In 2 weeks I find out how Hard wood flooring sounds compared with Carpet.

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RCHeliGuy

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I've got over 2,000 sq/ft of 3/4" hard maple flooring being installed in my house right now. They've almost finished the main floor. I think the burl is beautiful!
I'm also trying to reuse the old oak flooring from the front of the house and just got a planer for it so I can build things with it, but I'm getting really tired of oak.

My speakers are currently in their dust bags, under plastic, in their boxes so they aren't impacted by this.

I'll have a decent sized area rug in front of the speakers, but I'm wondering if weird things are about to happen the the wonderful sound I had before.
 
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I did that a couple years ago, and am thrilled with the improvement. Overall much better dynamics (i.e. more "live" sounding). Of course, a lot depends on your overall room acoustics. I added a heavy wool rug in front of the speakers, which eliminated any hint of reverb. Good luck with the upgrade!
 
I did that a couple years ago, and am thrilled with the improvement. Overall much better dynamics (i.e. more "live" sounding). Of course, a lot depends on your overall room acoustics. I added a heavy wool rug in front of the speakers, which eliminated any hint of reverb. Good luck with the upgrade!

I'm surprised to hear that, but happy that the end result isn't always a reflection nightmare!

I know that the main panels don't fire up or down nearly as badly as a cone, so I'm hopeful.

I've been working from the basement after moving my office to the media room and fortunately there is a full bedroom/bath/walk in closet down here and nearly a full kitchen minus the oven and dishwasher.

I can't wait for the construction to be over to see it complete. Working down here with nail guns and compressors going above me has been "challenging". I've been wearing my headphones more. My 4 cats are starting to get used to it, but it shouldn't be nearly as bad when construction moves to the top floor. This weekend I'll be boxing up the top floor, putting more felt under furniture, planning more oak flooring so I can get my garage stall back, and my wife and I will start sleeping down here too.
 
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Pre finished or sand site maple flooring ? Having been in the business for 30 years I know your pain as I have caused it and been in it too.. Wood floors are the single best thing you can do to the value of your home and sound wise rugs are your friend ,,
 
I prefer the "live" sound. Sound may have enhanced dynamics and brightness.

My music room has a concrete floor and no carpet or rugs. Recently added curtains behind the listening chair and at the right side of the room. With my not too bright or natural sounding amp the tonal balance seems right to my ears.

You may be happy with the results if you like brighter more dynamic sound.

Best regards.
 
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Pre finished or sand site maple flooring ? Having been in the business for 30 years I know your pain as I have caused it and been in it too.. Wood floors are the single best thing you can do to the value of your home and sound wise rugs are your friend ,,

I'm sure that you know the pros and cons. We went with prefinished because we didn't want to move out of the house and we have 4 cats that walk all over everything when the installers leave. I also liked the idea of the Aluminum Oxide finish and more coats of baked polyurethane.

Specifically we are having Mullican Autumn Maple installed and we chose 4" wide boards. The manufacturer recommends gluing and nailing for 4" wide and wider to avoid popping. We were told that in this location anything over 4" wide would be more prone to warping. So the installation is going slower because of the gluing vs. lining up the boards on felt and knocking them in, but that is still a lot faster than unfinished.

Anyway please don't tell me I should have done it differently. There is no turning back now!
 
I've had hardwood floors in my listening room for the last 16 years. Like many, I also have a large area rug between the speakers and my listening position.

Also, you can see in my system pictures that I have a somewhat "lively" room and tend to prefer this "brighter" room acoustic versus a room that is overly damped.

YMMV. Only you can decide.

Gordon
 
I've got over 2,000 sq/ft of 3/4" hard maple flooring being installed in my house right now. They've almost finished the main floor. I think the burl is beautiful!
I'm also trying to reuse the old oak flooring from the front of the house and just got a planer for it so I can build things with it, but I'm getting really tired of oak.

My speakers are currently in their dust bags, under plastic, in their boxes so they aren't impacted by this.

I'll have a decent sized area rug in front of the speakers, but I'm wondering if weird things are about to happen the the wonderful sound I had before.
Hope no weird thing happens to the wonderful sound you had before. Hope maple flooring adds up to very pleasant music listening experience.
 
I'm sure that you know the pros and cons. We went with prefinished because we didn't want to move out of the house and we have 4 cats that walk all over everything when the installers leave. I also liked the idea of the Aluminum Oxide finish and more coats of baked polyurethane.

Specifically we are having Mullican Autumn Maple installed and we chose 4" wide boards. The manufacturer recommends gluing and nailing for 4" wide and wider to avoid popping. We were told that in this location anything over 4" wide would be more prone to warping. So the installation is going slower because of the gluing vs. lining up the boards on felt and knocking them in, but that is still a lot faster than unfinished.

Anyway please don't tell me I should have done it differently. There is no turning back now!

