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Schafer V3 ply 3/4"unfinished engineered white oak. Cost about $10 psf. for 4" select grade. You can customize to whichever look you like. It can be nailed, glued or floated. The floors can be installed first. You can figure out finishing later. Which buys you time with decision making due to Covid-19. No delays with the renovation.

$4.00 - slim to no pickins' but someone may have something. I wouldn't suspect there's much info on a product like this. Could be a standard Asian import.

Even $ 7.00 would be harder to find with those specs. You're probably going to have to look at 1/2" engineered and a thinner wear layer.

Somerset is worth a try.

Can’t advice on the humor question but we’ve looked for nice timeless floors in oak and found that Kährs and Kentwood had much to choose from at a not too crazy price level.

Humidity *

Thank you all for your very helpful answers. The $4-$7/sf for materials is my dream price and I knew wasn't going to give me a lot of great choices but was hopeful I was missing something and aware I am probably going to have to go up in price but always worth a try. I would like to stay with an american made product and as environmentally friendly as possible with low VOC/off gassing issues because of a husband and son with asthma and our parrot's health being very sensitive to these issues. I feel like with the crazy amount of different flooring choices it could be a money maker for a floor review site to have a comprehensive search engine for as many flooring brands as possible so there was an easier way to search by all the filters you have as a priority and to be able to narrow things down by brands to explore further :) That was another dream LOL! Anyhoo, SJ McCarthy you mentioned LVP floors in $4-7 range and we considered those but maybe I can get all your opinions on how people are perceiving the LVP in a more expensive home? I really do love the idea of the ease of care from what I have learned but I have some fears with LVP, one being resale because we have relocated 5 times in 20 years now and hoping this will be the final time but my husband likes to keep me on the edge with his corporate ladder climb...ugh! So we are always considering resale and with this being our 7th house in different price ranges through the years I'm still not really sure how LVP would be perceived by others but we are more practical with 3 dogs and a parrot and living at the beach and personally could see it working for our lifestyle but the 2nd concern is that we have a parrot and she has 2 very heavy custom made furniture quality wood and glass cages/palaces that are on smaller wheels than probably should be on bigger wheels and gets moved out of their corners alot to clean thoroughly and I'm concerned that the weight on these small wheels would damage an LVP floor? It would be like moving a large solid wood bookcase or armoire on a smaller wheeled dolly if that makes sense, I have read that kind of weight on wheels can leave grooves and often separates the vinyl at the seams. The house we just sold had custom solid wood hand scraped floors and it handled the cages moving well. Third and really 4th & 5th concern is the thickness compared to the existing 3 floors of 3/4' stairs and how that transitions and also if it would feel cheap under foot and if it really looks like wood enough and will just be a trend that is out in next 5 years. I live in an area of all brand new very high end homes in the extremely fast growing northern suburbs of Dallas and I'm hearing they are putting LVP in some of these over priced million dollar homes (I don't have one of these million dollar homes :) ) but I'm also reading mixed reviews on that and I know it depends on area of the country as to how stuff like that is perceived by buyers. So, anyone who has made it this far in my rambling, I'm all for and would appreciate hearing your opinions on LVP or other flooring you think would be worth considering in a nicer beach home on Virginia east coast with 3 dogs and giant wheeled parrot cages and 3 floors and 2,400 sf of flooring to buy..... Any opinions on the Geowood floors from Cali Bamboo that are thin layer of real wood on top layer over a limestone composite foundation layer that is water resistant? Can't find a lot on that one or know of any similar type products I'm missing? The pics below show house and setting for the floors for reference. Thank you all for your patience with me and any help you can lend :)

With your relocation list of 7 homes in 20 years, you get to do several things that many people do not (good news). You get to be ON TREND (yep....super trendy today = acceptable tomorrow) AND you get to to work with temporary products (that get removed later because they are SOOO trendy they cool off around 7 years later).

I know you want a classic floor for resale value...but your location might not lend itself to classic. Your realtor can help you with that. Your own search for housing (comps in the area) can also tell you what you can expect in homes such as yours in locations such as yours.

