Our Wood Flooring

January 8, 2020

I have been getting lots of questions about our wood floors so I thought I’d make a blog post covering everything about them.

engineered wood floors 2

First off, I LOVE these floors. I paid full price for my flooring and I’m sharing this with you because that’s what friends do when we find a great product.

Pros:

  • I love the look, color and texture – subjective, I know, but I really think this combination hides a lot of dirt, dust, and imperfections
  • Very durable – before deciding on this flooring, I collected lots of samples and had my kids try to stain and scratch them all. The samples for this flooring fared very well to my children’s abuse. I even put a the samples in the back of my car during the first half of construction and they didn’t scratch! My 65 pound sheepadoodle has put a couple of barely visible claw scratches in the floor but they easily disappear with mineral or coconut oil. (see video later in post).
  • Wide Planks – 7.5 inches wide…I love the look of wide planks, but wide planks also mean fewer joints, and more coverage per plank, which means quicker and easier installation.
  • Lots of Character – These boards add so much character to my home. They have a few knots, but not so many that my floors look polka dotted.
  • Each plank is unique – Because these are engineered wood, the top layer is real wood and there are NO REPEATING PATTERNS. Maybe I’m OCD but I have a tendency to notice repeating patterns and fixate on them. “Oh, there’s that one with the 2 knots, and there, and there it is again…” It would bug me.
  • More Dimensionally Stable than hardwood – because of the layers in engineered wood, it expands and contracts much less than solid wood, which means it is less likely to buckle or spread causing big gaps when the weather is dry/humid or if water is accidentally left sitting on it…which means it CAN BE USED IN THE KITCHEN! We have it in our kitchen and have had no issues. I really did not want to switch flooring in the kitchen, so this is a huge PRO to me. IT is my middle son’s main chore to load and unload the dishwasher and he is not neat about it at all. I often find water sitting on the floor after he has been there. These floors show no signs of damage as a result.
  • Can be put on top of a concrete slab – enough said?
  • Fit the budget – I don’t know why I put this last because it is definitely a very important factor.

Cons:

  • cannot be sanded and refinished like hardwoods.
  • There are some joints that are tighter than others – I’m not really sure this is a con, because I when I think of beautiful old floors full of character, they have different sized joints. This also may have been due to the installers.
wide angle of engineered wood floors
engineered wood floors close up
A close up sowing the band-sawn texture.

Question: How is the texture/ how does it feel to walk on and is it splintery?

A: We walk barefooted, in socks and in shoes on these floors daily. It feels great to walk on, and there have been NO SPLINTERS, I have never even seen a piece of the flooring separate from the plank. It is a very hard, dense wood.

Question: Are there matching trim pieces, stair nosings, etc?

A: Yes, there are stair nosings and transition pieces. To see what they have scroll down to the bottom of the page where this flooring is and you’ll see “accessories” —-there’s a heading for Mouldings…

However, we did not get these and used white oak treads and transition pieces bought from Home Depot and stained to match the floors. Worked great and I believe it was cheaper this way.

I’ll add more questions and answers as I get them.


The following videos show a small scratch made by my 65 pound dog. It’s is very difficult to see from the standing position, but it is also very easily removed with just a little coconut oil.

HOW TO ORDER:

Here is the direct LINK to order these floors. I will say that the pictures on the website make the color appear yellower than they actually are. I recommend ordering a sample, or even 5, so you can see color variations and conduct your own durability experiments, comparing to other options.

  1. Debbie says:

    Jessica I love following you!! What is the color name of the flooring and also What are your kitchen countertops please- just beautiful!
    Thanks so much! ?

    • Jessica Starr says:

      Thank you! The flooring is the one linked in the post European Oak Whitewash in “Robin Bandsawn” and the countertops are Quartzite (natural stone) called Silver Macaubus. I believe Mont Blanc is also very similar.

      • Paula says:

        Hi, Jessica. There are 2 Robin Bandsaw. One is 4mm and the other says 3mm. Your floors look to be the 4mm. Did you get samples of both and compare them?

  2. Lauren says:

    Thank you so much for sharing this, we love your floors. We have just started the building process and this is so helpful!!

    • Mary Noland says:

      Yikes! the flooring is ‘discontinued’ — any other ideas? 🙂

      Share:
      DISCONTINUED PRODUCT
      Vanier Engineered Hardwood – European Oak Whitewash Collection4mm Robin Bandsawn / Oak / 7 1/2″

  3. […] wood flooring is engineered wood and I already have a whole blog post all about it HERE. That post has a link, but I’ll include one HERE to the product page as well. We love it and […]

  4. Hi! Thank you for sharing your home and your family! What a blessing to us all. I have a quick question regarding your floors! My husband and I just bought a home and will be renovating to include my parents. They are in their 80s and we worry about traction on the floor (as well as for our aging Chesapeake Bay Retriever)…. I have read that LVPs provide the best traction… how about the traction for the Engineered wood you used? I do like the look of your floors compared to LVP… just wondering about safety for my family! Thank you for your time ! God Bless!

    • Jessica Starr says:

      This flooring has a lot of texture and is very slip-resistant/ has good traction in my opinion. I would think way more than LVP would be. Hope this helps!

  5. Thank you for sharing the link. Wood flooring gives more character, so I have always preferred wood flooring.

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