Question: This is a multipart question about natural product finishes: I’m interested in environmentally friendly , low to non-toxic products, beeswax or other oils or waxes that produce a low luster but smooth finish; one that is somewhat easy to maintain. I understand waxes need reapplication but how often? What brands to try and where to buy? (I can’t find links on the web about them). Can I do it myself after I hire a professional sander to sand the floors? If I hire someone, will they know how to apply waxes or is that harder to find that someone who will do it right? What about staining the wood first: my floors are 90+ years old, oak and in good condition, but after resanding them, will they need to be restained? Andrea Answer: Dear Andrea Oh, boy that phrase “environmentally friendly” (EF) can mean soooo many things, where to begin ? First I should dispel the myth that wax is the only floor finish you need and that it is EF. The truth about wax is that it is merely a top dressing for a film finish that is already cured and dried on the floor. You might try to apply a paste wax on a wood floor, but you can never build a protective film on it. I know I tried on one board with 10 coats of wax. They all soaked in and never left any visible sheen on the floor. Water goes right through wax. Waxing has a solvent release as you use it, and it needs a fresh coat of wax every year. Very labour intensive. So if you want a low toxic floor finish that is made from all natural ingredients. It has been used for hundreds of years and lasts indefinitely, and shows no sign of flaking or peeling. It dries very fast and is a cinch to touch up. Makes for a wonderful seal coat for waxing if you wish. It’s shellac and can be bought in a highly refined form by the Zinsser Co. at http://www.zinsser.com/product_detail.asp?ProductID=72 The drawbacks are numerous though. It’s a fairly soft finish, scratches easily. It does not resistant alcohol spills because alcohol is actually its solvent. Smells to the high heavens when you apply this EF finish made from the natural excretions of the lac bug in India. But if you are aware of all this you can easily touch up and re-wax all in a few hours. Next we have all the so called oil finishes. I really have to dismiss the pure oil (like tung oil and linseed oil) finishes from wood floor use, as they smell for months as they slowly cure, and don’t resist water worth a damn. But the varnish/oils and the wiping varnishes are a different story. The best (but not cheap) and most EF varnish oil I know of is the Tried and True brand at http://www.triedandtruewoodfinish.com/ This is truly a EF product as it is made the way they used to first make curing oils in the 1800’s. In their varnish/oil there are NO solvents. But you will need about 6 coats on very smooth wood, applied over 2 weeks to build a suitable film for floor protection. Easy to fix but it’s expensive stuff. A bit cheaper are the wiping varnishes, here’s a link http://www.waterlox.com/handbook_woodfloors.cfm But these dry faster (overnight) because they contain metallic driers and solvents that are quite toxic during the job (and 30 days after). They are really just diluted versions of a regular varnish, but you’d never know that from reading their ads. Waterlox also makes regular alkyd varnishes. All these have a nice warm amber color to the final film. And the wiping varnishes can built a more durable film than the varnish/oils. Then we have regular old oil based polyurethane ( OMU). Which is the full form of a wiping varnish, and is easy to apply. Very durable. Somewhat toxic, but is safe with in 30 days after application. I wrote a great article in this site about this stuff, and in a satin finish looks like a fine smooth waxed floor. But about 100 times more durable. I recoat my floors every 10 years, so I suffer little toxic effects in the long run. And then they are a whole slew of modern water based and Swedish finishes, and I could go on about these all night. But I won’t. Oh. and I wouldn’t suggest you darken (stain) the wood after sanding if you are using a oil/varnish you might just wipe out the stain color. Floors are more easily touched up when they are just coated with the finish itself. Staining floors is a really complex job, but I have written another fine article on this very subject.

