Learning Center

Find the answers to all your flooring questions.

Advantages of Unfinished Hardwood Flooring

Tungston Hardwood - Unfinished Oak White Oak - Select / 6"

Unfinished hardwood floors are an incredibly versatile and customizable wood flooring option. Although it takes a bit of extra time and effort to install and finish unfinished hardwood floors on-site, the results can be highly rewarding.

The main reasons finishes are applied to hardwood flooring are to protect the wood from stains, moisture damage, mechanical wear, and to highlight the wood’s natural color and beauty. Finishing your own floors enables a greater range of options with a wide range of colors, stains, finishes, and styles to choose from.

Key Advantages of Unfinished Hardwood Floors:

  • Unfinished hardwood floors allow you to create your own unique finish that suits your interior space.
  • These floors are highly uniform, stable, and even due to the process of sanding and on-site finishing.
  • Laying unfinished hardwood floors and finishing them after installation helps maintain the wood’s natural characteristics.
  • Unfinished hardwood allows for better uniformity of seal and finish by filling in the empty spaces and cracks formed due to minutely uneven flooring planks.
  • The process of sanding has its benefits too. It enables the installer to do borders, inlays, and other customized elements which are not usually available with factory finished flooring.
  • Finishing hardwood floors on-site makes it easier to match the newly installed hardwood flooring and finish with any existing hardwood flooring or other interior elements.
  • You can alter the appearance of your hardwood flooring by applying a wood floor stain finish before sealing the wood. This option also allows you to stain the wood with any desired color, including colors that are not available in pre-finished flooring products.
  • Whether you like light or dark hardwood, or satin or high-gloss finishes, unfinished hardwood floors offer many styles options to choose from.