We discovered on Friday night that our hardwood floors are not in good shape.
OK, we kinda knew that, but then we brought the guy in who did Charlie and Denise's floors (they're amazing -- Charlie and Denise, too, of course), and he told us that the floors are pine, and refinishing will just make it look a little better, but possibly not much. Pine is too soft and shows every nick, scratch and high-heel dent . . . which is why it's not used anymore.
Right now, there is carpet throughout the upstairs and in the downstairs room we'll turn into an office. The hardwood in the master bedroom is in good shape, so we'll refinish that and the upstairs hall, and probably the stairs as well. The floor under the carpet in the office is also in decent shape; at some point in the future, I'd like to use a lighter bamboo or ceramic tiles in the kitchen, upgraded tile in the bathroom, and tile in the front porch, but those are areas that we're not worried about yet.
It's the downstairs we're somewhat torn on, due to the price difference.
Our options:
1. Rip up the parquet floor in the dining room, exposing the hardwood underneath that runs throughout the living room and hall as well; put down new oak floors for consistency throughout the downstairs. Refinish the steps, paint the risers; refinish the master bedroom and upstairs hall.
2. Simply refinish all floors throughout, with replacement to come later.
3. Focus on the downstairs and the steps -- new floor, refinish the steps -- and reserve the upstairs for a later, pain-in-the-ass project.
Am I commenting in the right place? A Blog, a facebook group, when is the house getting a twitter feed? Foursquare? "Brooke is the mayor of her new house."
ReplyDeleteIn reply to your post: Get another opinion on the floors. We had one guy come in and say the same thing about the pine floors we have upstairs. They won't clean up well, etc. etc. Another guy made them look like a million bucks. - McNarney
I concur on looking around. You've seen our floors - they're pine and the guy we used made them look great. Only after telling us that they probably wouldn't and he would do the best he could.
ReplyDeleteRemind me to tell you some stories about those guys sometimes...
Jim W.
Thanks, guys -- that's super-helpful. Another friend said the same thing, and hearing stories of floors that have come out that well is really comforting.
ReplyDelete