More Hardwood Floor questions - Maple vs. Hickory?

[BillK]

My wife, son and I have visited a couple of hardwood flooring manufacturers recently and have narrowed our choices of hardwood floors down to either Maple or Hickory.

Can anyone with either a Maple or Hickory floor comment on their own experience with them from a durability standpoint?

[dcmom2b3]

I have maple floors and have noticed that they have gotten more banged up in the past 5 yrs than my parents' oak floors have in 35 years. Could be the grade/quality of the maple (my builder made a bunch of "mistakes" like that) but if I were to do it again, with a view towards family life rather than the single, never home, no pets life that I had when I built the house, I'd re-think my choice of maple floors.

Mary-Helen

[BillK]

Interesting - hard maple is "harder" than oak is. Do you know what type of maple was used? Was it "coastal" maple? I know some of the various maple species are much softer than "hard" maple is - and "coastal" is one of them.

How about your parents' floors over the 35 years of use? Were there pets involved or just you growing up there?

Pretty much every installer and dealer we've talked to warned us that we will get lots of "indentations" from the dogs claws and kids dropping toys etc - so we're prepared for that.

Thanks for the info so far!

[JMS]

Hi Bill,
I know you are asking about Maple or Hickory, but I'm going to give you my $.02 anyway :)

When we bought our home we installed Brazilian Cherry throughout our entire downstairs. It's a prefinished product (therefore no sanding) made by Bruce and it's referred to as BR-111. We have 5 3/4 inch boards. I LOVE MY FLOORS and not one person walks in my home without complimenting them.

If I remember correctly they have 16 coats of polyurathane (sp?), factory applied. They are not stained and they took approximately 90 days to age to their deep red/brown color. Because they are not stained, when they do scratch (and I don't think they do anymore then the oak floors my parents have), the scratch eventually darkens to the naturally color of the cherry board. My floors do not have a uniform look: cherry naturally have a great deal of color variance, but that it one of the things I love most about them.

I've found that if you place protective pad on the bottom of all your furniture and chairs, it will cut down on the majority of everyday scratches. Except I think dog claws are the worst thing you can do to floors - not sure if you have a dog or not.

Also, whatever you decide, really, really shop it around. The price quote discrepancies we recieved for the exact same product was mind boggling.

Sorry if this is useless info.. GL!!!

[BillK]

It's not useless at all! Thanks for the information. In all my research I've found that Brazilian Cherry is indeed one of the hardest of all the wood species. It's just a bit too dark for our tastes. We're looking for a flooring that looks something like this:

http://www.sheogaflooring.com/images/species/install/hickoryinstallation.jpg

And you're right on the pricing. My local mom and pop Appliance/Kitchen/Remodeling center wants over $10/sq ft. for Hickory - while I've found it within 2 hours driving of my house for $4.68/sq ft. (and it's actually a better quality than what they sell). When you're talking 800 square feet that's a $4,256 difference! I'm all for doing business locally - but that's just insane.

[dcmom2b3]

Oh there were pets! Much to my mother's chagrin!! Mostly larger sporting dogs, retrievers and the like, with big funky dog-feet-and-claws. But also smaller dogs with annoying toilet "habits." And me with toys, hard-bottomed shoes, nail polish remover etc. They've had them refinished once, and I can't get over how beautiful their floors still are.

I don't know what type of maple was used on my floors, except that it's not what I thought I was getting!! Grr. My floors are light overall, but have significant dark striations, dark visible grain, color variations and the occasional knot hole. The look is way more rustic than I'd thought it would be. (I'll find/take a picture and will send it to you). I'd always assumed that they installed a lower grade of maple than I'd ordered, but maybe the species also has something to do with the durability issues I'd noticed.

But all this said, I get compliments on them all the time, so I'm probably just being overly critical.

Let us know what you choose and how it turns out!

Best,

Mary-Helen

[geochick]

Bill,
My red birch floors look almost exactly like that. They really can take a beating! My only complaint is seasonal shrinking and expanding. It probably has to do with humidity, but it's a pain. The seams open up about a mm or two from time to time. It's not all seams, just about 10 throughout my kitchen. I have some prefinish putty I fill the seams with, then they look great again. My floors are 2 years old.