All Forum Posts by: Bob H.

I have a house that I hope to turn into a furnished rental. In the kitchen and the front entry, there is old-style oak hardwood, about 2 inches wide and probably 3/4 of an inch thick. It's in reasonable shape for a 10-year-old house except for one stained area that would need a serious refinishing effort.

The rest of the house has worn-out carpet. I would like to replace the carpet with laminate. The problem is that there is a long boundary where the hardwood extending from the kitchen meets the old carpet in the living room. I think it would look odd to put the new laminate next to the old wood. A seemingly extreme solution would be to tear out all of the oak flooring, put tile in the kitchen and probably the front entry and then finish the rest of the house with laminate. Another costly option would be to fill in the carpeted area with unfinished oak that is similar to the existing oak, then refinish the old floor to match the finish on the new floor.

I'm looking for a better idea. Is there a tile border or some other wood treatment that I could use to make a nice-looking transition between the oak flooring and the new laminate?

@Anthony Angotti, it's strictly a matter of preference, but I think it looks more stylish to have the tile angled rather than parallel to the walls. You do have a few more cuts, but not many more. If you set the tile at a 45-degree angle, that also eliminates the visual oddity of a line between tiles starting out close to the wall on one side of the room and ending up farther away from the wall because the room is not square. 

Next time consider setting the tile at a 45-degree angle to the walls.

Look into patching the living room with new wood. Home Depot sells the solid planks unfinished. You'd probably need to sand the rest of the floor and then finish the whole thing.

In my experience, using a manual Homax sprayer, you can make a repaired area look like the rest of the drywall, but it's important to get the area smooth before applying texture. Otherwise you're mixing new and old irregularities in the surface and it's almost impossible to match the texture of the surrounding area.

Add a deck with railings and flower boxes all the way across the front of the house

You can use Goof-Off (no doubt by the gallon) to dissolve adhesive. You'll need a whole lot of ventilation; it's very unpleasant. Buy a floor scraper, which is similar to a push broom, at Home Depot or Lowe's. I have used one on concrete. You might not want to use such a heavy-duty tool on wood that you plan to refinish, but refinishing seems unlikely here. 

It's a little late for this, but you also should have a sample of the flooring tested for asbestos. If you have asbestos, you'll need to stop and use other, safer procedures and possibly an abatement contractor.

Note that Floetrol is for latex paint. Using oil-based paint is another way to minimize brush strokes.

If you can wait till Memorial Day, appliances always probably will be on sale then.

I'm with @JW Franz. Just fix the window. I replaced balance springs in several windows years ago. It's no big deal and way, way less work and expense than replacing a whole window. You just wind the springs up or something. I say order them with fast shipping and be done with it.