Solid Hardwood Flooring
Considered the highest-quality flooring, unfinished solid hardwood is the oldest form of wood flooring and comes in longer plank sizes than prefinished and engineered types. Solid hardwood flooring is used with wood subfloors or is created with a floor joist system. Unfinished solid flooring is nailed or stapled into place and sanded, and then a finish is added.
As with any type of unfinished flooring, unfinished solid hardwood offers several design possibilities with stains. Rather than going off color samples (the typical procedure for prefinished flooring), you can test different stains in your home and find which one works best with the space. Once you have found the best stain, all test spots can be sanded down. Solid flooring can be sanded a nearly-unlimited amount of times.
Solid flooring offers more variation than other types of wood floors. In addition to longer plank sizes, unfinished solid flooring is manufactured in thinner strip sizes. Typical solid flooring is 3/4ths of an inch to one inch thick and is 2.25 inches wide. Width can go up to five or seven inches, depending upon the brand. A piece of unfinished hardwood, however, may be as thin as 5/6ths to one-half of an inch and 1.25 inches wide.
