Hardwood finishes, Sealer or not

Questions on sealing a new unfinished solid hardwood floor berore it is stained? Well no need to worry, that is the topic of todays posting.
 This seems to be a question that keeps popping up when I discuss the installation procedure of unfinished, or finish on job site, hardwood installation. Depending on the finish that you choose, and there are a few different types of finishes, a sealer may be needed. Let me explain.
 There is basically three types of finishes, waterborne or also called waterbased, such as "Bona Traffic".
 Then there is an alcohol based product such as "Sentyco" and finally good old polyurathane.
None of these products need to have a sealer applied to the flooring before it is stained unless there is no stain going to be applied. The stain is the sealer.
The stain itself will close the grain once it is applied and that is what a sealer does. If you would like to pay for the extra coat, installers and sales people will charge extra for the coat. That money could be used elswhere. For instance the water based Bona Traffic, It does run more per square foot but the benefit of being able to walk on it the same day it is applied is huge, especially if you are living in the house while the installation is being done.

 We tend to use Bona Traffic on the majority of unfinished hardwood installs. Reason being, it drys faster and has the highest customer satisfaction. There is also a water based product "Street Shoe", but some of my installers have heard there has been some issues with color changes using Street Shoe.
 Having a coating dry faster means it can be walked on in less than five hours.  The benefit of giving the customer the ability to use that area just a few hours after the application, thus less interuption of nornal family function.
There is another product that can be used that dries quickly and that is the alcohol based Sentyco. But has a high odor. So a well venatated house is a must. Which then reduces the benefit of normal family function.
 The basic difference between waterbased products and polyurathane is the more natural look water based products have, the ability to apply as many as two coats in a day and walk on the floor that night. Polyurathane takes at least 12 hours to dry. Poly ,also after a period of time, can change a golden color
                    Now why a unfinished floor compare to a prefinished?
 Most prefinished floors have layers of aliminum oxide in the finish. This makes the finish more durable. Now no floor, prefinished or finish on job site is scatch resistant. But in time both will need to be recoated. A prefinished aluminum oxide finish will have to be removed. Meaning down to the bare wood.
A floor that has been finished on the job site or in your home, can be rescreened. Resreaning means we can lightly sand your floors with a light buffer which is normaly 180 grit buffing pad. Put a new coat of finish and your floor have the look close to where it was when they where new.
 On the other hand a prefinished floor has to go thru a series of sandings. Having aluminum oxide in the finish makes it harder to do this because the sanding bels used in sanding the floor is made of aluminum oxide. So the cost to refinish a prefinished floor costs more.

Engineered wood versus solid hardwood

Questions regarding the proper wood flooring to choose? Engineered or solid? The easiest answer is to ask the question, are you on a main level of the house and if so is is it concrete. If it is concrete the recommendation would be an engineered product.

 There are several types to choose from such as a glued together tongue and groove, a click together "floating floor" system or a glue down method. In my opinion, the glue down method is the most stable of the three.

 Engineered wood in it self is a more stable wood product because of the layers of wood glued together,one on top of each other, with the grain going in a different direction each layer. What this does is reduces the amount of expansion and contration. A solid product will absorve moisture in humid climates and expand. While in a dry climate shrink, thus having both climates,your wood will exppand in the summmer and shrink in the winter. Engineered will not go thru this change.
A solid hardwood product is not recommended "below grade". Which means under the main level of your house. I will get more detailed pictures in a few hours.

Laminate install video

Laminate install