am i crazy

10 years ago

This could (hopefully) just be a case of never really noticing the feel of someone else's prefinished HW floors... Or this could be a terrible DIY install by myself:

Last night installed the first five or six rows of 3/4" 2-1/4 wide pre-finished Oak flooring. Installed in my kitchen. Flat subfloor. Rosin paper. 2" cleats.

It's level. No squeaks. Looks great. BUT:

Bare footed, you can feel the seams of the boards. Not in a pinching or stub-your-toe way. Just noticeable enough that it worries me that i did something wrong.

I'm comparing it to the rest of my house, which has 1960's oak floors, sanded down uniformly and sealed to uniform smoothness.

Is uniform smoothness a pipe dream with prefinished HW?

or maybe i shouldn't have had so many glasses of wine before taking on that project last night :)

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Comments (5)

GreenDesigns
10 years ago
What does your 6' level say about the subfloor?
glennsfc
10 years ago
Lippage is typical with solid hardwood factory-finished products.
User
10 years ago
You might be crazy but that's a different subject. ;)

It is not reasonable to expect a solid prefinished floor to be as smooth as a job finished floor. Advances in tooling and machinery have allowed products to have less overwood than in the past but it will not eliminate it in this product.
lazy_gardens
10 years ago
It's normal. Pre-finished will never be as smooth as site-finished, because the on-site sanding after installation removes all those tiny edge differences.

You can minimize this by making sure the ends and edges are flat before you nail them. I put a scrap of board along the seam and tapped it flat before I nailed.

Mine are the same way. And I don't care! Because I have floors without splinters.
malsranch
Original Author
10 years ago
thanks so much. LG: your floors are gorgeous!