Question: I’m a low-income parent with no real budget for replacing my carpets with floor, but I’m going to give it a try. What’s the least expensive wood I should look for while still getting floors that can withstand children’s hard play and occasional spills? Including installation, what’s the low and high range I should expect to pay? Thanks. Nadine Answer: Dear Nadine Why don’t you try this rather novel approach, it involves doing some of the work yourself, but hiring the pros when they are needed. You should be able to find some unfinished red or white oak flooring in the 2 1/4″ or 3 1/4″ size, by 3/4″ thick, for about $3.50 to $4.50 per square foot. You can install this sort of material yourself if you have some carpentry skills. Or you can hire a hardwood floor installer to NAIL down the floor (no staples please) for about $2.00- $2.50 per square foot. Check out the article available in the search box at the top of this web page that deals with hiring contractors, and follow what it says, please. There are other articles in that section that talk about strip and plank floor, be sure and read these too. Try to buy the material from a hardwood floor wholesaler, not a carpet and flooring boutique. Ask for the wholesale price, by bringing along a carpenter or contractor friend, with a company business card. Then by all, means have a pro sand the floor only. This should cost no more than one dollar per square foot. But beware of hiring the cheapest guy for this job, a bad sanding job can really create a awful looking floor. Now, don’t have them finish the floor, just have them sand it at least 3 times down to 100 grit sandpaper. In some cases that company will be willing to skim on the first coat of polyurethane with a drywall trowel. This is what I do for my customers. Use no cheap lacquer sealers as the first coat, read about this in the article available in the search box at the top of this web page. Let the first skim coat dry 24 hours, then simply scuff sand the floor with left over floor sanding paper and clean and apply one BRUSHED on coat of poly, allow a few days for this to dry and do the same for the last and third coat. Use a satin finish, and you won’t see the scratches much, and any mistakes you may have made coating the floor. It’s not rocket science anyone can be coached through finishing a floor. I know, I’ve done this sort of job for many clients in my many years in the business, with great results. I’ll have to give you more detail on the installation and finishing if you wish to do it this way, but this is a broad outline. The total cost should come to about $8 per square foot, if it is professionally installed, and sanded but you do the finish yourself. Or only $6 per foot if you want to install the floor yourself. And believe me installing an unfinished floor is Much, Much easier than installing the prefinished variety. And, you will have a smoother better looking floor, that you will know how to care for yourself. After all that you will be the floor finish expert. Otherwise the prefinished floors will cost $5-7 per square foot with a $3 installation charge plus all taxes. Bringing this total to $9-11 per sq. ft.

Question: Jeffrey Is there a finish(poly,epoxy ect.) that will hold up against dogs toe nails. I currently have carpeting over hardwood floors and would like to go back to hardwood, but I am concerned about the dogs toenails scratching the finish. What if any finishes will hold up against this? Possibly gymnasium floor finish? Your comments would be appreciated. Answer: Dear Jeffrey No, not really. You can try the most durable gym floor finishes on the market called catalyzed water based finishes, and your dog will still put scratches in the finish, and even rents in the wood itself. Street Shoe by Basic Coatings and Traffic by Bona Kemi are two examples of this type of finish. They are rather pale finishes and don’t look good on darker woods or darker stained floors. They will also pale more over the years, but are the most scratch resistant finishes now on the market. Now, all that said, why don’t you finish the floor with a floor finish that you will feel comfortable touching up and recoating yourself. For a water based finish try the newer oxygen cross linking finishes like the Dura Seal 1000, and both afore mentioned companies have similar products. These have a better color to the film and you will find it safer and easier to use. Be sure to read my article on the Dura Seal 1000 in the Floored News. Or you can use the standard oil modified polyurethane, that’s what has been on my floors for 21 years, and they do get scratched, but I recoat the floors every 10 years. I have written a long article on this finish and how to apply it without the bubbles and pits. It’s part of the Pro Series meant for the WWW directory guys, but we send out copies by email for a small donation. This finish has a longer track record than the water based finishes, and I still use it for 90% of my jobs. Dogs or no dogs. Oh, and epoxy finishes are not used much because of the toxic fumes and extreme amber color, and lack a flexibility. Moisture Cured Poly has up to 7% toluene, the stuff that’s been killing glue sniffers for years. And Swedish acid cured finishes (glitsa and synteko) emit formaldehyde for 3- 6 months after application, so this is out. