Wood floor decision.

what is the best wood to use on the floor? Should I do my own pine floor or should I get the store bought stuff? Is real wood better than the laminated stuff? Thanks, Clifford

I'm wondering the same thing myself. I do think the "engineered" hardwood floor is better than laminate though... it's 3 layers of wood, but it's real wood, not laminated fiberboard. The "real" hardwood floors are too thick and too expensive. I was checking out the bamboo engineered flooring- it's a great look but I'm afraid the wood is too hard- it needs to be a little softer and more porous I think. Boy, is flooring expensive or what? I'm been at Lowe's and Home Depot rapping on flooring samples with my knuckles- people must think I'm crazy. I also walked over to price some white pine planks- they looked pretty nice and if you do the math they come out to 1- something per square foot as opposed to 3-6 per quare foot. Of course I would have to figure out how to piece everything together. I'm searching the net right now to see what they're using in studios.

let me know what you find out. The more I dig into it the more I think that doing my own pine plank floor is the best bet.

you may want to double check that the pine has been prepared for floor use... tounge and grooved, properly dried etc.... or you may have a sap or cracking problems... i recently installed a laminate floor, solid wood was not an option to install on concrete (without a subfloor)... and i really like the way it looks and sounds so far.... it's not something you would want to do twice... so make sure you look at your options carefully. kevin

One thing to note with pine as flooring is that it's a softwood. So it can be damaged easier than a hardwood like oak would be. Though things like scratches, dings and gouges give it 'character' and if you're OK with that I'd stick to Kevin's advice. Most of the pine that is used for trim or shelving isn't necessarily suitable for flooring because it is more prone to warping. For more details try this google search How about coconut or bamboo? For my house finish flooring I put in a glue-down T&G solid oak parquet that I got for about $1.30/sq. ft. from a place called Ollie's in Harford County (Belair IIRC), MD. It's a liquidator discount outlet type store. It's kind of like a Big Lots. They had a pallet of different types of wood flooring in stock. I don't know if you have access to such a resource, but it can definitely cut the expenses. Regards, Tom

i ordered laminate through ifloor.com twice. great both times. they run specials of discontinued or bulk order styles too. cheap, if not free samples before you order as well. you can see my floor here http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8205 i used the bamboo laminate too in another room in my house. it looks amazing.

Thanks guys. :)

I am also considering laminate for my build. I will place it over concrete. My supplier for this type flooring here in Altanta, GA is Floor and Decor. They sell different thicknesses and is a floating floor which locks together. Is this the same laminate you are using dynamike? They also sell 2 different grades of insulation that get's placed beneath the flooring. It is very thin but is recommended. What do you guys think? Is floating floors better/worse than glue down? Dan

Dan Scott wrote:

What do you guys think? Is floating floors better/worse than glue down?

I personally don't like floating laminate (Pergo) floors in general. WRT to acoustics I couldn't say whether one was better or worse. I would think there would be a resonance issue of some sort, but I don't know. I can say that I think that laminate is noisier to walk on though. I can usually tell if a floor is a floating laminate by walking on it, it has a weird hollow sound to it and feels funny, especially if it has warped somewhere. :) Laminate or glue down you need to maintain a gap to the walls for expansion/contraction. With my glue down parquet (about 1/4" thick) there was a couple places where I ended up leaving too little to no gap on opposite walls and ended up with large peaks. A broken plumbing fitting in the HWH/supply closet that started when no one was home for hours that soaked the floor didn't help either. :o

I have the more expensive (thick) laminate in my livingroom/kithchen and dining area. It it feels very solid under foot and doesn't have a "hollow" sound at all however, it taking a beating from my two dogs!! I It is installed over sub flooring as my house is on a crawl space. I have installed "cheaper" thinner laminates in homes I've built for people and it is very "bouncy" until it settles mainly because of the insulation blanket underneath. I'm sure once that get's compressed it stops. I think the resonance issue that T3Tech points out is a very valid point. If it's not glue down flooring, it may resonate but I'm not sure how significant of a resonance there would be considering how tight to the ground it is? I wonder if anyone has ever tested this? I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet maybe just clean and stain the concrete??? Dan

my preference would be to polish and stain the concrete. easy to clean, durable, bright sounding. you could always cover the floor with another surface later if you don't like it (and polishing and staining cement isn't very expensive to do).

Gullfo, Have you ever done this before? I was reading about muratic acid and how it can "eat" the concrete not to metion the danger aspect of it. I realize you should wear proper safety gear (gloves, eye wear, etc.) but it mentioned to even contain the run off water in order to dispose of properly. I would love to do the concrete stain but wonder if you have ever done this yourself and have any other words of wisdom regarding the process? Dan

sandledfoot wrote:

you may want to double check that the pine has been prepared for floor use... tounge and grooved, properly dried etc.... or you may have a sap or cracking problems... i recently installed a laminate floor, solid wood was not an option to install on concrete (without a subfloor)... and i really like the way it looks and sounds so far.... it's not something you would want to do twice... so make sure you look at your options carefully. kevin

Hi Kevin, I've got the same situation you have. I have a concrete floor, and was given several boxes of laminate to use on it. How did you prep your floor? Did you use any kind of moisture barrior under it? Any type of padding? Inquiring minds want to know.

