And the winner is..............

Traditional method, un-finished timber floors.............

After much research and the fact that the floor needs to be laid before the doorjambs and skirting have been installed, we have decided to go the raw timber floors.
The reason for this is that they will be sanded and polished after handover and hopefully the tradesmen won't do any serious damage to the floor, and it's only scratched a little and can be sanded out.

I am very anxious about it but the majority of the work will have been done and hopefully nothing bad happens.

I did do some re-search on the pre-finished floorboards and came up with these difference compared to the traditional method.

1: They are installed just like unfinished floorboards however they are all the same size and can look a little uniformed or tile like .

2: No need to put up with stinky smell from the urethane, however the boards have a bevelled edge and the surface is not smooth.

3: A friend of mine has the pre-finished and complained that the polish chips if you drop things on it. I did see it and have never seen that happen with normal floorboards but of course they would get a dent or scratch they are timber after all.

Just a few observations that I made, here is hoping we have made the right decision!

Pre-finished Solid Timber V's Un-Finished solid timber

Right from the start we have always wanted solid timber floors, I am not a fan of tiles and I have never really liked carpet that much either.

So when faced with the question would you like Pre-finished solid timber my head started spinning! I had never heard of it, I just assumed that you could only buy the raw timber and get it sanded and polished onsite.

Obviously we have got quotes and it is a good price however is it as good a product? I don't know I can't find any arguments through google that say its completely awful or better than the traditional method. from what I can gather the only thing different is the beveled edges and the fact it is sanded and polished in a factory, and it's not enough to sway me one way or the other.

We are off to research some more today by visiting several more flooring places and hopefully we will have a clear cut decision sometime soon.


Here are a couple of photo's that I found

Pre-finished spotted gum solid timber

Solid timber spotted gum raw and polished onsite