Birch

[Beth]

We are thinking of putting down Virginia Mill Works Co. Cocoa Birch 5/8 x 3 1/4. Does anyone have any thoughts on this product or on Birch itself? We are putting this down in our living room. I do know that the dark color will show a lot of dirt. I am ok with that. We love the dark colors and are willing to clean it often. I have not read or seen a lot about birch and I am wondering if it is a good wood for floors? Also does anyone know about Virginia Mill Works is it a reputable flooring manufacturer.
Thank you for any insight.

Beth

 

[Beth]

Our other option that we were discussing was the Home Legend Strand Woven Espresso 3/8 in. Thick x 4-3/4 in. Wide x 36 in. Length Click Lock Bamboo Flooring. This flooring is at Home Depot. The other flooring is at Lumber Liquidators. The Birch is a solid hardwood floor (not a click and lock and not engineered) and could be refinished, but I am not sure the Bamboo could. Which one would you choose or not choose if you were going to put down floor.
Thanks again

 

[Ernesto]

I'm kinda fond of birch, stained dark or natural.

 

[FloorMaven]

Red oak is by far the most popular hardwood floor choice and Birch & red oak are close in terms of hardness. Bamboo is 25-30% harder. If budget isn't that much of a concern then it's just a matter of deciding which you enjoy more.

 

[kd89]

I would go with the true hardwood if its in the budget. I love the look of dark hardwoods myself.

 

[LeePelletier]

We did an entire condominium project in Birch. 60 units in the tower. Dark stained birch in engineered (Mirage). It was spec'd by the designers, so we didn't get to have input on it. Mirage makes a wonderful product . . . except for the soft finish they use that scratches easily.

They also make solid birch too.

Birch has a unique grain, which I love. I wish more people would use woods other than oak. But it's oak, oak, oak . . . and more oak.

Good luck.

 

[Incognito]

I did a fairly large furniture store that also sold flooring and we installed many various rooms with their brand of birch engineered floating planks. This was a European concept store so the planks weren't glued together, neither was there any kind of this new fangled "click" system. You just tapped them tight together. The gimmick was when you decided to move you could then easily disassemble the product and take it with you to your next home.

Go figure.

Anyway, a side note on that project the wood floor rooms were pretty large, open areas out in the middle of the store---like 1500-2000 square feet per. The owner's rep comes along after we're about half done to check things out. He goes right to one of the white washed birch floors and claims that this one is supposed to be some other kind of wood, with a natural finish. Maybe it was also birch but the stain was WAY wrong according to his set of plans. I had my set of drawings right by my side and showed him I had it right. Somewhere along the line they failed to swap out the colors on two areas and forward the new plans to our office. Where they wanted darker and one they wanted white wash we had them reversed. So we got paid to sand down, restain and refinish both areas. I don't do that kind of work so we subbed it out. I recall being very impressed Monday morning when I came in and they had fixed the error without having to tear anything out.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Incognito, in Europe they take everything with them when they move. Cupboards and all. I'm told. They also have some unique carpet called Domo that you can bundle up and it lays back flat.

Daris