I don't understand your question. If you're planning to stain the floor yourself, no, it makes no sense to install prefinished. Are you planning to refinish the floor that's already in the kitchen?
One note,
If your sanding the kitchen floor....try to find out what brand it is and the finish that was applied. If it's an aluminum oxide finish it is very,very tough and not easy to sand- your going to be there for a while.
B,
I'm just going to go with unfinished and bevel it myself.
If you're talking about solid maple plank/strip: maybe I've been using the wrong brands, but in my experience solid wood isn't milled that carefully, in the expectation that it will be sanded after installation. I'd hate to bevel some flooring and then sand away the bevel in order to make the floor even to finish. Maybe one of the flooring gurus has more to say about it (might tell me to stop using crummy flooring).
Bob, a good flooring supplier can give you a heads up on brands that are milled correctly. I normally refuse to install box store unfinished as culling/sorting then sanding the junk just takes too long. Many flooring salespeople have almost zero training it seems.
I hope that didn't come across funny. I just meant that when I call my wood supplier he knows what I want and will steer me the right way. I install it myself, as you do, so I want good material. My sanding partner of 15 years appreciates it too.
Why would they want to install pre finished HW flooring, then sand it and stain it to a different tone..... .:blink: makes no sense.....IMO ....
One note,
If your sanding the kitchen floor....try to find out what brand it is and the finish that was applied. If it's an aluminum oxide finish it is very,very tough and not easy to sand- your going to be there for a while.
My personal opinion about staining floors.......I don't think it is a good idea. If , or I should say when the floor gets scratched it is going to be difficult to repair it/ blend it in without it being noticeable....
I strongly urge clients that want HW flooring to go with natural wood and species selection according to the tone they are looking for. If the floor gets scratched or damaged it is a lot easier to repair and blend in and in most cases looks like the rest of the floor.
I would talk to your customers about getting something with the tone and color they are looking floor. However if they won't budge then go with unfinished and then stain it, I'm just not a big fan of doing it this way...
JMPOV ,
B,
.. I can get some pretty good results sometimes with just a set of sharpies. ...
It's just my perspective about "real" HW floors,.....please don't take it personally.....
B,