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Richard I removed carpets from a living room and found dog urine stains on the hardwood floor. What is the best way to remove/treat these stains before sanding? Thanks, Rich Answer: Dear Rich, You will need to all the floor sanding first, and then do the bleaching, other wise you will be sanding out the bleached effect, if you bleach first and sand later. I sure hope you are hiring a pro to to the floor sanding, but certainly do the finishing yourself, that’s the fun part anyway. In any case you will need a long pause between the floor sanding and bleaching and finishing any way. This is the most difficult of stains to remove, and you can really only bleach it out. But in your case the sanding will have diminished the stain a bit, I hope. So for organic stains, like urine and feces, your only hope is to use hydrogen peroxide, in a very strong and dangerous concentration. Klean-Srtip is readily available in North America, and comes with good instructions. Visit their web site at www.kleanstrip.com for info on how to use this stuff. Click on the product button, them the wood bleach link. This will generally turn the dark spots to a off white color, which you will have to blend in with a light colored wood stain to match the color of your finished wood floor. On the freshly sanded floor you can use a splash of naphtha to test for the final color of the finished wood, on a clean area. This bleach is water based, so it will raise the grain and make the wood rough. Be sure to let the wood dry overnight. And be careful when you sand it smooth not to sand out the bleached effect. Final sand with little pressure with 120 grit sandpaper. Or you can repair the spot. Go to the Hardwood Authority section of this web site, and click on the wood floor repair article. Let us know how the project went, send me a photo by email if you can. We will post it on the site. Oh, heck even a snap shot sent by mail would be great, send to the afore mentioned address. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: The hardwood floors in the apartment we are renting are very old and have gaps running between the planks (the house was built in the late 1800s). When trying to teach our puppy where and where NOT to go to the bathroom, we noticed that whenever she had an accident it would unfortunately leak into the bedroom below (a bedroom that happens to belong to our neighbor downstairs…Yikes!). It is doubtful that our landlords will pay to have the floors refinished, so it is up to us to figure out a solution. How can we fix this leak? Thanks, Sheri Answer: Dear Sheri Stop the leak at it source. But don’t squeeze too hard. Just kidding. As long as the golden liquid didn’t make it way to the ceiling of the apartment downstairs you are O.K. And if there is enough finish on the floor, they won’t be stained, and maybe those gaps are in your favor. But if you have dark stains in the wood, and an odor that goes with it, you can certainly try bleaching with the strongest wood bleach available. You will need to remove all the floor finish off just this stained area, by chemical stripping or sanding. Try a wood bleach called Klean Strip at http://www.kleansrtip.com. It will turn the dark areas an off white color. The off white colored spots will need a light colored wood stain to blend them in to the rest of the floor. It’s quite an art. You will want the color to blend in with the final finished color of the floor, not the bare wood. Then touch up with the same finish the floor is coated with. If you don’t know what that finish is, read the second part of the floor maintenance article available in the search box at the top of this web page. And lastly, major repairs, or replacements. Or a combination of all of these methods. Find an old (or young) floor master in your area, that does these things, and will give you advise in person. But you certainly can do the bleaching yourself.

