My wife and I have a modern New England Colonial built in 2002. Solid oak engineered hardwoods throughout the first floor and in the main hallway to the 2nd floor. Bedrooms have carpet. I'm in the process of converting one of the spare bedrooms into a craft room/office.

After ripping out the carpet, we've decided to go with hardwoods in the room and I have 1200 board feet of 1" oak harvested 3 years ago and fully cured. I plan on planing them down to 3/4" but I mostly have 8" wide, beautiful boards that I want to use. I don't have a router table so my plan is to cut the boards to 64" lengths, drill and countersink 6 holes per board (2 on each end and two @ 32" to hit joists which are 16" o.c.).

So I ask, does an exposed screw hardwood floor become an eye-sore to potential buyers from a re-sale perspective?

 

I'd at least countersink the screws and cover them with a wooden plug [dowel] Are you planing on cutting any reliefs on the bottom side?

 

Drill and countersink and plug with plugs pulled from the same stock. I would avoid the joists so that the floor can move independent of the subfloor support system. I would also plan on a few more screws per board as 32" on center fastening may be too large of a gap between screws.

 

I've never fully understood what the "grooved" relief router marks were intended for with hardwoods. Prevent cupping?

I would guess that a counterbore vs. countersink for the screw head would be better if doweling or adding a peg filler to the screw-hole. It's not a very large room. 12'x16' I'll leave 1/2"-3/4" gap

 

Yes the grooves on the bottom side help to prevent cupping and allow the board to set flatter on the subfloor. IMO it doesn't hurt to have the plugs come from different wood as that would tend to highlight the plugs.