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Updated over 8 years ago, 05/17/2016
To refinish hardwood floors or not to refinish hardwood floors
1900's house.. Hardwood floors throughout.. Problem is when they installed ductwork for furnace they cut up the floors. They also cut a section in the entry.. Should we refinish the hardwoods as is?
Trying to patch and splice to make it look original could cost a ton of money, and this house has a fixed up value of 150k.. I am leaning towards just refinishing as is and calling it character that tells a story of growing pains for a house... I might even advertise it as such! haha
Your thoughts?
Entryway: Not sure why these boards were cut and replaced, but they were at some point...
Ductwork was run and so floors were cut to accomodate...
As I say, for the price point, I am thinking we refinish as is, and call it character, but would be interested to hear everyone's thoughts!
@Matthew Schroeder
Hi,
Are you planing on doing all that work yourself? It's something to think about. What do the houses in the area have, hardwood or laminate? If hardwood isn't expected, it might be better to put down laminate & get it done.
In 2 of my flips, there were hardwood floors, but the better decision was to install laminate, timewise & pricewise. Just my .02...
Best, Tish
The area is sort of up-coming. Everyone is going for that 1900's character, with modern enhancements.. No one is really going overboard though yet with granite countertops, etc... We can still get away with laminate countertops, vinyl siding, etc..
If we were not going to finish the hardwood floors, I have recommended allure flooring.. The click-lock laminates never last, and we can't justify the price of putting in new hardwood flooring..
I am usually a believer in refinishing but do you have nails sticking up? You might want to get a floor guy in there, those might be fir and if that is the case you should consider that they are softer and more prone to damage. If you have a lot of nails sticking up you would need to set them prior to refinishing. If they are older fir they look nice refinished but you can't buy stock wood for any of the piecing you have to do. You need to either recycle from another location or my floor guy used some flat deck wood that he cut down. Awesome job you can't even see it but the floor it was only about 2 feet.
I have something like this joint in my house where two floors butt up against each other and they are oak but the location it is very noticeable so you might find it detracts from your reno.
@Letitia Harris We hire the work out. It's a better use of my time to help investors find the deals, and then coordinate the contractors for the investors.
I was just rummaging through my thoughts to figure out if we should spend the money to refinish the floors, or spend the money on Allure.. In the end it will be up to the owner to make that decision. I just give him the facts and my thoughts, and then let him decide!
@Colleen F. It's not a high dollar flip.. We didn't budget for splicing and making the floors look like a million bucks... We pulled up the old carpets and 1/8" underlayment (leveler), and this is what we found.. So we will probably either refinish, or go for an allure type flooring.
In the end, it's up to the owner to decide how he wants to proceed.
If you find the right contractor they can sand and match the stain for a particular area if the whole house doesn't need it. You should compel the duct guys to cover this for you, or deduct the repair cost from their invoice if you haven't paid them yet.
@Lee Smith, a good floor guy should be able to fix this if the rest of the floors are in good shape. The guy I use has a stockpile of random pieces and was able to splice in some 'new' wood to replace an old cold air return. It didn't cost much extra, just a couple hours of labor. I would ask and see what the cost is. Compare that and the refinish price against another surface and see what it more cost effective/looks better for what you are trying to do. Fair point by @Colleen F. about not being able to just go buy new wood for this. You may be able to hit the salvage places and find similar wood for them to work in and save some money there. I am a big fan of keeping the real hardwoods and refinishing since they handle abuse really well and keep the original character of the house.
@Jeffrey H. The ductwork was probably done 20+ years ago, so not a current invoice.. haha I would say this stuff was done when a furnace was originally added to the home.. so maybe 50+ years ago? It's just stuff done to a house over the years to bring it up to current standards(at the time)...
These floors have not been refinished probably since they were brand new.. haha They have a lot of wear and tear and neglect... Nothing a good sanding couldn't remedy though! We're just trying to decide if it's worth sanding and refinishing...
@Lee Smith Not talking about staggering the whole floor. Just saying If you have gouges or damaged area in the middle of the floor (our was like a dog digging 1/2 x 12 inches x2 ) and have to replace it be creative in matching the piecing in, I think it added $150 to the cost for us including materials and was worth it for the result. Using the right match was critical.
If you have a lot of areas with big digs or very uneven just use the vinyl, it will look better, quicker to install and a lot won't know the difference until they look close. It doesn't have to look like a million bucks but there is character and there is just bad.
At that price point (assuming it's not high for the neighborhood) I'd refinish as is. We just sold a flip today (yah!) that had 100 year old for floors and patching it was a nightmare. There were a bunch of old worm holes that we left and filled. I don't just call it character I actually believe it's super cool, old, tell a story, character.
I would refinish them. You can also find antique looking grates for cheap on Amazon to put over the holes assuming they are standard sizes. Adds character and value if you decide to flip later. Good luck
If those wide boards are actually hardwood, they're a treasure. But I doubt they are, look like pine subflooring to me. . What I did in a similar unit was to carefully salvage the 100+ year old subfloor from the kitchen I was going to tile over, and used it to patch before refinishing. Refinished sub is very popular, the tenants of that unit have loved it. Next unit I told the contractor to salvage the wood, and his workers destroyed it because they were incapable of such slow subtle work.
A good contractor should be able to repair those holes at a fair price with salvaged wood.if the area is up-and-coming and buyers are really liking that look, and it's not going to be a rental, I would do it right.
- Real Estate Broker
- Cody, WY
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On an older home like this, I would probably refinish them and cover the holes with some decorative grates. It's not worth the expense of trying to match woods and fill holes.
Another option is to patch the holes with plywood and throw down some decent laminate flooring that looks like hardwood. It's resilient, cheap, and looks as good (or better) than the real thing!
- Nathan Gesner
Redo the entry, professional patch the rest and refinish.
An up and coming neighborhood that likes the character of the older style homes = finished wood floors. It could impact the days in the market.
Shld be Days On the Market
Refinish, as is if needed, but check with a good hardwood floor guy first. I was amazed at how well some patching I had done came out, and it didn't add as much to the cost as I would have expected.
I've uncovered many similar horror stories when pulling up carpet over hardwood floors over the past several years. Some of the worst have been where windows must have been left open, or window air conditioners had water draining inside instead of outside. In the worst cases we've had the hardwood floor guy remove badly damaged wood and then patch new or used wood in. He sands the new section and old section together, and then either uses clear coat, or, if there are two many stains that still show through, he uses a stain of the appropriate darkness to hide the remaining stains. The results have been great, and our tenants value and maintain the wood floors.