupon from Home Depot that doesn’t expire for a couple months so I decided to see what they have.
And there it was! I was in love! How did I not see this before? Hickory. It has beautiful light to dark contrasting variations, while being overall a light natural color, which is exactly what I’m looking for. And it has high dent resistance with a janka hardness of 1820. (Cherry has a rating of 950, and Red Oak has a rating of 1290 by comparison.)
The images below include a couple customer installations from Home Depot’s site. (I’m addicted to reading customer reviews before making any purchases.)
And here comes the best part- it’s only $3.39 sq ft. Not bad for a durable, prefinished floor with excellent reviews.
I slept in my kitchen for a few months while redoing the floors in the first house. That attempt had terrible results and had to be done again. The second time, we lived in the garage for a month. And I’m no fan of getting dust on EVERYTHING while floors get sanded. After all that, I am all for giving the prefinished flooring a go.
Hoping to pick this up by the end of February…
Washington Acres 