20 year old home. Lots of scratches on oak solid wood floors from kids, dogs, etc. Water damage from dog dish spills. Foot traffic "hot spots." Narrow planks. About 800 square feet plus uncarpeted stair treads (14).

"Transitional" floorplan. Great room front to back, without any wall between living and dining. Kitchen has eat-in nook and island. Hallway from front door to back door. All oak now.

We need to make ready for retirement in five years. Will be selling home at some point, and yet we need to enjoy hosting small gatherings for those five years or more. Embarrassing to have distressed oak floors (solid wood).

One idea is to use traditional sanding and refinishing. We have a place to stay (next door) to minimize the hotel expense for 1.5 weeks or more. We have a dog sitter.

One thought is to use sandless technology. But, with the damage we are not sure sandless would even work.

Crazy concept is to lay a new lifetime warranty vinyl 6mm thick floor down over the oak.

Lots of money at stake. $4 per square foot to refinish? $4 per square foot plus installation for vinyl?

Want to update color from neutral oak to modern grey or deep brown, to go with grey walls, stainless appliances, etc.

As always, your ideas and suggestions are welcome.

Question:
Optimum floor fix?

Choices:
Traditional sanding / refinishing
Sandless resurfacing / refinishing
Vinyl over hardwood

 

As much as the vinyl cost per square foot, I'd try to find a place that offers free installation or do it myself.

The existing hardwood does not have to be cut for thermal expansion.

Pay a company that does refinishing for a living, don’t try and do it yourself.

I would think a refinished oak floor would increase value more than new vinyl.

We are in the process of installing new hardwood over old vinyl.

Should have done this years ago.

Understand that even after sanding, stains and deep scratches will still be evident after refinishing.

I voted traditional refinishing however, I have seen some commercial hardwood appearing vinyl that looked damn good, so can't rule it out.

I vote for sanding and refinishing, warts and all. But I would ask a real estate agent what they think and how it might affect resale since you know you will be out of there in a few years. While looking at homes when buying my most recent house, hardwood floors were high on my wife's priority list.

quote:

Originally posted by 12GA:
Understand that even after sanding, stains and deep scratches will still be evident after refinishing.

AKA - patina

If you do anything other than a traditional sand and refinish to that floor I hope you kick the coffee table in the middle of the night real soon

It’s a bit more of a hassle, but well worth it in the long run.

I just did this.

I sanded and refinished two, second-floor rooms with two coats of oil-based poly that were 2" red oak.

I ripped up the first floor opened the floor plan replaced with 4" red oak with 3 coats of poly.

48 hours before we could walk on with socks.

4 days with shoes and put back the furniture.

30 days before the rugs went back down.

The two coats look much duller than the three coats.

The company said it was the same poly.

I am not sure it is not 100-year-old oak vs new red oak or they used satin finish instead of semi-gloss on the second floor.

Compared to the mess they were before they both look great.

My research came up with 3 finishes for hardwood.

Oil-based poly should last 15 - 20 years.
Dries slower smells bad. More VOCs more smells dry harder, last longer.

Water-based poly dries faster barely smells should be good for 5 - 8 years

Monocoat, European stain, no smell, dries dull 5-10 years easy to repair and keep up. Rubio is one of the brand names.

https://www.rubiomonocoatusa.com/en?reset&country=us

My neighbors did Rubio, look great but not my wife's taste.

Sand and refinish. I would stay with regular oak color, or some shade up to a medium brown. Check with a refinisher, they know what is possible and would look good on your floor. Also they could give you an idea of what is trending in your area.

Personally I think that the grey tints and real dark colors will not be very popular in years to come.

quote:

Originally posted by 12GA:
Understand that even after sanding, stains and deep scratches will still be evident after refinishing.

Have you seen the floor?

No? Then how can you say this?

A solid hardwood floor has to be badly damaged for it not to sand out, from wear to steep temp changes, lots of wet/dry.

A lot will sand out, particularly from a new floor. 20 years is still pretty new for a 3/4 oak floor.