A HIGH end LVP is a great floor for EVERYTHING you have planned. Everything. The bird palazzos, the dogs, the allergies, etc.

That being said, you can find utilitarian engineered hardwoods in your price range that will be classic. I know it is hard to search for wood when you are in a different state. I get that. One thing you might want to consider is on-line shopping.

Sometimes the contractor just needs to know your colour preference. S/he can then take your colour and shop what S/HE KNOWS will work in the situation. That means s/he can find the product locally in the closest possible colour match.

The installer knows his/her shops/retailers. They just need to know your COLOUR. That's it. That's all.

Find a SAMPLE of wood colour and send it to your installer. Tell them to find the closest COLOUR match in the flooring product S/HE RECOMMENDS.

SJ McCarthy Thank you for being so responsive! yes, I'm definitely doing the online shopping thing especially with Covid19 quarantine really limiting my ability to get out and look in person. My experience with LVP is extremely limited so that is where some of the problems lie in not being able to see enough samples to feel comfortable with it. My GC seems to be shying away from the LVP and actually lives in same neighborhood as the house we are remodeling and has built many of them and remodeled them over the last 23 years. I wouldn't consider him a designer but seems to be very good at the practical details and says wood is the main flooring used on that little peninsula just not more than 5" wide at most and he consulted his long time wood floor guy who agrees. My style is very classic, timeless in general so I don't tend to go trendy but definitely don't want to be outdated looking. Going for fresh and stylish and classic/timeless at same time. I have never really worked with a designer and yet sold all our houses on day of going on market or soon thereafter in all those places during different economic swings so I feel pretty confident in my choices, I am not trying to go broke on this house as we already payed top of market price for this house to get into the neighborhood since it is a unique setting for the Hampton roads peninsula where my husband works that gives us the best of the options we were looking for with a good commute. Our house is one of the smallest in the neighborhood so want to make sure we have features that are resellable to buyers possibly looking a the bigger homes but could be swayed by the setting and quality feel of the home if done right. We are used to bigger more custom homes and finishes but downsizing as we turn into empty nesters this year and don't need the big house but still want nicer finishes that aren't over the top and we are still fairly young and definitely don't decorate in an outdated fashion. We are not trying to impress nor care about social status, just love to love our homes and surroundings as we are homebodies in general. Sorry about all the extra detail. This isolation thing has got me blabbing to anyone who will listen! Any particular LVP lines that would be the sturdiest to handle the heavy rolling cages without denting etc and most realistic looking with longer planks, less repetitive patterns that you would recommend? Do you have a lot of experience with LVP? I'm gonna try to get ahold of some of the dealers in the local area of the house and see wha they may recommend as well. Thank you for your patience with me!!

I wouldn't use LVP with real wood stairs without 1st getting a sample to see how "fake" it looks next to real wood.
But I also wouldn't want LVP.
I used Cali Bamboo and would recommend their Bamboo to someone thinking of bamboo floors. I got a sample of their engineered product to use in the lower level of our quad (not basement) and would consider it if we change flooring there.
Looks like a beautiful setting for your new home. Good look!

*luck....lol but good look too!

ljptwt7 Thanks! What engineered product did you get from Cali bamboo? I have a couple of their geowood samples coming with the real wood layer on top. can't find a lot of info on that product. I'm pretty sure I'm just going to go with prefinished engineered wood though. just gotta pic quick and hope I can get it delivered in next month. The shutdowns are scaring me! My GC has had good experience with Cali Bamboo but I have heard mixed reviews on their products and I want white oak.

I’m in the process of putting in engineered hardwood in the basement. I’ve done a lot of research on the subject. There are a Ton of options - if your GC will install whatever brand you Want or get delivered then even more options. uptown , hurst. All have good options. I like hallmark and palmetto Road / Bella Cera. If you go to 3/4 and 4mm you are looking at $9 and up generally speaking. If you go 1/2 inch and 2mm you are looking at 5-7.50 depending. If I was doing this for whole house i would do the 3/4 and 4mm if you had the budget. check out hallmark balboa for a color.

