Rental Unit - Hardwood Floors

[Kyle Rosseau]

Hello

There has been a lot of posts around flooring questions which I have reviewed but still haven't been able to find an answer to mine. I am remodeling one of the units for my 4 plex in North Oakland CA (B Rental).  I am planning on refinishing the hardwood floors.  It is a one bedroom and I plan to hold the property long term.  The unit is set up so that the front door opens to the living room which you walk through to the kitchen and then the one bedroom is off the kitchen along with bathroom.  The living room has oak floors which are in decent shape.  The kitchen and bathroom have Douglas Fir which can be refinished (only kitchen - bathroom in bad shape).  The bedroom has oak but there are multiple water stains and contractor said wouldn't be worth replacing.  I am thinking of refinishing living room and kitchen (tile in bathroom) and then doing Vinyl or porcelain planks (floating) in bedroom.  

My two questions are:  

1) Is it worth refinishing the Douglas Fir?  I have heard Douglas Fir is pretty soft and can get beat up (especially in a rental).

2)  Would it look strange to a renter to have three different floor types in the three rooms (Oak, Douglas Fir, Laminate)?

Thanks,

Kyle

[Colleen F.]

I refinished old growth1860s  fir and it looks good. It looked pretty bad at first too. The main issue is if the nails are coming up and also you can only do it so many times.

For the bathroom  I would be inclined NOT to use laminate, it is not so water tolerant.  For bathroom, ceramic tile is the best choice and the most longevity, next choice is vinyl.  You may need to go with vinyl due to needing to add a new subfloor with ceramic tile you could wind up with a higher bathroom floor depending on what you put in.   If I had a wood floor in the kitchen I would have kept it. 

For bedrooms I don't like tile because here it is too cold. If it is normal in your area use it or you can get something a bit warmer.  You can pull off different floors if you are careful with patterns.  I think that what looks weird is  wood look  laminate, tile,  or vinyl up against  a  real wood floor.  It screams fake.  I guess there are statement colors that could work against wood like driftwood but I never tried it.