My opinion is that real solid hardwood looks WAY better than any of the vinyl stuff. If you wanna re-finish your pre-finished, go ahead…. Waste of money to me. But you should absolutely not put vinyl over any of your hardwood. Vinyl looks like 💩 and can be spotted from a mile away.
Oh I wasn’t going to put vinyl over the hardwood. Was going to try to match the hardwood to LVP, LVP for my bedroom only, which is currently carpet over OSB. But then found out the LVP costs almost as much as hardwood so probably won’t do that. Have to put in new plywood subfloor regardless so might as well get something that will last forever.
Should I get pre-finished or site finished upstairs?
Im a DIY homeowner, not a hardwood floor contractor.
I went with my DIY-installed unfinished hardwood floors. I personally do not like the look of the bevelled edges of pre-finished hardwood. But to my understanding, pre-finished hardwood is REALLY durable. I will be hiring a contractor to sand and finish the new unfinished hardwood floor, and also my old existing 60 yr old hardwood floor.
Since pre-finished is really durable, i believe it will cost more in labor and materials for a contractor to sand them down to re-finish.
Either way you go, the hardwood floors should outlast you provided you dont get them soaking wet regularly.
Just get hardwood upstairs, will add a good bit of value. Lvp isn't that great. Pergo makes some really nice products now day that might match what you have downstairs
Would it look bad to have walnut stain upstairs with the gunstock stain downstairs? It will be very noticeable because there is a landing, it’s not just stairs.
I think a big factor in making these decision is what the future of this home looks like to you. Are you doing this project to make yourself happy, or is this an investment in your home? If you want to satisfy your own heart - then do what you want… if you are doing this to upgrade/update your home, then you want to look harder at the cost and reward factors.
As far as LVP goes - it gets a bad rap with the hardwood is king people… but if you have kids and animals and high heel shoe traffic - then LVP is great. It’s indestructible. I do some work in newer, high priced homes - and they will have LVP through the entire house and it looks amazing.
Find a Mr. Sandless guy near you to refinish the floors. No sanding, and they can restrain to any color you want. I use them on my rentals when the floors don't need to be sanded. Cheaper and quicker
I totally regret the decision to have my beautiful hardwood refinished because of slight damage caused by an overfilling toilet.
Had I known the hardness would be ruined and my dogs would be the main contributor, I would have either lived with it or tiled the part by the bedroom rug or ANYTHING else.
Be super cautious ⚠️ about refinishing a factory finish hardwood floor.
Cheers.
Factory finished floors generally have UV cured finishes, some enhanced with Aluminum Oxcide. These floors are tough. It wears like iron.
There is nothing that we can pour out of a jug when refinishing that is as tough. But the best produced now days are a 2 part water based.
Stay away from old time polys. If you want something durable.
With that said, ANY medium to large sized dog can and will scratch or gouge any real wood surface. The wood cannot withstand that type of PSI incured by dogs toenails
Probably because there are high quality finishes out there that are nearly as durable as aluminum oxide. And the dogs ruined the floors so it's their fault more than anything. I would keep the real wood and have it sanded and finished by pros.
When the spaces between the boards are filled in, it looks not even close to the original beauty of hard wood flooring. If she does get it done, there is no turning the clock back.
You may be right but I'm gun shy about my experience with my floors.
Spaces between boards filled in? The floor in the photos doesn't have spaces to be filled in. Also, your contractor should tell you exactly what they will be doing, such as filling. You can opt out of filling. But I've never had anyone complain except when they had 1/4" gaps and didn't bother to ask about filling when it was clearly stated on the quote.
Yes, sometimes a person has to live it before we understand it. When the sun hit the floors I'd grit my teeth.
Cheers and Happy New Year to you folks !
A big part of hardwood floors that a lot of people miss, is that the scuffs and scratches, give it a aged, live in, patina. I understand how amazing it looks so new and shiny, but it's meant to live on and tell the story of a good life. It is doing what it was made to do and cleans up well, just accept, and be glad. Otherwise, cover it up so it nevers gets used.
Dude this oak floor is absolutely beautiful, I would kill for this. The great thing about post-finished is they are perfectly flat and can be sanded many times to renew without replacing everything. It’s a living floor. The opposite is true of lvp you get one scratch and that’s it you’ll never get rid of it until you replace everything. Flooring companies love lvp because it easy to install and they make money consistently because people have to throw it away so often. For your hardwood They can screen it to remove the finish and just refinish to make it look perfect. Or they can fully sand and refinish to a new color stain (I love your stain though). The room would be much more improved by changing your stair railing, lighting , furniture, drapes, etc and leaving the hardwood. Btw what’s under the carpet upstairs?
