Prefinished vs. Unfinished 

All hardwood floors have to have a finish applied to the top surface of the wood to protect the wood from staining and discoloration. In “prefinished” flooring, the finish is applied at the factory and no additional finishing is needed after installation. “Unfinished Floors” are sold without any finish on them. Once they are installed, the installer will sand and then finish the floors.

For decades, all wood floors were installed unfinished and then sanded and finished on site. Beginning in the 1980’s, manufacturers began to offer prefinished wood floors, and today, the popularity of prefinished wood flooring has surpassed unfinished, for multiple reasons: lower cost, greater predictability in the final result, faster installation, and no off-gassing from the finish drying in the home. Prefinished floors also allow manufacturers to offer a much wider range of textures and colors using techniques that are difficult or impossible to employ after installation, such as fuming, carbonization, reactive stains, hand-scraping, and wire-brushing.  (Click here for details on these process compliments of Monarch Plank hardwood flooring)

The main reason that some consumers still choose unfinished flooring is that they want a perfectly smooth floor, which can only be achieved by sanding the floor after installation. Most prefinished floors have beveled or ‘micro-beveled’ edges, which create tiny grooves between planks in the installed floor. While there are so-called ‘square-edged’ prefinished floors that don’t have beveled edges, these floors typically don’t stay perfectly smooth after they acclimate to the conditions in the home (with an unfinished floor, the wood can acclimate after installation, before being sanded smooth). (Click here for more on edges)

With the wide-plank flooring that is popular today, many designers and consumers actually prefer beveled edges, as the edges help accentuate the large size of each individual plank.

One other advantage of unfinished flooring is that the finish can be customized to suit the exact design requirements of the client. While there are literally thousands of combinations of color, texture, grade, plank size, etc. available on today’s prefinished flooring market, there are times when customization is needed. At Monarch Plank, we offer premium unfinished flooring for that purpose.

Prefinished vs Unfinished, Quick Comparison Chart