Prefinished Hardwood Floors

Hi, I own a GC company, and here's my experience.
Mirage is incredibly expensive. If this is a house that you're staying in for the rest of your life and this is the flooring that you love, then go for it. If this is a property that you're going to sell some day, then you'll want to answer a few questions for yourself.
1-Will the kind of people that will eventually buy your house care if the floors are Mirage?(it's a good selling point, but if you're not selling to people who know high end finishes, then the investment isn't worth it because they won't be impressed.)
2- Will you make your money back? Does the investment justify what you will eventually sell for?

There is plenty of hardwood flooring that is already a beautiful color that only requires a finishing coat to seal it. If you find a decent flooring contractor, they will do a beautiful job.

Hi B.,

My husband and I got Mirage prefinished hardwood floors in September 06 in our house. We are so happy with it and couldn't ask for anything better. Yes, I agree that it's a little bit more expensive but it's faster for installation and much less messy. Also, you don't have to worry about resurfacing them. They have a warranty of 20 years. We went with this fantastic company located in Glen Ellyn called Flooropedics. They are great and very professional. Good luck

We've put in hardwood floors ourselves, twice. We've done laminate ("Pergo-type")in my Mom's house for her, also. We used the Bruce Hardwood 3/4" plank pre-finished flooring and it was easy to work with, had very few "bad" pieces that we had to toss and held up pretty well for the two years we (and our two German Shpeherds) were in the house.

My Uncle lays floors, You can call him and he would know. Robert at custom craft flooring, ###-###-####

We renovated a house and used Bruce (5 1/4" Brazilian Cherry) and Bellawood (5 1/4" Brazilian Walnut). Both were beautiful and reasonably priced but my advice is to make sure the wood has adequate time to acclimate. We did not do that with the Bellawood and now there are huge gaps in our floor due to shrinkage. We got the Bellawood from Lumber Liquidators - I found them to be the cheapest (price, not quality). The current problem with the floors was our fault, not the manufacturers.

I don't know the name brand of flooring we have, I am pretty sure it is not Mirage. It was purchased at Home Depot. We installed new pre-finished flooring when we purchased our home. We have 2 very active dogs and kids running around. The floor is great! My brother installs floors and he recommended installing the floors we now have. Just like the previous post stated, there is no refinishing that is needed. I remember my watching my dad refinish the floors when I was a kid. It was not pretty! It was back breaking and time consuming. I would recommend a pre-finished floor, but the brand would be a personal choice.