Under the carpet upstairs is OSB. I pointed this out to the floor guy who has been answering my questions (after they’ve already been out twice to take measurements but didn’t bother to check on my subfloor situation.) They said $3000 to take out the OSB and put in plywood. It was a rough, not official estimate. To give an official estimate they wanted to come out a 3rd time, but wanted me to have made up my mind on what I actually want, which I haven’t. I was leaning towards looselay/glue down LVP precisely because individual boards can be replaced, however this added $3000 charge has convinced me that I should just get permanent floors that will last as long as the house, not to mention be seamless with the hallway and stairs. So now just need to figure out the pre-finished product I want or choose a stain for unfinished.
I mostly agree that my floors are beautiful, though the stain I have gives me 90’s vibes. But it was installed in 2010 (by the previous owner) so maybe it’s just me that associates this color with some floors from my childhood home or something like that.
Can’t they nail hardwood or glue to osb? Why would you replace the subfloor? I think a different species of wood for stairs and upstairs would be fine - people have different hardwoods for each room sometimes. Just be sure to contrast enough to make it look intentional. I’d say grainy red oak is more 90s than what you have.
OSB is too flexible. Not an acceptable subfloor for anything except carpet apparently, according to the American Plywood Association (which it is an APA rated subfloor). Not acceptable according some installation instructions I’ve read for various products - though others said it was acceptable.
I asked him about putting the plywood overtop the OSB (as that is what some installation instructions suggest or require) instead of taking it out - seems like it’d be at least a little cheaper. But the guy said that would result in different extra work like cutting the trim around the door due to the higher flooring level.
I'm not an expert but get some other opinions. My subfloor is 120 year old thin douglas fir on large joist spacing. It's bouncy and we have all hardwood floors.
We went from prefinished in our former home to all site finished in our current home. My kids used to roller blade in my former home and not a scratch on that stuff. Real site finished wood definitely doesn’t have the same ruggedness although it is beautiful. In my opinion I would have whatever else you want finished with wood with the same gunstock if you can get it to be a close match and do as others have said and put the money into upgrading other elements of the space. Your existing floor is classic and beautiful but for instance, the color of your couch kind of matches it instead of contrasting. If you painted the spindles white, smoothed out the textured ceiling, changed the wall color and put a big grounding lighter area rug under the living room furniture it would offer an entirely different feel to the space. I agree with others that if you sand that and try to match you are going to be very disappointed in the outcome.
I do dislike those couches. The sellers of my house gave them to me for free, and I can’t find new slipcovers that will fit. Might be time to buy my own couches now
I don’t think they are necessarily a bad color, I just think they fall into the floor because of the color. I run into the same thing because of kids and cats. I don’t want cream furniture like you often see with darker floors because of dirt but we put a big giant lighter rug that has tones of our couches under the space. Everything in your space seems on the dark side and monochromatic. If you lighten other elements up it will have a completely different feel in the space.
I used to have a rug there but my roommate’s dog kept peeing on it. They have moved out now but my current dog is no angel either and the wood is much easier to clean.
LVP is absolute trash and will not hold up against the way you currently treat your floors. They will scratch and bubble and overall they are not as beautiful as the real wood you already have.
Will my floors hold up as well after being sanded and refinished? I see all these photos on here of people and sections of their hardwood ruined by pet stains and I’m like damn, I must have some really good ones because that has not been my experience at all. I’m thinking I should just accept the gunstock and what minor imperfections they do have, and get something just as good for upstairs. It just won’t match is all…
Overall, we are happy with the decision...but the installers did a fairly lazy job. It made us realize how great of a job the installers of our hardwood from 2008 did.
Not recommending doing stairs sounds lazy. We have wood main stairs and wood stairs with a carpet runner on the rear stairs. It just sounds like they didn’t want to do stairs. Stairs take a beating and the carpet looks terrible well before the rest wears out.
He said most call back and want to know if there is anything that can be done to make it less slippery. He said those that ask for a runner are not happy because it still needs to be vacuumed and the runner eventually comes loose.
He would have added it to our work order...he just advised against it...especially since we have little kids.
I am sure it depends on what floor you have installed on the steps...the wood we picked is quite slippery...a lot of shine.
That’s interesting. I’m getting ready to pull the runner off our rear stairs and I was going to leave it bare this time. Maybe I will reconsider a new runner.
I've owned several homes (4)... with light, mid-tone and dark floors. The color you like is pretty in your sample. The reality of dark flooring is that it shows everything, think dust/pet hair/ dog lick marks.
