"And, can you get the hand scraped look on site finished floors?"

Oh yes you can. But if you're having a hard time stomaching the upcharge for an engineered hand scraped, wait 'til you get an estimate for a site finished hand scraped.

You could get lucky and find someone willing to do such a job at what you're willing to spend, but unlikely.

Site-finished floors will be more water resistant!

Factory finished flooring is more durable and you won't have the "guess what it will really look like" element of site finished. Site finished seems to be popular on GW, but in the real world, factory finished outlasts it and without having the trash and sanding stripes and finish lap marks that make it into even a site finished floor by someone who knows what they are doing. It's a matter of degree. An expert might have 1% of the above issues, where a low bidder might have 30%. The only way to avoid the issues is to have factory finished installed. And another factor is that it's not the easiest thing to find engineered flooring that is unfinished, which if you are on slab, will be what you'd need. Sure, it's available, but as with anything that isn't that common, it's available at a premium.

BTW, you might want to do some reading on the care and upkeep of dark floors. They look great in "magazine world" where you have a dozen design assistants swiffering endlessly right before the photo is snapped, but they are a PIA to actually live with in the real world.

I agree with Greendesigns on the color--the darker they are the more maintenance they will require with dust mopping or swiffering. I am guessing with all you have going on, you don't have the time to be swiffering every square inch of flooring twice a day. Going with a medium stain or even clear poly is a more practical option.

Handscraped floors are beautiful without a doubt, but as you're finding are very $$$. Going with a #1 common grade vs. a select grade or clear grade hardwoodis a less expensive alternative to handscraped that still gives you plenty of character.

On-site finish vs. engineered finish is really a personal preference IMO. With engineered, once it's installed you're ready to go, but if your floors are ever damaged (think dishwasher floods kitchen), you run the risk of not being able to match it to the rest of the hardwoods in the house at a later date, and you are limited on how many times you can refinish the floor. Going with site finished gives you the advantage of unlimited refinishing, ability to match at a later date if need be, but it does require drying time.

I think the engineered prefinished floor have come into favor with builders who want it done quick + current homeowners who are upgrading their existing flooring and don't want to deal with the sanding & drying time required with unfinished. When building new, as you are, the sanding & drying time really don't play in as much--the builder has a cleaning crew come in to take care of any sanding dust + most hardwood guys use the dustless sanders now anyway & typically the floor finishing is done last--so while you're working on closing on the house, the floors are being completed & drying).

Hope this helps!

I have ebony site finished oak floors in a second home. I LOVE the look but they are a PITA to keep clean. They show everything. As soon as I am done with the swiffer, they look as if I hadn't cleaned them in a week.

New build I am going with gray site finished. For us, the cost was $2 sq foot less than pre-finished which is great because we wanted quarter sawn white oak finished on site.

Do these help (Google search)?

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