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[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
from Pompano Beach, Florida on 8/5/2009
Comments about Clover Lea 5/8" x 5-1/8" Natural Heart Pine:
We love the look of this floor! We moved to a beach house that was built in the 1950's, so we wanted to keep the casual feel to the home and decided on a casual warm floor that would age well. We chose the minwax golden oak stain because it was not too dark and it provided a warm glow. The installer finished with a semi-gloss oil based sealer. We have teens and dogs so I imagine that the floor will take a beating however the pine looks best when it's been used.
[5 of 5 customers found this review helpful]
from baton rouge,la on 4/29/2009
Comments about Clover Lea 5/8" x 5-1/8" Natural Heart Pine:
The one thing I found a disappoint was that some of the boards were milled with a different center groove. This made some of the boards ride high and required more sanding after installation. With a 5/8" thick board more sanding from the initial insatll is not a good start to a long lasting floor.
[9 of 9 customers found this review helpful]
from Macon, Georgia on 4/27/2009
Comments about Clover Lea 5/8" x 5-1/8" Natural Heart Pine:
I have just installed the heart pine in our living room and entry-way, and we've just stained and top-coated; so no info can be offered on how it wears. The floors are truly beautiful, but be prepared for work if instsalling this wood yourself. As advertised, it comes in strapped bundles, and at least half of the longer pieces (due to this packaging)are damaged. Unforunately, nothing more than the method of packaging ruined many nice pieces of wood. We found that each peice needed to be re-cut on the ends, so have a good mitre-saw ready. Our waste was about 6% to 8%, but this will always depend on who's doing the cutting and what the installer considers waste. A lot of knots needed to be filled, so wood filler is a must for this one. The wood was cut into different thicknesses, and therefore the floor required a lot of sanding to get it level. We used a 4 disc orbital floor sander. We had to use 40 grit for several hours to get the wood nice and flat before medium and fine sanding. I suppose that my advice would be the following: If you are thinking this can be just a weekend project, forget it! The pre-finished woods and laminates can be installed quickly and easily. But unfinished wood such as this requires a lot of time, a lot of work, and more splinters than I care to mention. Just so you know a little about me, my experience is with carpentry, building furniture, finishing wood...bu only as a hobby. Oh, keep in mind that the sanding, staining, etc, will make your house basically uninhabitable during the process. But the result is undeniably beautiful. Pre-finished and laminates look like, well, pre-finished and laminates. I find the finish to appear and feel more authentic when done the way described above (sanding, hand-staining). This product is beautiful in the end, but it is not for the novice. If you have some experience with building or finishing, you'll do fine with this product after a lot of work. But when the work is finally done, you'll be quite happy with the wood. Good luck (and wear gloves and knee-pads).