Question: Hello! I have two large dogs and they have scratched my wood floor. I know I have to sand and completely refinish, but is there anything I can do for more protection with regards to a certain type of finish product? Or should I rough up the floor completely, sort of like a barn floor and still put some type of urethane protection over this??? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Kim Answer: Dear Kim I hate to say this but recoating a rough floor won’t last long either. So either sand the floor professionally and have it coated with a finish that you will feel comfortable re-coating yourself as often as you wish. Read my article in the Floored News section about the Dura Seal 1000 water base finish. It is not the most durable finish ever made but due to the fast dry and ease of use, you may find that you can do the maintenance coating easily yourself. So that all said, have the floor sanded by a pro, but do the coatings yourself, that’s the fun part anyway. You then become the finish expert. You might also read my floor maintenance article in the Floored News section. In your case a well finished and cured wood floor finish can be waxed instead. The article mentions the two kinds of waxes used on wood floor. You will find that a paste wax will offer some lubrication to the floor surface, so that the floor finish itself won’t get scratched, but please read the whole article, there are disadvantages to this also. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Brenda I have hardwood oak floors that have a light surface coating. I just took up old carpet and there are dark blackish stains on the floor, I think a dog urinated on the carpet. Is there any other method of attempting to remove these stains other than sanding them out? Answer: Dear Brenda You should be able to safely wash most sound finishes with a pH neutral cleaner as discussed in the cleaning article in the Floored News section of this site. I’m sure you have tried washing the stain out of the wood, but by now it has discolored the wood itself, below the floor finish. You will need to start by trying to sand them out. Sanding with 80 grit sandpaper will remove all the finish and some wood. If you are really lucky the stain will dull and disappear as you sand down through some depth of wood. But don’t go as far as making a gouge in the wood floor, there are better ways to remove this stain, if it is deep in the wood. You can certainly try bleaching with the strongest wood bleach available. You will need to remove all the wood floor finish off just this stained area, by chemical stripping or sanding. Try a wood bleach called Klean Strip at http://www.kleansrtip.com. It will turn the dark areas an off white color. All these treatments contain water so the floor will need to dry overnight and then be sanded with 100-120 grit to smooth the wood but be careful not to sand out the bleached effect. The off white colored spots will need a light colored wood stain to blend them in to the rest of the floor. It’s quite an art. You will want the color to blend in with the final finished color of the floor, not the bare wood. Then touch up with the same finish the floor is coated with. If you don’t know what that finish is, read the second part of the floor maintenance article in the Floored News section. And lastly, major repairs, or replacements. Or a combination of all of these methods. Find an old (or young) floor master in your area, that does these things, and will give you advise in person. But you certainly can do the bleaching yourself. You can also read my repair article in the Hardwood Authority section, to see if you can do the repair yourself. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Doc, Your prompt attention to our flooring situation in our kitchen would be appreciated very much. Thank you. Jon Answer: Dear Jon I do a lot of kitchen floors in hardwood. I don’t advise it, but I will do it. The first issue is prefinished or sand on site. The prefinished floor has only one advantage, and that is the tough factory finishes. But beyond that they are just full of open seams. No matter how tightly they are installed, these floors will allow water spills to soak though these unsealed seams. The wood will swell and the seams will open more. It would be best to have one of these prefinished floors installed, and then coated twice with a durable catalyzed water based finish. And that’s the rub, we are not yet sure that these factory finishes will accept another coat of finish on top of it. You may be able to use one of the chemical prep systems as described in the maintenance article available in the search box at the top of this web page. But these prep systems are new and quite expensive. Remember you will still have to coat these factory floor finishes every 4 years at least. Engineered or laminated wood would be OK but short lived. The newer 2-3 ply laminated floor are a poorly designed product in my opinion. These are very thick slices of wood and not veneers at all. They will tend to act much like solid wood. By that I mean, when they get wet, (and in a kitchen they will) they will swell and buckle as they are dimensionally unstable (too wide for the depth). The 3-ply material has been vexing the new home builders for the last few years. They install this material thinking they won’t have to maintain the humidity levels in a new unoccupied house. They return