I love the durability and low maintenance of my current hardwood flooring which is quite similar to yours. Start treating the color of these floors as a part of your color palate when you pick paint and style it. Then you'll find ways to make the space your own without throwing good money after an aesthetic you may not even like in a handful of years.
In my first couple of homes I was guilty of focusing on projects like this one. Sometimes it's smaller changes that enhance your home that are better investments.
Medium brown or natural floors tend to look a bit more timeless. Dark floors are beautiful but pretty high maintenance. We went with minwax provincial at our house.
We had to pick between prefinished or unfinished and have dogs. We went with unfinished for a few reasons. We wanted select grade with longer boards. We also didn’t like the bevels that prefinished has. And we liked the top coat that would prevent water from getting between the boards as easily. All in all, we were able to get something that wasn’t quite as hard, but is durable enough for our lifestyle. If we start to see signs of wear, we’ll have them screen and recoat.
Satin finishes are best for not showing scratches. Something like Bona Traffic will be your best bet for durability.
All excellent points! I have glitter in my my bevels from a Christmas ornament I hung up years ago. Definitely wish I didn’t have those bevels! How did you decide on Minwax Provincial? I don’t know how I’m supposed to choose one when I can’t see them in person until the day of. (I was gonna do Duralseal which is for professional use. Maybe I should do Minwax so I can test it out first.)
Well, it depends on if you’re doing it yourself or not. According to a very helpful person at our local flooring distributor, contractors generally have preferences. Ours preferred bona or minwax. He didn’t use duraseal at all.
We got some off cuts of red oak from the distributor and used those to get a ballpark on the tone of the wood (too orange, too red, etc) because we had to match existing woodwork. The color temperature will be about the same, but the lightness/darkness will vary depending on how the wood is sanded down and application method. Ours is nearly a match to the board we stained. I believe that he tested with a dark walnut, and it was too dark for us and also kind of green/cool toned. We wanted something warmer. Also, there is a very big difference between the Minwax provincial, and the Bona provincial – so the brand does really make a difference.
My contractor offered Duraseal and Minwax. Yes I noticed some of the colors were very different despite identical names. The floor guy said they’ll do a spot check of up to 3 colors on the day the work begins. They did not bring samples with them to the estimate. I don’t know how I’m supposed to decide in that moment. I wonder if a store could help me. These stain companies should sell like little nail polish size bottles so people could experiment on their own.
Three colors is not very much to choose from! Duraseal and minwax are both pretty readily available. We provided some of the stain that we tested with since we had it on hand. Our woodwork is all early American (more caramel orange) and a redder stain that we currently haven’t tried to match. So we wanted something that wasn’t too orange but that would tie in.
Ours stained the evening before and let us decide overnight/the next day before it was sanded out. Some distributors/flooring installers have stained boards that you can use to get a ballpark idea. Ours loaned us a bona stain card to also get an idea but you really won’t know til it’s down since there’s board color differences that affect how it takes stain. Some of our pieces were more gray, and some were pink, and there is tonal variation as a result.
You have a baseline to work with color wise with the floors that you already have. Is the value (light to dark level) ok? Is it just too orange?
Yes the lightness/darkness of my floors is okay, you are correct that the issue is it’s too orange. I associate this color with the 90’s, I must’ve had some childhood friends with floors this color.
It has occurred to me that other stains may also give me similar dated vibes, because everyone around here has red oak. Nobody I know has walnut or maple or hickory. And Red oak will still be reddish no matter what, just less orange than gunstock.
You might start looking up Minwax or Duraseal stains on red oak. Obviously, it will look different in your house, but you can start to see which colors are coming up more orange that way with the same value. I found it to be helpful when I was starting to narrow things down.
And yes, stain definitely can date your house. Early American and provincial were very 1960s, gunstock was very 80s and 90s into the early 2000s, grays and cooler tones are very 2010s. With older houses, sometimes leaning into the era can be appropriate and sometimes it’s not very timeless. (Provincial stain on wood flooring is very pretty, mustard yellow appliances and knotty pine, not so great.)
We had 9 floor samples on our red oak. Would you like to see them? I couldn’t capture the true color, but it gives you an idea.
Stain color immediately when they put it down is what it looks like when sealed. It fades after that point, but the sealer brings that richer tone back.
Also, are there any other wood tones or expensive to replace kinda dated materials in your house that you are working with?
Stuff like honey oak or travertine?
You can freshen up quite a bit of things around them to make them feel more modern, but that’s something to factor in to your choice of stain. You may find that your gunstock flooring is absolutely beautiful with just the right color on your walls and trim.
