Prefinished Vs. Unfinished Hardwood Floor

Prefinished Hardwood Floor:

1) Prefinished flooring is a faster process. Once prefinished flooring is installed, you can walk on it and put furniture on it immediately

2) Prefinished flooring is less messy than an unfinished floor that will need to go through a sanding process.

3) With prefinished flooring, there is no chemical smells because there are no chemicals being applied. The flooring has already treated in the factory where it was made.

4) Prefinished flooring usually costs less overall than unfinished flooring.

Unfinished Hardwood Floor:

1) From the countless different types of wood available to the countless stain colors and many different finishing options, the creative possibilities for unfinished floors are almost endless.

2) If you have existing hardwood flooring in the home that you want to match, adding unfinished wood flooring is the way to go. You will be able to exactly match the species of wood, and an expert hardwood floor refinisher can play with stains and colors on the unfinished wood to exactly match the existing floor.

3) If a hardwood floor that has been finished gets scratched, it can be spot repaired by taping off boards and sanding those individual boards down to raw wood and then refinishing them

4) Over time, both prefinished and unfinished flooring will get some surface scratches from normal wear and tear. Unfinished flooring that has been treated with a water based or an oil based polyurethane can be buffed and re-coated every few years to revitalize the top coat of poly and remove surface scratches. If a hardwood floor is well-maintained and this process is done every couple of years, homeowners will never need a complete sanding!