You can’t
customize a carpet, but you CAN put a personal touch on unfinished hardwood! If
you want more of a do-it-yourself custom look, unfinished flooring is the
beauty of hardwood—untouched! Simply apply your own finish or stain. This
enables you to get the exact hardwood look you want. It takes a lot of hard
work, but we think it’s worth it.
See all the different looks our customers
have created with a blank slate:
Clover Lea New England White Pine
This
customer listed attractive finish, beautiful color, durable, easy to clean, and
easy to install as pros. What do you think?
“Used this for our ceiling after applying a white oil stain”
“If you want rustic, this is the product for you. Yes is does scratch
easy, and the milling is not the greatest, but that just adds to the beautiful
characteristics. I laid the floor myself and just finished the first coat of
polyurethane. It looks awesome. My wife laughed at me when I brought it home
thinking this was going to be an epic fail (she's mean). Now all she can do is
talk about it to her friends and now I have 4 new flooring projects from them. So to sum it all up great floor and great
price. Looks like I will be buying more very soon.”
“We chose this pine because we wanted the rustic look with lots of grain and knots. We love it! We
also love the wide planks. This is a soft wood, so it it dings easily, but that
adds to the rustic look so we don't mind. We knew that going in. We had someone
install it for us so I can't say how easy or hard it was, all we know is it
looks great! Not recommended for stair treads - our installer used a hard wood
oak of some kind that was a close match to the pine for the stairs - you can't
tell the difference.”
R.L.
Colston Red Oak Select
“My husband and I
decided to tear out the white carpet in our dining room and replace it with
hardwood, so I went to our local store with pictures in hand to try to match
the existing hardwood in our house which flanks the dining room on 2 sides.
The employees were helpful in determining what type of hardwood I needed and
suggested select grade. So I purchased what we needed and began our project. After
tearing out the carpet, and renting an air nailer, I began the border, which
took me nearly all day to lay. (We had never installed hardwood before, so
there was a slight learning curve). We then began to lay the main flooring,
which began to feel like we weren't making any headway because the boards are
only 2 1/4 inches wide. Finally after 2 half days of laying floor, we were
finished and very proud of our work. There were only a few bowed boards in the
7 bundles that we purchased so we had very little waste. We also noticed that
when we began to sand the floor, there were not may rough spots or raised
edges. Finally we stained the border dark and the main floor golden oak to try
to match the existing floor. We only used one coat of stain with no conditioner
and the floor is spectacular! My only regret is not noticing, when I was
installing the floor, which boards were going to be darker when stained. We
don't have many dark boards on the existing floor. (I'll chalk that up to
inexperience.) Even with that I still walk by it each morning and am amazed at
how beautiful it turned out! Thanks so much!”
R.L.
Colston Red Oak
“Good product with little waste due to milling defects. Easy
to install. Lumber Liquidators staff was very friendly and helpful and the pricing was considerably less than
elsewhere. I wouldn't buy flooring from anyone else.”
R.L.
Colston Maple
“Do some research though on staining maple. Although the
boards have light grain and uniform in color, maple will mottle and show
flames. We like the color variations, but just be aware of this. Also it is
difficult to get the exact color you want. You will be somewhat though
dependent on what the maple will give you - so it is important to do sample testing of colors on the boards to see
what it will look like. Custom color staining may be best left to do by a
professional. Our color is Early American with some red and clear added.”
R.L.
Colston Brazilian Walnut
“I used the 5" and 3" unfinished Brazilian walnut
as an accent around 2" and 3" hickory. This wood is very hard and
durable. Once urethane was applied the deep chocolate color came out.”
R.L.
Colston Select White Oak
“The floor looks great. It was easy to install. We chose the
unfinished wood to try and match our existing hardwood as closely as possible.
The result is a great looking floor.”
R.L.
Colston Utility Oak
“…I did the finishing myself and it turned out beautifully. I
sanded it myself with a hand sander, stained it with Minwax (Cherry) and
finished it off with two coats of poly. Its
a one of a kind floor that can't be matched and I plan to do several more room in
the house. I used timber mate putty to fill the open knots then colored
them in with the furniture touch-up markers that came in three different tones
so now you do not even know there was ever any open knots.”
“…I used a tung oil finish, so scratches come out easily with
a little tung oil and steel wool. There was quite a bit of waste, so you will
need to add 20% to 30% to your order. Also, work out of several bundles at a
time to avoid having different sizes dominating sections of the floor.”
Have you
installed unfinished hardwood? Tell us about your experience!
