Deciding Perfect flooring for your home is as important as deciding on a life partner. Choosing a floor is a decision of a lifetime, and you have to live with it for the rest of your life.
You must know your floors before making them final. So, in this post, let us discuss unfinished and prefinished hardwood flooring and understand what their advantages and differences are.
What is Prefinished Flooring and its Advantages?
As the name suggests, prefinished flooring comes with proper finishing in a factory setup. It has around 5 to 7 layers of finish applied to it, making your floor hard and durable. Let us discuss its advantages one by one:
No Mess:
Prefinished Hardwood flooring needs no sanding. Therefore, no dust comes out on the site of installation. Moreover, no onsite finishing can match the finishing of a factory setup. At the same time, sanding and dusting of unfinished flooring generates dust and debris, which is messy and requires deep cleaning of walls, floor, and the whole room.
No Toxic Smells:
The process of finishing a floor is not simple. It requires the use of harsh and smelly chemicals that gives out toxic fumes. Oil based polyurethane is one of the finished products, and it leaves a strong smell that stays in the house for weeks. During this time, you cannot remain in your home for days.
However, Prefinished floors need no sanding and onsite finishing. They do not have any foul odor or fumes. The factory takes care of all the staining and Drying of the chemicals, and you get smell free final product effortlessly.
Cost:
When it comes to price, Prefinished Hardwood flooring is expensive, but there is more to the story. See, prefinished floors are ready to install, it is obvious they are going to cost more, but you can save money on their easy installation.
On the opposite side, unfinished floors require on site finishing, so they are less expensive material wise but need more fees for installation. Labor costs and the cost of chemicals make unfinished flooring more costly than prefinished one.
Timing:
In the case of prefinished flooring, the stain requires time to dry. In some cases, and weather conditions, Drying may take more time than usual. But, in the case of a prefinished floor, you can walk on the floor as soon as you install it.
You can move your furniture and resume your daily activities instantly. In this context, prefinished floors are time saving due to their ease, less time of installation, and ready to use feature.
What is Unfinished Flooring and its Advantages?
Till now, we only discussed prefinished floors, but now it is time to know what are the good points of unfinished flooring.
Unfinished flooring is the most versatile. It is refinished on the site, and it provides the homeowner multiple benefits, like selecting the plank width and color of the stain. Let us discuss its pros in detail:
Look:
When you finish flooring on site, you have the option to get custom color staining and finishing options. Not just the stain, but homeowners can decide on the type of edges they want for the floors (squares or beveled).
In addition, you can get any hardwood species and get it finished. In the case of prefinished hardwood flooring, you have limited options available. You have to choose out of available options, and only a few companies provide the option of custom wood selection. Even if you get wood and stain customization, it will come at a price.
Uniform Staining:
When you get floors finished on site, you can make sure your floors are stained uniformly. It will not look darker or lighter in some places but uniform all around.
Cleaning and Maintenance:
Everyone loves a floor that is super easy to clean. The unfinished floor has no bevels to collect dust. They are easy to clean.
Can be Refinished Again and Again:
One of the most essential advantages of an unfinished floor is that it can be refinished again and again in the future when required. At the same time, refinishing a factory finish floor is a complex process. It will cost you more money and time.
In the End:
Here we discussed the advantage of both types of floors. This guide is enough to go for whatever kind of flooring your like. At the end of the day, unfinished or prefinished hardwood flooring is both wood flooring. While deciding on a floor for your home, you can make a list of perquisites and see which flooring fits your checklist.
If you are building a new house or looking to renovate your old one, you are for sure looking for beautiful wood flooring options. Harper Floors provide all kinds of flooring options. They have everything from hardwood floors to engineered floors and SPC floors. To sneak a peek at new arrivals and order free samples, visit Harper Floors now!
