Sprucing Up Your Prefinished Wood Floors

Kim Wahlgren Headshot
Hf 0606 130

Hf 0606 130

When you think of a prefinished floor, do you picture a low-end product quickly straight-laid in a tract home? While there are still plenty of factory-finished floors installed quickly in low-budget situations, in today's market, the opposite is also true. When customers are interested in a high-end, design-oriented floor, contractors no longer immediately steer them toward a job-site-finished floor. Today's prefinished products offer endless options with regard to species, finishes, surface textures and widths, and more contractors are using them for custom designs.

The reasons for this shift are many. The quality, variety and warranties of prefinished flooring are better than they were a few years ago. Consumers are catching on to the benefits of factory-finished flooring, especially the shorter time on the job and the minimal disruption to the home. Factoryfinished floors have lost much of the stigma they used to carry as low-end products. To make customers happy, even many traditional sand-and-finish contractors have had to start installing prefinished wood flooring, and they're looking for ways to upsell those jobs.

Consider the Options

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Even factory-finished flooring of the same species and color laid in a simple pattern lends a high-end look, as shown by this floor by Koppel, Pa.-based Wood Floor Designs. Previous page: Prefinished maple and birch plank installed in a basketweave pattern by Edmonton, Alberta-based Alberta Hardwood Flooring Ltd. combine to create a simple, yet stunning, foyer.

Of course, upselling the job doesn't necessarily mean having to create custom designs. With the myriad products available, upselling prefinished flooring can simply be promoting a thicker wear layer, a higher-quality finish, an exotic species or a distressed surface. Another way to add value to a prefinished flooring job is to sell accessories such as prefinished moldings and vents, which can now be ordered to match just about any color or species.

Upselling a prefinished floor also could mean creating designs in the floor instead of laying it straight. Most options for site-finished flooring can also be done with prefinished products. Just as with job-site-finished flooring, upgrades such as picture-framing a room, laying it on a 45, or using a feature strip of a different color, species or width are all relatively simple things to do, yet they add great value to the floor and the price of the job. Laying the floor in a parquet pattern is another way to use the existing material in an interesting way.

Installing a prefinished medallion is a relatively simple, quick process that upgrades a prefinished floor, and matching prefinished borders also are available. Most border and medallion manufacturers can make prefinished products to match the stain, finish and width of the field material. Medallions are even available for floating prefinished floors.

Factory-finished floors also can be installed as part of a mixed-media installation by adding a simple brass inlay, tile or even marble. More unusual upgrades such as faux painting or lighting in the floor also have been done with prefinished products.

From an installation standpoint, the easiest custom factory-finished project is one that is custom-ordered for the job. Many manufacturers can take your job-site specs and manufacture and finish a floor in the exact dimensions and pattern you desire, then send the floor to you as a sort of job-site puzzle that needs only to be assembled.

Technical Tips

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Although a straightforward installation, this floor has a custom look due to the combination of colors used by Jacksonville, Fla.-based Wood Floors Online.

Even with the simplest of upgrades, there are some basics to keep in mind when tackling a custom design with a prefinished floor. First, be careful with your subfloor preparation. Because they aren't sanded, prefinished products need an especially flat subfloor, and if there are borders and changes in direction, for example, the flatness is crucial. Likewise, use a high-quality product. Good milling is important in any job, but it's especially important when changing directions in a prefinished floor or dropping in a prefinished medallion—overwood in the floor can create a sharp and unsightly edge. Along those same lines, products from different manufacturers usually cannot be used together in the same floor. Different manufacturers' products usually have slightly different profiles and bevels, and it can also be hard to match the appearance and the sheen of the finishes.

When choosing a product for a custom design, carefully consider how much extra work the design will entail. You want to leave as many factory edges as possible, for several reasons. If the product has bevels, especially on four sides, custom cutting will require recreating those beveled edges to match. Contractors use many methods to match the bevels, from gently crushing the new edge down with the metal edge of a pencil, back side of a chisel or a screwdriver, to using a burnishing tool. Others sand the side with a sanding block and then touch up the edge with stain (if necessary) and finish. Keep in mind that any time you remove or add stain or finish to a prefinished floor, you're usually voiding the warranty. Leaving factory edges intact also helps save time because the tongue and groove don't have to be recreated by using spline and a router with a grooving bit.

If you're accustomed to doing custom work on unfinished floors, you're probably also used to being rough with the flooring and your tools as you install the floor. Oftentimes when you see a new, high-end prefinished floor, the installation may look beautiful, but there will be scratches throughout the floor. With factory-finished products, be aware that anything on the job site may dent or scratch the floor. Even wearing the wrong knee pads or shoes, or setting down a mallet too hard, can mar a prefinished floor. Routers and circular saws, essential tools when doing custom cuts, can create scratches on the floor. One way to help prevent scratches is to use blue tape anywhere the saw or router makes contact with the floor, but keep in mind that even the slightest overwood will cause the tool to snag the blue tape, so be careful. Another method is to use a layer of countertop laminate as a thin straightedge and run the router or saw on top of that.

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This factory-finished tarara amarillo floor by Cambridge, Vt.-based Thinking Out Loud Designs has an upscale look due to its custom layout and 11⁄2-inch santa maria border.

While you're being careful about protecting the finish from scratches and dents, you also need to keep yourself and the job site as clean as possible. Most custom work is done by gluing the floor down, and adhesive has a way of getting on everyone and everything. If urethane adhesive is allowed to dry on the surface of the flooring, it's nearly impossible to get it off, so any adhesive must be wiped up immediately. Mineral spirits/paint thinner is often used to remove wet adhesive, but always check with the flooring manufacturer for its recommendation.

It's important that all cuts made on prefinished flooring are as clean as possible. Aluminum-oxide finishes tend to be brittle and may fracture instead of having a clean cut. Be sure to use clean, sharp saw blades. Blades should have at least 40 teeth; use one that says "for fine finish cuts." Using routers to make cuts takes more time, but they don't tend to fracture aluminumoxide finish the way saws do.

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Thinking Out Loud Designs added a custom touch to this floor by creating an easy medallion out of black cherry, santa maria and maple.

Taking Your Time

One of the biggest mistakes contractors make when doing custom prefinished jobs is not planning on enough time to do the job. Contractors who are used to laying straight strip or plank underestimate how much time it takes to do a simple upgrade like a picture frame around a room. And contractors who do lots of custom work with unfinished flooring don't realize how much extra time it takes to be careful about protecting a factory-finished floor as they work. Upselling prefinished jobs can be a lucrative business—as long as you charge enough for the extra value you're giving to the job.

Sources for this article included Steve Seabaugh, NWFA; Joe Boone Jr., Wood Floors Online; Walter Lourie, Thinking Out Loud Designs Inc.; and Brent Kelosky, Wood Floor Designs.

Prefinished Education

If you feel like you might like to try some custom installations of factoryfinished wood floors but would like a little help, there's a new NWFA technical school for you. The association is offering its first Custom Factory-Finished School November 2-3 at its headquarters location near St. Louis. Topics will include how to drop in medallions; how to install mixed media, including metal; and how to create custom borders using factoryfinished products. The cost is $430 for NWFA members and $530 for nonmembers. For more information, contact NWFA at 800/422-4556 (U.S.), 800/848-8824 (Canada), 636/5199663 (local and international), or [email protected].

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