Oh absolutely not ! Pre finished has came a long way and Maple is a MOFO to stain and get right at a reasonable cost.. You are on the right track and your contractor is doing it right by glue and nail.. We hate to do it but its the right way with glue.. PICS please!
 
Oh absolutely not ! Pre finished has came a long way and Maple is a MOFO to stain and get right at a reasonable cost.. You are on the right track and your contractor is doing it right by glue and nail.. We hate to do it but its the right way with glue.. PICS please!

As I found out from the stair guy who is staining the Maple treads, they are a PITA. It took him a long time to nail the color and there is still some variation. The prefinished boards are a very uniform color with a lot of variation from light to dark with the burling, speckling, and some knots.

So far he has only put in the header boards for the top floor and landing. He is currently staining all the treads. I'm going with white risers and a skirt board. He is installing rosets where my rails meet the walls and is making new Maple hand rails for the wrought iron railings.

The flooring looks beautiful. They just finished the main floor and just need to put the quarter round down. They've demo'd the top level hallway to all the door entries and all the way to the master bedroom wall.

This is what the flooring looks like.
14232415_1130226097047849_2504339816828315881_n.jpg

The rails are in my garage with the old oak flooring that I'm reclaiming to build things out of.
I pulled the hand rail off the main railing.
14333641_1134690276601431_2254048070699285182_n.jpg
 
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As I found out from the stair guy who is staining the Maple treads, they are a PITA. It took him a long time to nail the color and there is still some variation. The prefinished boards are a very uniform color with a lot of variation from light to dark with the burling, speckling, and some knots.

So far he has only put in the header boards for the top floor and landing. He is currently staining all the treads. I'm going with white risers and a skirt board. He is installing rosets where my rails meet the walls and is making new Maple hand rails for the wrought iron railings.

The flooring looks beautiful. They just finished the main floor and just need to put the quarter round down. They've demo'd the top level hallway to all the door entries and all the way to the master bedroom wall.

This is what the flooring looks like.
View attachment 18727

The rails are in my garage with the old oak flooring that I'm reclaiming to build things out of.
I pulled the hand rail off the main railing.
View attachment 18728

water pop the raw maple and dye it its way easier.. If your contractor has any questions he can call me . I am NWFA certified and taught across the country .. Id be glad to offer any help as I been there ...From the color of the pics Id say English chest nut cut 50/50 and 220 popped spray seal on and then coat 3 coats of H 2o finish
 
water pop the raw maple and dye it its way easier.. If your contractor has any questions he can call me . I am NWFA certified and taught across the country .. Id be glad to offer any help as I been there ...From the color of the pics Id say English chest nut cut 50/50 and 220 popped spray seal on and then coat 3 coats of H 2o finish

He said he's got it going really well now. I'm not sure if changing his process half way though the treads makes sense.

BTW he is using a wood conditioner to help even out the stain. I've used wood conditioners before but found that they blocked too much stain when I was doing it.

I looked up water popping and it looks like the opposite of using a conditioner, by opening up the pores vs. blocking them a bit.
 
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Popping grain opens the fiber of all the wood.. Stain conditioner is for pine not maple, and over the counter(big box) products are not good ! Maple is so tight grained that it actually helps give it a more uniform appearance. Maple is not like any other wood.. That being said; it sounds like your contractor has it down.. Now get some rugs and start to jam !
 
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The day has finally come!
They finished the flooring yesterday and this afternoon I setup my stereo again for the first time in over 3 weeks.

I thought I had bass before, but WOW! I really missed my speakers so I'm sure they are sparkling just a bit more than before to my ears :)

Now the speakers are on interlocking 3/4" plywood glued and nailed to the stringers with 3/4" mapple glued and nailed to the plywood. So I've got 1.5" of pretty solid wood under them right now on top of structural stringers

The speakers were on 3/4" plywood, carpet pad, carpet and the front of them was also on a throw rug on top of that. I tried pushing spikes through all that but I don't think I quite got it. Then I put MDF board on top of that to get them further off the ground. I had a lot of fun adjusting the spikes on those boards to get the speakers level again. The sound stage was off quite a bit at first.

My amp was up to 11 and my ears are ringing :rocker:

I still can't get over the bass!! It wasn't boomy just low with a pile more kick than I thought these speakers were capable of.
 
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Nice floors Mark. The color is that beautiful warm orange/brown of aged maple.

I am just finishing 3 sofa tables for our living room in Maple with Birds Eye maple tops.

I concur getting an even color on a maple board is difficult let alone different boards together. In my years working on antiques and building custom furniture a light coat of Shellac ( shellac flakes desolved in ethel alcohol not premixed) will allow stain colors to be evened out.



Enjoy your new floors and music.
 
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Please would be nice to see pics of your renovated music room with strategically placed Ethos on maple floor.

Good to know that you are happy with audio from your system.

Have fun listening to music!
 
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