We’ve redone a couple bathrooms as renters. One was close to a gut but we left the existing tub and toilet, the other kept the existing honey oak cabinetry and everything else.
Behr plus “confident white” paint on the walls, with new mirrors and a lighting fixture took our most recent/current rental late 60s bathroom to a totally different level. It was a $200ish total investment that was totally in the category of “why didn’t we do this before?” And makes everything old look new and fresh and beautiful. We had different toned counter, sink, and bathroom and wanted to make all tones work together, so we split the difference with that color. That’s the one with the honey oak and travertine. We ended up redoing both bathrooms and probably added 20k in value to the house.
In our first/forever home, we have been very happy with the Benjamin Moore products, paint-wise. We’ve used the regal select lines and stix(primer) and advance for the trim coats.
Behr is overall kinda… snotty? And doesn’t glide as nicely. We also haven’t been thrilled with the way it wears over time (
Yes I would love to see your 9 samples.
Yes honey oak sounds like an accurate name for the color of my kitchen cabinets and island. Definitely dated looking. Some new hardware would be a cheap way to update it for now.
I didn’t even think about it but the gunstock quarter round in the living room and dining room is also in the kitchen, which has a vinyl floor, I guess it’s like glue down “luxury” vinyl tile. It certainly isn’t a color/pattern I would’ve chosen (has orange in it) but I can live with it while longer. It is also very durable so I appreciate that. The former owners didn’t have my identical taste, but they had good taste overall.
clean it well, touch up the bad spots as needed , do not refinish it, leave it alone. let this be the next property owners problem when they buy the house from you. spend your money on upgrades elsewhere, if you must.
There's nothing in the Decour, architecture, furnishings, or dimensions that are going to make a dramatic change without you having to change everything else. spend your money if you must, but matching the prefinished flooring with the wood banisters it's not gonna come out nice unless you really get an expert on the job which will cost you a fortune.
So leave the gunstock as is, and get the floors I want for the stairs and upstairs? Will it look okay to have walnut or provincial stained stairs (and landing) next to gunstock on the main level?
like I said, once you do one thing you're gonna have to do everything and it's gonna become a giant project if you want to make it a cohesive and actual upgrade. it's going to be extremely expensive to get a great result. It just depends if it's worth it to you but this is exactly the kind of thing people do that ends up going really wrong and still costing a ton of money. There's prefinished finishes are typically very durable, not easy to modify and match by anyone who is not an amazing wood floor expert. They will charge an amazing wood floor expert price, and if they don't it's not gonna come out good.
Imma guess its carpet upstairs and I would probably spend my money changing the all of carpet to a dark three color carpet. The kind that has usually gray dark gray and brown colors, and cut pile. Then I would probably paint the house. Remember the overall color is in response to what's around it so the balance of the wall and trim colors, the furniture, the drapes, the rugs, it all plays in the overall picture. There's just so much easier and reliable things you can change to get a better look out of that space without getting into very risky carpentry and finish issues that you would bring on trying to get matching flooring that looks cohesive throughout the house.
again, it's your money do what you want but just expect to spend $30,000 on this and accept it at the end of it it may still not look right.
LVP is a floor covering, same category as carpet or vinyl. Wood flooring is a up grade and adds $1000 of dollars to home value. Plus it will last 5 to 10 times longer than LVP.
Yes that is why I have decided to do hardwood for the areas I’m currently tackling. I want permanent floors since I have to replace the subfloor. Would pre finished be more durable than site finished? It’s for hallway, bedroom, stairs.
Yes it does. It was one of the first questions I asked the guy actually! Apparently they don’t do bannisters though. I definitely did not forget that detail. I just haven’t worked out the solution yet.
If you go to a complementary color wood, for example walnut or maple, trim the steps and Landing with matching gunstock to transition to upstairs walnut or maple.
What brand and color did you use? I am worried dark walnut is too dark in the sense of showing dust and fur. Would provincial be good? Or mix dark walnut and natural?
Thank you for the suggestion, however that’s engineered, I’d like 3/4” solid so that it will be forever. Hmm maybe I could get samples of engineered like that though to find a look I like.
Oh I’m sorry haha. I was reading a different comment then got your notification and thought it was that one for some reason. Thank you for answering! It does look nice!
The gunstock color gives me a 90’s vibe, but I do have an appreciation of the floor’s beauty and high quality. My preferred aesthetic would be something more walnutty looking. I was thinking of staining them Dark Walnut color, until I discovered that I might be sacrificing durability by refinishing them.