Thank you David West! I just switched over to this post from Hurst hardwoods site to look up reviews so funny that you recommended them :) They have a 5/8"x 5" with 4mm wear layer in select white oak for $4.89/sf right now and a european french oak 5/8"x7.5" x 4mm for $5.89/sf that I love the look of but my GC is recommending no wood over 5" wide with all the humidity from the bay? But I feel like I need to do more research on that considering it is engineered and should be more stable? at same time I know he has been doing this for years but I think he is usually dealing with solid wood which is an option as well but I feel like the engineered has some benefits? I keep stating these as questions because I'm second guessing myself. I'll keep doing more research and check out your other suggestions. feel free to chime in on any of those questions :)

well, if it helps, I'm considering a 7.5" wide. 1/2 inch think 2mm 75" long boards for my basement. Now, Humidity is something that you can control - but, as people have told you, fundamentally, the wider the board the more susceptible it is to humidity. you have to also consider the CORE of the engineered hardwood and what it is. AS most people will tell you the birch plywood or baltic w/e its called is the top shelf, but I suspect the more "wood" the more it will be susceptible to humidity. I've been in my house for 2 years and had an unfinished basement... was down there not a ton in the summer or spring, but never noticed it being humid. I finished it off and insulated the walls, and Boom, my humidity shot up to 77% ... now, some of this has to do with breathing, and product drying out ... I opened the windows a couple of nights and the humidity lowered to the mid 50s , still not technically ideal. I have a heat pump HVAC an intend to control the humidity that way, I also bought a portal one, just to help it out at the start. But, it does have me second guessing my 7.5" wide board for the basement as well. for the record, my basement is partially below grade.

I just got samples of the engineered (not the Geo wood) in engineered bamboo to go with the Reg. Bamboo floor in our main living area. I am thinking of putting the engineered bamboo product in an area which is 1/2 below ground (it's a quad level home) since Reg. Bamboo is not recommended for these areas. The Geo Wood looks good but it doesn't come in Bamboo.
I had also read negative reviews on Cali Bamboo but my experience was very good. Unfortunately I think a lot of people who DIY do not do the proper acclimating and spacing and then run into problems and give negative reviews.

I hate to say this but you also can’t have a crew working in your home during the social distancing so no getting this done in 2 months . I agree LVP might be the answer and I would not do bamboo flooring I have never had good luck with it in my experience even with all the acclimating , good install and IMO just as bad as VP for offgassing in fact VP can be had the is quite safe.

That is not true Patricia - construction (which is home renovation) is generally considered to be essential. And, it really depends on State by State. So check with your State / Local regs. I know for Georgia , I have crews working and there is no issues ... just practice safe distancing as normal and washing etc

Hello carla95rn,

We are a wood flooring manufacturer located in San Antonio, TX and ship our products all over the world. I would love to help you with you project. www.woodco.com

You should definitely do an engineered wood floor, they are more stable in situations where the humidity fluctuates more.

The natural look is trending now as well as the dark timeless brown floors.

I would probably recommend a 5/8" engineered white oak floor, probably in a light character grade. This will look like this - https://www.woodco.com/products/la-grange-plank/

Having some character in the floor will help mask any scratches that may occur from your dogs. Adding a texture, like a light wire brush will also help.

We can either finish the floor at our facility, this will mean your floor will have a microbeveled edge. Or else you can finish the floor on site and have a square edge.

Some colors that I would recommend are

Milk - https://www.woodco.com/products/milk-plank/

Crema - https://www.woodco.com/products/crema-plank/

Macchiato - https://www.woodco.com/products/macchiato-plank/

Natural - https://www.woodco.com/products/natural-plank/

Fresno - https://www.woodco.com/products/fresno-plank/

Please let me know if I can help in anyway, I am just an email or phone call away! (❁´◡`❁)

Stay safe,

-- Debbie George

Thank you Debbie! looks like you have some beautiful, quality floors but thinking they may be on the higher price range?

Hi, I’m also looking and have had samples sent to me from all over the place, so yes companies are going that. My favorite had been a company in Chicago called PurezaWood. Look them up on fb and Instagram. They have beautiful floors and the samples sent to me are quality floors. The best part is they are in your price range. They are somewhat custom also in that you pick the width, color, finish, and width. Check them out! I’m leaning towards them myself.