after a week and find the 3 ply laminated floor buckled or shrunk depending on the weather. These are poorly designed floors, and should not be used in a kitchen. Read about this in the Prefinished article, which can be found in the search box at the top of the web page. Real laminated floors are made from thinner plys of all the same wood (no softwood cores), and are generally 5 plys or more. These are also light duty floors, but are much more moisture stable. The top ply is far too thin to resand in the future. We had a 5-ply 5/16″ floor go through 3 floods, and only after the last flood did we have to replace it. But alas these floors have gone out of style and only the 3-ply softwood core engineered wood seems to be available now. And that is typical of the Prefinished floor business, they discontinue models every year, orphaning many people’s floors. There is no to turn when only one company makes your floor, and then next year decides not to. Kitchen floors get damaged and need repairs more often that any other floor in your house. Now the floating floors are not a good idea either, because even though the seams are sealed in this case, it is glued up with a short-lived PVA adhesive. These floors sound a bit hollow and once the glue fails and the pad degrades (10 years) you will have an unfixable floor. I have revisited some of my kitchen installations after as long as 15 years. The finish is somewhat worn, but the wood can certainly be sanded and finished repeatedly. Up to 6-8 times. But I always use a narrow board. No more than 2 1/4″ by 3/4″. And if you want really stable wood choose the clear quarter sawn grade of white oak, finished on the back side with 2 coats poly and the top finished on site with 4 coats poly. This Oil Modified Polyurethane has proven itself over my entire 24-year career to be the longest lasting and most water repellant finish. And it ages well. The water based coating are OK, but they are still new, and they are still working on new formulas. I have seen some of my older water based finishes start to turn opaque white after about 5 years. And I have seen other floors, turn so white that you could no longer tell what type of wood was under the finish. There is a technical reason for this, which as far as I know they haven’t sorted out. So for now, I’m holding back on using the water based finishes on my floors, unless I am asked to. And I warn my customers about this opaqueness of the finish. But the Dura Seal 1000 may come close to being a good finish. Read about Dura Seal 1000 in the article available in the search box at the top of this web page. It is only about as durable as the OMP but can be applied without all the fumes. With this finish you will have to start out with 5 coats. And expect to apply 2 coats every time you recoat because of the low build. Now as far as the hydronic system, wood floors in general are not the best choice. It simply doesn’t have the mass of ceramic and won’t hold the heat nearly as well. A 1″ plywood subfloor will keep the hardwood isolated from any moisture below. And you will need to keep the heat to no more than 80 F in the pipes. You will have to raise the heat slowly in the Fall and lower it slowly in the Spring. And the real key is to keep the humidity between 40-60% all year round. Museums keep their collections in rooms pegged at 50% humidity and they have no wood movement. You will have to be almost as fussy, if you want no seams to open in this floor. I frankly wouldn’t do wood floor in a kitchen, and never on a hydronic system, it’s just defeats the whole concept of thermal mass heating. Keep this opinion in mind, as I am the only one NOT trying to sell you something.

Question: I am working on a house built in 1951. It has oak floors with the original finish, waxed, have been covered with a wall to wall rug for their lifetime. When we were prepping the walls and ceilings with TSP, some drips got past a drop cloth that got shifted. There was a lot of soot on the ceiling, so the tsp water was very dirty. It left very dark spots that went through the finish. (I sanded down a small area to find out if the spots were in the finish or down into the wood, and it was definitely into the wood.) Should I try to strip that section of the floor, masking it off? What bleach product should I use? How do I use bleach? What should I use to strip it? What should I put on the floor afterward? The floors are in such nice condition that I’m not going to refinish the rest of the house, just wax. Is it possible that the floor is not varnished, but only stained and waxed? What were they doing for finish in the 50’s? Della Answer: Dear Delia It sounds like what ever finish is on the floor, it is not very sound. Meaning that the finish film is not thick enough to hold back water. And TSP mixed with soot has really done it’s work. I’m not sure of the chemistry involved, but I hope this is just a simple case of water staining. Standing water will always turn wood black, but I’m sure the soot didn’t help. I’m not sure what a weak alkaline solution like TSP would do, but I think that it’s affects would be negligible. So, if you are sure that the stains are in the wood itself, I’m going to describe how to bleach out various stains. I’m really betting this stain can be bleached with the simple oxalic acid. It’s easy to use and fairly safe in the liquid form. I doubt the chlorine will work but I’ll mention