T.h.e. Floor Guy

Just met a real pro flooring guy, Jeff Lane, owner of Lane Hardwood Floors. He's got a showroom at 14700 Aurora Ave. I previously met with Craig Munson, owner of Seattle Floor Service, on Feb. 20. I liked Mr. Lane more.

He identified 2.25" x .75" No. 1. Red Oak in the living room, dining room, and bedrooms. The hall outside the MBr was probably added later, he said, and they used Select Red Oak. The oak has a natural, un-stained finish, which initially brings out the red, but the red goes away and it looks more yellow later in life. Sanding it down and refinishing it will bring out the red again, but they can tease out just about any color we want, or they can stain it.

Mr. Lane is confident he can feather in new to repair or blend whole new rooms. I asked him to bid just fixing what's here, since I'm uncertain about the new floor plan. He mentioned that they usually do the floors after the walls have been painted, so the context is there for deciding on floor color.

Image from Lane Hardwood Floor web site

Both Lane and Munson pointed out the visible nail heads at the north living room window wall. They both thought it was a repair, perhaps from water damage. Mr. Lane pointed out a poor feathering job, with three joins very close together. Where Munson said replace the living room floor, Lane said it's got one more sanding left in it.

Munson's bid doesn't break it down, but he has new Select Red Oak in living, dining and part of hall (not including removing the old) and refinishing the bedrooms and the rest of the hall for $6483.30 (plus tax). Lane said he'd send his bid by 3/3.

I asked Lane about prefinished hardwood (as seen 3/1 at Lumber Liquidators). He explained that each board has an eased edge--a "micro-groove"--that makes it look obviously different than a sanded-in-place floor. At first, it was odd, but now it's accepted since so many high-end spec houses use it. But it's a different kind of look. I asked whether it was harder to clean and he explained that giving the dust and dirt a tiny place to hide means that the particles aren't ground into the surface, making the floor last longer and look cleaner. So, he's become a reluctant fan of the prefinished. Solid hardwood is usually 3/4", prefinished is usually 5/8" or less.

Lane explained, by the way, that you've got about 1/4" above the tongue or groove on a board. The nail is hidden by the top of the groove. So when you see the nail, that means you've sanded off most of the top 1/4". To repair the living room by the front door, he would first carefully "set" each nail below the surface.

I asked him about click-lock, floating flooring, since I had some sample from Home Depot. Junk, he said, using other words. Nothing wrong with floating floor, but click-lock is too thin, uses crummy materials, and has no wear layer. No good.

Finally, I asked about under-floor hydronic. Turns out, he thinks hydronic is great, but you just can't use it with solid hardwood, because it causes expansion and cracks. With hydronic, use engineered hardwood, which is dimensionally stable by design.

We also talked about baseboards. The existing baseboards have what is called a "base shoe"--it's 1/2" high and 3/4" wide. (I mistakenly called it a quarter-round.) It's there to hide imperfections in the board ends. It's optional--they can even fix old floors by feathering in pieces where needed.

At least one site recommends a floating engineered wood floor over radiant heat. Perhaps something like Bellawood prefinished engineered bamboo (currently $3.49/SF at Lumber Liquidators).

BELLAWOOD Bamboo  9/16" x 5-1/8" Golden Ultra-Strand

Jeff Lane
Lane Hardwood Floors
14700 Aurora Ave. N
Shoreline, WA 98133
(206) 622-9669
jeff@lanehardwoodfloors.com