Sorry for the typos, my phone had a mind of its own. lol

This might sound off the wall, but have you tried to contact anyone (a contractor that specializes in flooring and/or a flooring company) in the Houston/Beaumont/Galveston area? They might be able to give insight on addressing humidity, know of sources in Virginia, or even provide homeowner references for those who have rebuilt/remodeled their homes after the hurricanes. My thought is that if you could get a “in real life” sense of what and how flooring products are installed in this high humidity area it may help you make a decision on flooring for your coastal Virginia home. Good luck!

pleballerina that is a good idea :) I'm all about using any experienced advice I can find!

Thank you Tarasmom! I will definitely check them out. And I am the queen of typos so no worries LOL!

Oh good Carla, I’m glad you could muddle thru. I’m always particular about rereading before I send but it was late so I skipped it.
I hope the Purezawood will work for you. I’ve been looking forever for quality but affordable and these seem to be just that.
Let us know what you end up with.

Has anyone installed the Pureza floors? If so, thought?

@ Dominique Please start your own thread. It will get more responses than tossing in a comment on an old thread.

I ended up with the Raintree waterproof hardwood and am 100% happy with it so far with 3 dogs and the sand from living on the beach. it seems to be about indestructible IMHO so far and is beautiful real wood. no one would know it was not wood on the base layer. The very experienced floor installer was impressed with the quality.

Hi Carla, glad to hear you are happy with your choice. Is Raintree hardwood or engineered wood? Thanks!

@carla95rn @osxupdates I’m thinking of installing Raintree throughout the first floor of our 120 year old home in northern Michigan (BIG temperature extremes) - kitchen, 1/2 bath, and mud room included. I’d love to hear from someone who has it installed. It’s a 1.5mm layer of sliced (not peeled) hardwood over a resin core. Supposedly sealed to be impereable to water, and the water I’ve left sitting on the samples seems to support that, lol.

@MJ Meyerson Hi, we installed Raintree Laguna Vibes Sandstone color through entire 3 floors (all above grade) including 3 of the bathrooms last April and having more of same floor installed in our new kitchen remodel as they are finishing this next couple weeks. Just for reference we live on a beach on the Chesapeake with temperatures ranging from zero to >100 with very high humidity and lots of sand with 2 dogs and a small parrot in a 20 yr old house.

I have been very happy with the floors so far. They do fine with water and humidity in bathrooms. I haven't seen any scratches from the sand that gets tracked in more than I'd like by our dogs and us. They are a matte finish with the fine wood grain texture and microbevels so if something sticky drips on floor you have to be sure to wipe it up completely or you will see it later when it dries stuck in the grooves versus a shinier non textured wood floor by I had the same issue in my house in Texas with shiny deep hand scraped floors as well. Where this texture and the grooves have been very evident is during our complete kitchen remodel in an open Floorplan house with all the fine sawdust and drywall dust that as much as I try to sweep nightly just sticks in the grooves and is only going to be remedied with some heavy moist mopping when this is all done.

It takes a lot to scratch the wood but not unlike any wood floor it can and has happened with an accidental extremely heavy sharp edge scraping on floor but isn't really noticeable at all because of matte finish with all the texture.

The only time I have seen an issue with moisture effecting them, and I'm embarrassed to say this but being totally transparent, one of my dogs is afraid of storms and she snuck down to an area we are not in very often during a storm and peed on the rug there and by the time I found it while cleaning down there it had left a small dark streak in wood under rug because the rug prevented the urine from drying quickly and it eventually seeped into I assume a microfissure in the finish on the wood. Otherwise the other time she did same thing on the bare wood it dried and easily cleaned up with no marks. I swear I have a very clean house but rare accidents happen and our first floor where it happened is only our college son's domain and he was away at school and I had just cleaned down there before the storm. She is now gated off with no accidents. Yeah!

