How has the durability been for you since you installed the floors with having children? Do you think that it’s stronger since you had it finished in house? We are being swayed to go with a harder wood floor by everyone but we really just are not happy with the look (nothing compares to the walnut in our eyes). Would love your perspective since you have it in similar areas of the home that we will. Thank you so much!!!

I’m afraid we haven’t really been finished renovating long enough to have “after” wear and tear photos. Walnut floors dent – they are soft and we expected dents, so if we did take photos you’d see little dings here and there. However, we purposely chose the character grade because it already effectively has such imperfections as part of the wood’s natural character, so you don’t really notice it. We finished the floors with Bona Oil-Modified finish in Satin. I wish sincerely that we had disregarded Bona’s very poor instructions online concerning their top coat option, Traffic, which they seemed to suggest would only be needed in very high traffic areas. Our finish has scratched more easily than it would have with that extra protection, and we’ve learned since it is a very commonly used product. We use a Bona cleaner to clean them, but since we hardly ever have shoes on in the house, it really needs very infrequent regular cleaning other than sweeping. Not a whole lot you can do about scratches with any floor finish. I would suggest speaking with your floor finisher about making sure they provide a top coat that deals well with the heaviest traffic, and also see if you can hire someone who is considered certified by whatever floor finish company/product you choose. Our finisher was chosen by our contractor, and while he did a great job, he was not familiar with this product and thus did not advise us about the top coat options. Hope that helps, and good luck!