Q: We have to put a floating wood floor on the 1st floor in our 1890 brick city house in Philadelphia. Upstairs we have beautiful cherry stained yellow pine floors with a polyurethane coat that has tons of character. Could you suggest a species of wood offered in floating floors that might work well with the character of our floor upstairs?
And, I’m confused about the 1-3 strip choices when choosing a floating floor. Which do you think might work best for us? And lastly, for floating floors would you recommend Khars? Any others?
A: First, I like your attitude regarding your pine floors, that there is beauty in being imperfect. People who feel their floors must look like a French Provincial table top, even when they will be walking on them, can make life stressful for themselves and people like myself who try to give them what they want.
I haven’t seen a Khar’s floor in ages, though I know they are a top line product. There is another company that handles floaters and laminates. They actually are the front end and have their products made to their specifications in either Germany or Belgium. Torly’s is the product, or Quick Step. www.torlys.com or www.quickstep.com.
They have both laminate and engineered floaters. Excellent core with minimal swell rate. Quickstep line does have an offering of a wide plank laminate that has the “distressed” look, if that is what you may be after. torly’s has some nice looking engineered plank that clicks together. I would check them out. I do have confidence in their products. I am not sure why you must float a floor in this scenario. If you wanted a solid wood, distressed or character floor, you might want to look at Homerwood.