it here anyway. And the last resort is Klean-Strip. Here goes. There are three different kinds of wood bleach and they each act on different stains. For all these bleaches you will need to remove all the finish from the wood surface, either by sanding or chemical stripping. You can read about chemically stripping wood floors also in this web site. While you are sanding the finish off, this will give you a chance to see how deep the stain is. If you are really lucky you can sand enough wood off so that most if not all of the stain out. Use 80 grit sandpaper, and finish with 100-120 grit. I will usually use a wood scraper for the initial removal, but will always finish up with hand sanding anyway. But you will have to learn how to sharpen a scraper to razor fineness before you use it on your smooth floor. That s another subject for another time. Use sandpaper if you cannot sharpen a wood scraper well. Hand sanding just takes a little more time, but does the same job. The first wood bleach is oxalic acid, in liquid or crystal form. This will remove most water and iron rust stains. Apply a strong solution and wait several hours or overnight if needed. Wash off wood surface with lots of water, with a bit of baking soda to neutralize the acid. A lot of deck brighteners have oxalic acid in them. But I like to buy my oxalic acid in it s pure crystal form, at hardware stores or even a pharmacy. In this dry form, it s highly toxic, that s why it s getting harder to obtain these days. Make sure you don t inhale any of the dry dusty residue on the floor. That s why you have to wash it off quite well, before you fine sand that spot again. The next bleach to try is a chlorine bleach. This will remove most dye stains, caused by grape juice, blood or coffee and tea spills. The weakest form of this bleach is regular laundry bleach. It’s worth a try , but it may be ineffective. Better to use swimming pool bleach, called Shock Treatment (dry calcium or sodium hypochlorite). Mix the crystals with hot water, until solution is saturated. Apply to the spot and it should work right away, but try twice if needed and wait overnight. Neutralize the bleached area with vinegar, so it doesn t ooze chlorine droplets after the wood is finished. Wash it all off with lots of distilled water and let the wood again dry overnight, before refinishing, if it did work. Sometimes even this bleach will take too much color out of the wood, and you will need to replace some of the wood s tone with a light wood stain, before you replace the finish. And lastly for organic stains, like urine and feces, your only hope is to use hydrogen peroxide and sodium hydroxide, in a very strong and dangerous concentration ( 27% ). Klean-Srtip is one of these products that s readily available in North America, and comes with good instructions. Visit their web site at www.kleanstrip.com for info on how to use this stuff. You generally have to mix the two parts of these bleaches together, but this contains it own neutralizer, so only a washing up with water may be needed after. Click on the product button at the Klean-Strip site, then the wood bleach link. This last type of bleach will always turn the dark spots to an off white color, which you will then have to blend in with a light colored wood stain to match the color of your finished wood floor. All these bleaches are water based, so they will raise the grain and make the wood rough. Be sure to let the wet wood dry overnight. And do be careful when you sand it smooth the next day, so as not to sand out the bleached effect. Do the final sanding with just a little pressure and use 120 grit sandpaper, just until the wood is smooth. Or go over the whole floor gently with a 100 grit screen on a floor buffer, keeping the handle low, to ease the pressure. Just remember bleaching doesn t remove the stain, it just changes it color. You will, in most cases have to re-color the wood with a wood stain, before you apply a floor finish. You will find that the small cans of Minwax stains most convenient, but you might also try the touch up stain pens they sell in the stores. These contain a dye stain, which is a lot easier to blend in. The pens, although expensive, allow you to paint in bleached out grain lines as well as the background color. Start with the lightest background color first then paint in the darker grain lines. Rarely can you just splash on a stain and expect it to blend well. Also seeing how the surrounding old finish itself has aged you might try adding a pigment to the matching finish. Minwax stains are dye-pigment combos so they might work if added to the finish, but may alter the dry time The dry powdered earth pigments though will give you the instant finish aging you want. Pure earth pigments can be ordered from Lee Valley Tools and I’ll give you the URL for the pigments and the touch-up pens, if only just to see a picture of the products I refer to. http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?page=20067&category=1,190,42997&ccurrency=1&SID= http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?page=20084&category=1,190,42996&abspage=1&ccurrency=1&SID= So now your next question is how to restore the floor finish without sanding down the whole floor. I’m going to send you the link to the second half of my famous floor maintenance article. Read the whole thing, it’s a complex subject, you have to do the chemical tests I describe to really determine what the floor finish is. It also describes a bit of finish history. https://www.woodfloordoctor.com/_how_tos/articles/cleanpt2.shtml

