The Benefits of Prefinished Hardwood Flooring

When choosing the perfect hardwood flooring for your home, you’ll encounter two primary options: prefinished and unfinished. While unfinished hardwood flooring allows for more customization during installation, prefinished hardwood floors have become increasingly popular thanks to their convenience and durability.

What Is Prefinished Hardwood Flooring?

In case you’ve never heard of prefinished wood flooring, let’s start with what it is.
Prefinished hardwood flooring is precisely what it sounds like. It consists of hardwood planks that come from the factory already sanded, stained, and sealed. Depending on the manufacturer, you can choose solid or engineered hardwood options.

Once you install the floor, you can walk on it immediately—no extra finishing work is required. Unlike unfinished hardwood, which requires sanding, staining, and sealing on-site after installation, prefinished wood arrives ready. This factory-applied finish offers greater consistency and durability than on-site finishing.

The thickness of the wear layer varies but is a critical factor in determining the flooring’s durability and longevity. Higher-quality WPC flooring options often feature thicker wear layers for enhanced protection.

This multi-layer construction combines the aesthetics of natural wood with the practical benefits of vinyl and composite materials.

Are Prefinished Hardwood Floors Better?

Like most things, better is a relative term. Prefinished wood floors have a definite upside that makes them an excellent option for many homeowners:

Prefinished Wood Flooring Installs Easily

One of the most significant advantages of prefinished hardwood flooring is the ease of installation. The planks come finished, so the installation process is much quicker than unfinished wood flooring. Site-finished flooring requires additional sanding and drying time.

The net is that you can enjoy your new floors immediately.

Prefinished Hardwoods Are Durable

Prefinished hardwood flooring undergoes a finishing process in a controlled factory environment. These flooring finishes typically include multiple layers of durable polyurethane, aluminum oxide, or urethane. Moreover, the floors are typically UV-cured, resulting in maximum hardness.

This process results in a tougher, more resilient surface than on-site finishes. Many prefinished floors come with warranties of 25 to 35 years, ensuring long-lasting beauty and protection.

Some manufacturers even back their prefinished hardwoods with a lifetime residential warranty. Robbins® offers that warranty with some of its collections, such as Nature’s Canvas™ and Natural Forest™.

Improved Scratch and Stain Resistance

The advanced coatings also make prefinished hardwood floors highly resistant to scratches, dents, and stains.

Prefinished wood floors withstand the wear and tear of daily life whether you have kids, pets, or high-traffic areas. The protective layers applied at the factory make these floors a durable choice for busy households.

Prefinished Floors Have a Uniform and Consistent Finish

Factory-applied finishes are more consistent than those applied on-site. With prefinished hardwood vs. site-finished flooring, there are fewer variations in color or finish quality. Factory finishes happen under tightly controlled conditions, resulting in a uniform appearance across the entire floor.

Installation Involves Substantially Less Mess

On-site finishing of hardwood floors can produce dust and release fumes from stains and sealants. That not only creates a mess but can negatively affect indoor air quality. For instance, some stains and sealants can contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Prefinished floors eliminate that concern, as all finishing work occurs at the factory. This makes prefinished hardwood a somewhat healthier choice, especially for those with allergies or respiratory sensitivities.

Are There Downsides to Prefinished Hardwood Flooring?

Every product has its pros and cons. While prefinished hardwood flooring has many benefits, there are a few potential downsides to consider:

1. Limited Customization
With prefinished flooring, what you see is what you get. So, if you’re hoping to match a color or have a specific color in mind, you’re limited to what’s available. You can create a customized color with unfinished floors that perfectly match your vision.

2. Micro-Beveled Edges
Many prefinished planks have micro-beveled edges, which can create slight grooves between the boards. While this can add visual interest, dirt, and dust may collect in these grooves, making cleaning more challenging than the seamless look of unfinished floors finished on-site.

3. Cost Considerations
Prefinished hardwood floors are generally more expensive upfront, owing to the production process. With unfinished wood floors, you eliminate the initial expense of a factory-applied finish. However, the installation time and labor savings often offset the higher material cost.

How Long Do Prefinished Hardwood Floors Last?

There’s little if any, difference in the lifespan of prefinished vs. unfinished hardwood floors. In both instances, their lifespan depends on how well you maintain them. You can extend the life of any wood floor using these practices:

* Regular cleaning
* Protecting the surface from heavy furniture
* Using area rugs in high-traffic areas

Additionally, you can sand and refinish both flooring options to extend their life by decades. So again, you negate any difference in longevity between unfinished vs. prefinished hardwood.

Do Prefinished Wood Floors Need an Underlayment?

Whether or not prefinished wood floors need an underlayment depends on the installation method and subfloor. For example, if you install prefinished flooring using a floating installation, you’ll typically want to include an underlayment. It helps to reduce noise, provide moisture protection, and add cushioning.

However, if you’re nailing or stapling the flooring to a plywood subfloor, underlayment may not be necessary.

If moisture protection is essential, like in basements or over concrete, use a moisture barrier underlayment. The barrier will help protect the hardwood from humidity.  Consult your manufacturer’s instructions on when to use an underlayment.

Must You Seal Prefinished Hardwood Floors?

No. The great thing about prefinished hardwood floors is that they come sealed from the factory. The multiple layers of finish applied in the factory eliminate the need for additional sealing after installation. Once again, that saves you time and hassle and protects your floor from day one.

Over time, as the finish wears down, you may choose to refinish the floor. But with normal wear and tear, that won’t be necessary for many years.

Why Choose Prefinished Hardwood Flooring?

Prefinished hardwood flooring offers an ideal blend of durability, convenience, and aesthetic appeal. It is a great choice for busy homes and perfect for homeowners who want low-maintenance and long-lasting options. Prefinished hardwood floors will provide lasting beauty, performance, and value.

Robbins® offers more than 175 prefinished wood flooring options, including solid and engineered options. You can also select hand-scraped or wire-brushed flooring, as well as wide planks up to 7-1/2″.

You can find the Robbins retailer nearest you using our Where to Buy locator.