New or old Floors question?

Question

when flipping house is better to sand the old hardwood floors or new install new hardwood floor. Keep in mind that the condition of the old hard wood floors not horrible if they get sanded and finished they will look great but its those thin wood old style. Would it effect the ARV ? Or just a personal preference?

Jason D. · Answer

@Ahmed Nijim people love original Wood floors. If they are in good shape, I'd refinish them

Jim K. · Answer

@Ahmed NijimIt's late and I probably shouldn't be writing and posting, but what stands out for me in this thread is the nuts-and-bolts question of how you are going to refinish these floors.In my case, I am typically in this position with old low-income rental properties on the other side of the Commonwealth. The floors are typically old white or red oak 2 1/4 nail-down tongue-and-groove strip, 3/4 in. thick. These floors when they were installed, would have been in modern terms "select" grade -- there are no visible knots. They were originally finished with a rubbed-in wax finish and never refinished afterwards.Oak, in my not-at-all humble opinion, is a near-ideal residential flooring choice in framed residential structures. As the decades pass, it tends to harden, almost petrify. Without the presence of water to compromise the wood, it will take a simply immense amount of abuse without showing excessive wear. In cold climates, it does not become a heat sink in winters. And it can always be covered over rugs.So I always try to stick with any original wood flooring I find in my rental properties if I possibly can. I do not want the original, now-filthy wax finish and decades of rubbed-in, trodden-in grime. For sanitary reasons, I want those floors sealed and under three good coats of extremely durable oil-based semi-gloss polyurethane. Lastly, I do not particularly care about making these floors look new again.I refinish these floors by myself with a slightly modified 4x24 belt sander and various other tools. It takes some time, but I have some practice and my standards for appearance are not very high. The wood floors of my low-income rentals do not look spectacular. I do not need them to be. I need them to be tough, ready to stand a few more decades of wear and tear, while being sealed in place and as easy to clean as modern wood flooring.I really don't know what kind of place you're redoing to sell, but while it's true, as many here have pointed out, that people love original solid hardwood flooring, I also have to point out that retail homebuyers also love shiny new things. Getting a 60-100-year-old, beat-up wood floor to look even close to new-ish takes an immense amount of work and access to some pretty serious (and heavy) 240v flooring belt or drum sanders that cost a lot to own or rent and take some skill to operate well. The osciallating pad sanders and modified spinning buffing machines that are often touted as alternatives to the older and more expensive belt and drum sanders will not easily get you down past the scratches and wear of decades. You will also have to replace some pieces of thoroughly compromised wood strips that will not look new no matter what you do, and that will take time, additional woodworking equipment, and some skill to do well. After you get the floors evenly sanded multiple times through progressive grits of sandpaper (36-60-100 is the usual sequence), then you've got to evenly add colormatched filler, stain (if you so choose) and then two good coats of gloss polurethane. Water-based poly that doesn't add an antique amber tint is more difficult to apply well and is also more expensive than older oil-based poly, especially the high-gloss sheen variety you'll most likely be looking to use.Flooring outfits that install everything and also claims to do wood floor refinishing will typically not send moonlighting custom woodworker subs with extensive experience to your job. Even if you get a highly-reputable outfit that will send well-above-average guys, you can expect to be charged substantial money for a great, labor-intensive refinishing job on an old floor that approximates the look of a new wood floor.I don't know what you want your spec rehab to look like. To recap, a modern finished-in-place oak floor done by a quality crew will typically be light-colored natural (or in a few cases stained espresso-dark very evenly), and then finished in high-gloss water-based poly. It's going to take more skill and equipment than most residential flooring outfits have and a lot of money to make an, beaten-up oak floor of a certain age, typical of an older Pennsylvania property, look like that. What you should pragmatically expect instead is that you'll hire a contractor who offers you a so-so price and promises you the earth and sky, shows you beautiful photos of work he's supposedly done in the past, but ends up turning in something that doesn't quite meet your expectations or design vision.

Karen Rittenhouse · Answer

@Ahmed Nijim Refinish. We do it all the time. They look fabulous and buyers love them. No, you don't ever need to replace if condition is still good.

Trenton Miller · Answer

It comes down to personal preference. Get a quote for both to see which option is cheaper. Keep in mind, if you decide to replace the original flooring chances are the installer will use the cheapest material they can, unless you specify what material to use, and they will install the new floor directly on top of the original hardwood... As stated above, people love original hardwood floors. Bring new life into the original home!

Ahmed Nijim · Answer

@Jim K. That was very useful actually I do have a flooring comapny that I used them to sand another property I have. And they did a great job, for this 3bd house and stair it can cost me about $2000. But what I like about that wood it can be finished and the floor is sold, true its missing some pcs here and there but as you said they can easly fill those out and sand over it.

Phil Z. · Answer

You almost always want to re-sand and apply a satin finish (high gloss is typically not in style). It is very low cost compared to installing new solid wood. The whole point of solid wood is that it can be sanded and refinished almost endless amount of times. If you have dark stains (which are usually from dog urine), then those will not come out and that section should be replaced. A professional hardwood floor company can seamlessly add and/or replace sections.

Marian Smith · Answer

@Ahmed Nijim the thin planks are coming back into style. If you float a “modern“ engineered wood or bamboo floor over the original you could tell buyers the the original hardwood is underneath. Do what is cheapest and will look/sell best.

Christopher Phillips · Answer

@Ahmed NijimPeople still prefer solid wood floors, even in modern installations. Sometimes it just comes down to cost.There are two choices, sand or chemically strip. If the wood has been sanded too many times, chemical strip is a possibility. Also depends if you have a lot of scratches to work out. If there aren't any scratches, chemical is better. You also don't have to deal with the dust that way.

Ahmed Nijim · Answer

@Max Tanenbaum thats what I'm talking about as well.

Max T. · Answer

always cheaper to refinish than replace. you already have the wood