Question: Doc, So, question #1 – Can I put down 1/2″ solid Mesquite on top of my slab (assuming I follow all the other recommendations in your article concerning moisture and flatness testing)? If so, what’s the maximum width you would recommend? Problem #2 – the wallboards extend straight to the slab. Have you ever encountered this before? Aren’t you supposed to slide the floor under the wallboard for purposes of expansion? How can I do this if the board runs all the way to the slab? Should I remove all the wallboard and take 1/2″ off with a band saw? Is there a horizontal circular saw that can cut this without me removing the wallboard? Finally, we are removing the old carpet and wondering what to do with the old carpet tack strip nails. Every time I pry the nail that holds the strip down out of the concrete, it takes some concrete with it, sometimes as much as 1.5″ in diameter. Is there a better way to remove these nails? Should I use my dremel and just cut them off, or is it really even something to worry about? Thanks for all of your help. Steve Answer: Dear Steve By now you’ve read my “wood floor on concrete” article and you see all the choices, good to not so good. And the solid wood strip laid directly is the not-so-good. Before I start into your answers (to lots of questions, whew !), I’d like to direct you to Kentucky Wood Floors. They still make traditional patterned solid wood (3/4″) thick parquet. Take a look at the photos of these elegant floors, these are the real Mc Coy. Also they do produce a laminated (engineered) wood strip floor, that has a top wear layer of 1/4″. Installers are raving about the way this material fits, and stays in place as you lay it. It’s the best of this sort of flooring made by a company in this business for over 25 years now. Here’s the link : http://www.kentuckywood.com/ Now as to your question. While it is true that mesquite has very small movement in service, it is just about similar to teak, cocobolo, and even quarter sawn red oak. But be warned that there is some movement, because this is solid wood after all. You cannot glue down a great expanse of any kind of solid wood strip floor (more that 20 feet in width) and have it perform well, unless you keep indoor relative humidity levels within a 20% RANGE. And the ideal range for hardwood floors is 40-60%. Next time you visit a museum check out the accurate electronic hygrometers on the walls. They keep the collections pegged at 50% RH all year long. Mesquite has a projected seasonal range of movement of .0013. So given a safety factor of +25% even mesquite will expand and contract .4″ over just 20 feet of width. This when the EMC (equilibrium moisture content) of the WOOD changes from 6% in the winter heating season, up to 12% in the middle of a muggy summer (this would be caused by a more realistic indoor humidity range of 30%). A site finished floor will reach these extremes but much slower than a prefinished floor. Any gaps that form will be small and more evenly distributed with a floor well sanded and finished. This projected movement is based on a more realistic indoor humidity range of 30%. The only problem with a site finished mesquite, is that it will be a bear to sand. Choose a well seasoned professional floor sander in your area, so the coarse sanding marks don’t show through if you go this route. So yes, this stuff is comparatively stable, as long as you stick to the sizes I recommended in the article. I’ll repeat this here : “These have to be specially milled for this purpose. They will need to be no more than 2 feet long, and have a flat underside. And they should not be more than 1/2″ thick and 2″ wide. If you look at the standard strip floor you will notice it has a grooved bottom which will not contact the glue as well as the flat milled bottom”. Just remember the vender is trying to sell you something, I am not. Also the key here is “flat milled bottoms”. It’s not an easy installation unless the wood is perfectly milled. Have the salesman provide some references of professional installers that have used this particular mesquite product, they will tell you how well the product is made. If the store refuses this, go somewhere else. To the second question, just remove the wall board (up north we call it baseboard, or molding) carefully and install the floor with the appropriate expansion gaps, and replace the baseboard on top of the floor after the job is done. It will neatly cover the small gaps. If this is really thin baseboard, you can remove it and even undercut the drywall (don’t break the vapor barrier) by scoring the drywall with a knife and removing that small strip. Then replace the baseboard. This will give a wider expansion gap as drywall is 1/2″ thick at least. Removing the baseboard is tricky without snapping this thin modern stuff, so use a backer board to protect the wall as you pry it off with a tool like this : http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?SID=x=1x=32014x=1,43456,43399 But if you don’t want to remove them you can buy or maybe rent the Crain jamb saw at http://www.craintools.com/fs-specialtysaws.html The last question, just pop the carpet strips off, the damage occurred when the nail was hammered in anyway. Fill with a non shrinking mortar, it’s easy.