Advice on replacing flooring in the main level of our home

[Ecks89]

Good morning,

My wife and I are in the process of replacing the flooring on the main level of our home. The previous floor in home we when purchased it was laminate. Surprisingly, we are now considering hardwood, even though initially, I was hesitant about real wood, fearing scratches from our young kids. I would love to hear your thoughts, if there are any, on Paramount Solid Oak, specifically the Mountain Ridge line. Despite my initial reservations due to having two little ones and a third on the way, the hand-scraped finish has caught my attention. It seems to offer additional scratch resistance, thanks to its low gloss and hand scraped finish.

I value your insights, especially considering this is our first experience with hardwood. Currently, our basement features LVP, which we found suitable due to potential water, kids, other variables in that space.

If I am just insane thinking of going solid hardwood route. I'm open to be told so.

Thank you in advance for the advise/wisdom sharing.

 

[Incognito]

I put an engineered hardwood with about a 3MM surface layer of merbau in the corridor of my first home around 30 years ago and it's still there. Every 3-5 years I'd do a very light maintenance recoat after buffing/screening/sanding ONLY the factory finish coat. Therefore our 2 boys and dog's normal abuse was remediated constantly. There's a few dings where things got dropped that I could putty over if I wanted but it wasn't ever so noticable. It looks a little worse for wear and tear but the house was built in 1954 so....................those are signs of character.

The rooms were carpet and the living room, dining room and kitchen got porcelain. If I were to put wood throughout it would absolutely be a SITE FINISHED solid wood and my treatement would be similar to the engineered. Eventually solid hardwood needs to be sanded and refinished, as opposed to routine maintenance coats (Screen and Recoat). Many folks consider sand and refinish a DIY project and it certainly can be. But I would never consider doing that myself as I've worked on those crews enough to understand the skill level and equipment expense to do a professional job.

The particular product you mentioned I could not find on the internet but those fancy names are 99.9% gimmickry. The downside to factory finish is they are not designed for standard sand and refinish and I've heard they can be problematic. So that's why I'd prefer the site finish for any large space you want to look great even after some kids, pets and LIFE happen.

 

[Ecks89]

Man, this is great information. Also a great call out and my fault for not saving you and others from seeing the flooring specs.

Here they are, I'd be interested if you get a chance to review them to hear
Your thoughts. We are looking at a smoke signal. Mountain Heritage

 

[Incognito]

Man, this is great information. Also a great call out and my fault for not saving you and others from seeing the flooring specs.

Here they are, I'd be interested if you get a chance to review them to hear
Your thoughts. We are looking at a smoke signal. Mountain Heritage

That actually looks pretty nice and I'm sure it's a decent product. I've installed very similar engineered wood in commercial spaces and they loved it. As your tastes lean toward that hand scraped-----antique or distressed look site finish isn't for you. You will need to replace the boards if something extreme happens. Normally a floor like that should hold up to a family, maybe even a small pet if you're diligent with the clippers and nail file.