Same here- concrete floor. They did a wack job on the concrete- it's not level and the top seems a little brittle. I just want to cover it up so I'm not constantly reminded of how I got screwed on the concrete job. Staining looks cool and under any other circumstance I would have chosen to do that. However, it's going to be wood for me. Guess I'll need to level it first and moisture barrier laid down, then lay down the laminate? I'm still interested to know how the floors SOUND- not so much how they look...

i've done it three times now in finishing off basements over the past 15 years or so, and i intend to do it to my basement here as well. its not much more complex than sanding a wood floor except you want to be sure the floor is as flat, crack-free, and clean as possible - use self-leveling cement and repair cracks if necessary. there's a variety of products to use to "grind" and "polish" the floor and the staining process does require ventilation and protective gear since you are going to splash some acid wash around in the process. you then neutralize it and you no longer have the acid active and no deterioration. overall with rented equipment and a couple of days you can have a pretty nice floor. this is a good set of steps to do it: http://www.concretenetwork.com/shop_sma ... plies.html

Cool, and thanks for the link. It would seem that you do this 1st, before construciton of walls, is this correct? Dan

i would finish the cement first. avoid getting cutting compounds and stains on the wood or finish... plus its cement... its fairly resistant to damage - even so just be careful with chipping it with an errant hammer blow or sharp metal objects...

I was thinking more about this staining/polishing process and was wondering about something. It would seem that the polishing would effect the stain as it is "sanding" the floor. How does this work? Do you first stain the concrete then polish. If this is the case, the stain must go pretty deep into the concrete. I really want to do this and am clearing my garage this weekend. I thought I would start framing walls, but need to do this first. Any more help would be much appreciated. I will have to find who rents the equipment, materials, etc. Dan

I am the process of installing laminate over wood (2 sheets of 3/4" ply and 1 sheet of 3/4" MDF) and I would have to say I couldn't be any happier. During the selection process at Lowes I almost went with solid hardwood because it looked so much nicer. Now that I have it installed, am I very happy I saved the money because it looks great. My wife even said it was sexy :lol: It's fairly easy to install, especially if you have a helper, but I did do 3/4 of mine by myself. I used the Armstrong Swiftlock. There is no hollow sound when you walk on it, and I am trying to invision the resonant frequency situation in my head and I can't really picture it well. Maybe I could do some type of tests. I would think it would be less likely to resonate because it is floating. Regardless, I dont think it is a big enough deal to worry about. What do some of you acoustical experts think?

Dan - the way i've done is: clean and sand the surface until very smooth, then stain, then final polish and seal and buff. the stain does get into the cement pretty deep (compared to how much surface you could actually wear off :-)) call your local rentals places, most of the equipment is the same as wood floors, you just use different types of grit pads and in the final smoothing and buffing stages something almost like metal polish - minimal abrasive. holickpro - you're not really floating the floor if you have no air gap under it. so the MDF and plywood are sitting directly on the floor? if so, what did you put under it to keep it from getting/staying damp?

I have nothing between the existing plywood floor and new sheet of mdf then ply respectively. Kendale offered the advice on adding the layers and I never even thought to add anything to block moisture. I believe the reason the floor manufacture refers to the laminate as a floating floor is because it is not glued or nailed down. Any ideas on the moisture issue or concerns?

holickpro wrote:

I have nothing between the existing plywood floor and new sheet of mdf then ply respectively. Kendale offered the advice on adding the layers and I never even thought to add anything to block moisture.

Yea, if the existing sub-floor is a wood product then you should not have an issue with moisture. This page began with a discussion on flooring over concrete, that is where the con-fusion-and-cern came from.

Ah...Thanks for straightening things out! Maybe I shouldn't just chime in on the middle of a topic :oops: - I would like to add, I had concrete floors in my old studio and recordings do have a distinct brightness. I have a feeling I am going to miss that sound. Good luck with your floor and studio.

The concrete floor that I have are very rough, it would be really difficult to get it polished. Love the idea though. Where I work has an area of polished concrete and it looks great and tough as hell. I am thinking, concrete > 3/4" plywood nailed down > Hardwood floor(maple) nailed to the plywood. ? Clifford.

natas wrote:

what is the best wood to use on the floor?

I'm minding the same question... What is the best choice of wood for a floor considering cost, durability, sound..? In my case it is for a recording room with absorbing ceiling, and half-absorbing/half pine walls.. And also I'd like something not thicker than 1cm.. Any advice?