I am very pleased with these floors especially considering how much they have taken between animals, sand, moisture, moving in of all our furniture and now heavy remodeling with workers tracking through house. I sweep them with a cordless soft roller vacuum every day or 2 in the higher traffic areas and moist mop as needed. The sandstone color has a light gray undertone with just a touch of pink in the right light, thus the name sandstone. I love the medium to lighter color. It blends really well with all my newer furniture furniture and old antique wood pieces. I'm having a huge custom walnut facegrain island top installed next week and am super excited to see how it all looks together. If you have any questions feel free to message me. Hope this has helped you. Good luck!

@carla95rn SO helpful! Thank you so much. I grew up going to Bethany Beach, so I know exactly what your weather is like! So you haven’t had any problems with delaminating, or scratching all the way through the wood? Are the high traffic areas showing any more signs of wear and tear than low traffic areas? I’m pretty excited about the flooring - I think it would be great in our old home.

Wow Raintree has all sorts of protection. I'm not knocking it but..

1. Ninja H20 Core - waterproof
2. Ninja Pet Guard
3. Ninja Stealth

It's no wonder I get inquiries for waterproof engineered. Folks 'nuttin is waterproof. Have to think of the mold that may lay underneath after a flood or other.

Some of these companies oversell a products' benefits. Back when I got into this business in the late 80's floors were made to walk on and that's it. Same today but the marketing folks have taken it too far. And I thought Lumber Liquidators 100 year warranty was bad a few years back.

@MJ Meyerson I have seen no wear on the high traffic areas at all and considering the way our house is layer out they get a lot of traffic in the same small paths constantly.

@Uptown Floors I don't think any floor is truly waterproof and am not gullible enough to think that these warranties really mean anything which is why I never mentioned the warranty. Yes there can be issues with any floor but this floor appealed more to me because it is an actual real wood slice like engineered floor but layered on a vinyl base as opposed to engineered wood on a particle board base that swells if it gets wet. I don't expect this floor to be the end all be all nor last 100 years like a true thick solid wood floor installed correctly. But this floor has gotten a lot of beating with all that is going on in our house and my biggest concern was sand and dogs scratching a shiny layer on a wood floor and, in the case of my 14 year old dog that passed away last week, worried about an old dog having an accident when I'm not around and it seeping between the boards and the base layer absorbing it. I have seen no evidence that any liquid from any spill has easily seeped between the boards of this floor or stained or eroded it and have had no problems and am relaying my experience to someone who asked. Is that OK with you??

@carla95rn So sorry to hear about your dog - it’s very hard that they live such relatively short life spans but are so much a part of our families and our hearts. Thanks for the frank reviews - anyone with pets understands about accidents. That was my concern too - having something leak through to the base layer and it swelling. That was the appeal of Raintree for me.

carla95m, can you share a picture of your raintree floor please?

oops I meant carla95rn

@MJ Meyerson you're welcome and thank you for understanding losing our furbabies is so hard and considering how our pets are part of the family when choosing flooring.

@camsrq here are a couple pics this morning in cloudy eastern morning light.

Thank you! Beautiful!!!

Hello Carla, what color raintree is that? are you still happy with the floors? We are thinkjng about purchasing them soon.

@carla95rn it does look similar to soleil. Are you able to clean in the grooves with a wet mop?

@kenuss I believe mine is laguna vibes driftwood, I'm out of town until tomorrow but I can confirm that when I get home. Yes, I'm still very happy with it and get lots of compliments. No one knows it isn't full through real wood. It cleans beautifully. If something sticky drips in cracks you I may need to use a microfiber cloth by hand here or there but that is rare. It does have a lot of texture throughout each board with tiny grooves if you haven't actually seen a piece in person. I have 2 dogs and a parrot and other than sweeping it with a cordless hard floor vacuum with a soft roller in it a couple times a week for dog hair, beach sand & dust and moist mopping with a microfiber mop with sprayer or my mopping machine occasionally it doesn't need anything heavy duty or time consuming.

@kenuss I was wrong, I just found the info in an email, the color of mine is laguna vibes Sandstone. I don't know if that color is so available.

@carla95rn thank you! Sadly, I don’t think that color is available, but it sounds like the product has held up well. Did you find there was a good mix of long and short boards?