You are a wonderful community. I hope you are willing to share your thoughts on this.

Hp

As with everything there are trade offs.

The prefinished is cheaper and faster to install. The 'engineered' versions can be more stable (smaller changed due to humidity).

One other downside to the prefinshed - engineered hardwoods is that some can only be refinished once or twice before the entire floor has to be replaced (usually not a big deal unless you are really planning for the long term).

And finally there is an aesthetic difference. The beveled edges give the prefinished floors a slightly different look.

The finish is a lot higher quality than site-finished. It's factory controlled, applied in a clean environment and typically UV cured aluminum oxide.

Compare that to polyurethane mopped on by some unskilled laborer.

It's perfection compared to streaky surface with various embedded dust particles...

See that was my thoughts exactly. I really thought that the pre-finished and have that installed into the house would be the epitome of where I wanted to go. Yet I was worried about the cracks and spills going down the cracks warping the wood or otherwise damaging it in repairability or even inconveniently

Prefinished now surpasses sand and finish and the trend is only growing... See how its done here, it will make you feel better about your concerns....

I've lived with laminate, engineered hardwood, solid pre-finished hardwood and for the new house we'll have site finished everywhere except wet areas. :)

You don't see many high end homes with them, and there are reasons why that is the case.

I've read heaps about this online and as with so many things - there's just no clear answer. My builder deals with this place and I like it, so that's what we're doing.

Good luck.

'Seriously' though, I really didn't know that there was this type of eliteness with site finished flooring. Don't get me wrong it's fine, I guess, it doesn't bother me anyway. I just want to floor that looks nice and I'm not paying the arm and leg for, and is easy to maintain. I just found out a lot of hardwoods exotic especially if you don't move everything around in the room and what's ever underneath an object is going to stay lighter than the rest of the wood that is exposed to UVA rays. Crazy crazy crazy this world of wood. Almost makes you want to stick to carpet.

I think I'll find the a nice wood I like and if light makes marks by things like pieces of furniture that arent moved then so be it, if it scratched then so be it, and if it gets warped a little bit by something I forget cleanup in the next five seconds well, s be it. After all we have to live.

Now if I can find a good store and a good brand of Tiger Woods I'll be happy. Oh ye a superb installer and my area would be great also.

hp

I was thinking the same thing. Around my neck of the woods there are some higher priced homes using the prefinished hardwood. I used it in my home because it fit the style of the home we built - sort of a rustic, cottage style and our flooring has knots, dings, and the handscraped appearance which would have had an astronomical cost to have done to a site finished floor.

If you have picked out a prefinished floor you like - go with it!