I would recommend refinish, and the time to stay off the floors isn't as bad as you'd think. Any floor company worth its salt today is "dustless." Shop around, get eyes on from pros.

Honestly anytime I open a thread related to home construction/repair/renovation/improvement I'm just blown away by the leaps to conclusions.

It's not hard to refinish yourself. My upstairs is oak and at some time those beautiful solid wood floors were covered in carpet. Just rent a walk-behind sander. Do the edges with a hand sander. Clean up and put down a coat or two of poly'. Did my oak floors, about 1200 sqft, 15 years ago over a weekend and they're still like new.

My GF is a realtor. Anytime she finds hardwood flooring under some other flooring, be it vinyl or carpet, her response is, “why the hell would anyone do this”. Hardwood is ideal and most valuable to buyers. I’d go dark brown. I like the modern gray but it’s trendy. It may not be so trendy when you decide to sell. Browns are always “in”.

I don't think re-finishing should take 1.5 weeks. I just had a company remove all of our oak flooring on the main level of our house and replace it. The area is about 1800 square feet. The sanding, staining, and finishing took four days. We were able to walk on it with slippers five hours after the final coat. Still, I put down a roll of Ram board floor protector while it fully cured.

The hardest part of the whole process was removing all of our furniture, the dishwasher, and range. Fortunately, they had a system of moving the refrigerator back and forth while they installed the flooring underneath.

This is the finish that they used: https://www.basiccoatings.com/...6664312?pageNumber=1

Do NOT put another floor over the hardwood. That’s like putting stickers all over a Ferrari.

quote:

Honestly anytime I open a thread related to home construction/repair/renovation/improvement I'm just blown away by the leaps to conclusions.

Arc.

Just Home construction threads?

to the op

IMHO the hardwood would be the best, people have been covering up hardwood vs refinishing for years.

Agree with asking about trends, and remember they are trends in 5 years something else will be popular, don't chase trends jmo...

The linoleum is popular now especially in humid climate areas, the contraction and expansion as well has heavy wet environment plays havoc on wood and laminate/engineered floors.

Here in FL it's the way everything is going and more so because the tech has improved the product and the weather.

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:
20 year old home. Lots of scratches on oak solid wood floors from kids, dogs, etc. Water damage from dog dish spills. Foot traffic "hot spots." Narrow planks. About 800 square feet plus uncarpeted stair treads (14)......


One thought is to use sandless technology. But, with the damage we are not sure sandless would even work......

Crazy concept is to lay a new lifetime warranty vinyl 6mm thick floor down over the oak.....

....Want to update color from neutral oak to modern grey or deep brown, to go with grey walls, stainless appliances, etc.

Personally I don't think it's crazy to consider a loose lay vinyl. It'll go right over your existing wood floor and protect it from further wear and damage for the next owner if they desire wood floors. Vinyl is very resistant to wear, water, dog scratches, etc. And you have a vast option of colors and looks. My daughter just took up their carpet and old sheet vinyl flooring to have floating grayish-tan vinyl planks installed and they love the stuff. They had it professionally installed and surprisingly it only took 2 1/2 days to do basically the entire 3 bedroom house including two bathrooms and it looks great, I wish I had a better picture.

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:


Crazy concept is to lay a new lifetime warranty vinyl 6mm thick floor down over the oak.

Definitely not this! Nice hardwood floors are a key selling point in a home and you will sell it faster and get more for it with those floors over vinyl.

We bought a house built in 1951 that had ugly green carpet throughout, but we ripped it up to discoverer beautiful oak floors that had never seen the light of day since 1951!

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
My GF is a realtor. Anytime she finds hardwood flooring under some other flooring, be it vinyl or carpet, her response is, “why the hell would anyone do this”.

I asked my uncle who was helping rip out all our old carpets in the house we had bought and he said "Back then carpet WAS the upgrade, no one wanted hard wooden floors then".

I voted vinyl, especially since you want to change colors. That gives the new owners options. Keep the gray, change the vinyl or refinish the hardwood. I think it will show nicely with the color scheme you describe.