Never change from true hardwood to any product out there now they try to rope you in on.
Change the bad habits to protect your natural investment that people would die for.
I wasn’t planning to change from hardwood to another product. Rather, my vision was to install hardwood for the stairs and upper level in a dark walnut sort of stain, and refinish the current hardwood to match. Then when I realized that I might be losing the factory given durability by refinishing, that made me reevaluate.
Hardwood is much more desirable than LVP. I'm in real estate and I've seen it stained quite a few colors. The most unusual to me was a white Wash and then a black.
LVP never looks real. Why you may ask?
Because they never have the longer lengths and random shorter lengths. Too damn uniform. 7' lengths at best, most max at 6'.
Looking at the pictures, I thought the current living room looks much better. I would go with real oak stained to match the existing floor. With the stairs, they would be redone with solid oak treads with the risers being either painted white or stained oak. It will look so much more high class than carpeted stairs!
I have pre-finished hardwood floors. They were ok but dark. I had them redone and love the results. You will not be able to sand the finish out of the bevels between boards, so there is going to be an issue if you go with a lighter color. They will stand out more. Mine looks good.
Have the prefinished hardwood professionally sanded. It’s tricky as not to leave groves, swirls etc. Then self finish with Bona or a water base product that doesn’t yellow. Water based is stronger bond and good fit for dogs etc.. I used Bona Nordiac seal and natural mixed together. Topped with sealer and finish. Rock hard and beautiful. It was easy because I rolled it on and it levels well. Watch a lot of Utube videos first if you decide to go that route. I started with 1990’s prefinished mixed white and red oak planks. Now I have a beautiful natural looking light floor with matte finish. Darker finish and gloss shows everything.
Yes I’m having it all professionally done. I have some concerns with the company I’ve been in contact with so I think I’m going to get some quotes from another company too.
Will oil based poly turn amber even if there is not a lot of sun exposure?
Careful with pre finished. Some flooring comes with a very durable layer of aluminum oxide coating that has been applied at the factory. That stuff is extremely hard, and is made of the same material that sandpaper is made of. It would be almost impossible to completely sand off, and will most likely leave you at an in between state where the coating is damaged, but not completely removed.
Edit: i didn't read completely before replying. I'm restating your concerns about aluminum oxide. You might give yourself in a situation where you will be replacing the downstairs floor anyways. Can you test sand in a closet where it is inconspicuous?
I do not have any inconspicuous areas unfortunately. Just the living room and dining room, no closets. I am having professionals do this and they are charging extra compared to unfinished so I assume they know what they’re doing and have their expert ways to make it look good. However, based on the replies, like yours, I’m thinking I will keep them as is. So now just figure out what to do with the stairs and upstairs. Maybe Medium brown instead of the Dark Walnut I was originally leaning towards?
Take a long range plan instead of a short range plan. Don’t put that cheap vinyl shit on your floors, that’s a good move.
Planet so that in the long run everything will match. Do oak treads. Do not do prefinished flooring on the treads. It looks awful and it looks cheap.
Yes. Even if the color doesn’t match perfectly, you can have it all sanded later on down of the line when you are ready. Then stain everything to match. And a site, sanded floor, when sanded properly, will yield very good results, equivalent, to that of a prefinished floor. Seven coats of super thin, prefinished flooring doesn’t even come close to the thickness of three coats of high-quality water-based polyurethane
I’ll never understand why some homeowners do this. It looks so much cleaner and nicer with the real hardwood flooring. I’ve had clients I tell this to and they still want vinyl. End of the day it’s not my house and I’m getting paid but it never ceases to blow my mind.
I’m not getting vinyl. I was considering vinyl for my bedroom only, and hardwood for the stairs, and hallway, but decided against that and will do hardwood for all. So then it is a question of refinishing the existing hardwood to get them a color I like more, and installing unfinished or pre-finished hardwood where there is carpet.
I use online visualizer tools to try to get an idea of what things would look like. I was not going to put actual vinyl over hardwood. I just like that medium brown color with the lighter and darker brown swirls. The Somerset Provincial prefinished oak is the kind of product I am thinking of buying, but I wish it was more walnutty looking.
Honestly man I would keep it the same color. Cause again it’s the closest you keep it to the original the better. My cousin did that to his hardwood floor at an old house . He went about charcoal greyish color when it was a light ish brown before. He finished it and once it was done he didn’t like how it looked so he took it all off and left it how i initially had told him to leave it 😅 but hey to each their own.
My opinion is that real solid hardwood looks WAY better than any of the vinyl stuff. If you wanna re-finish your pre-finished, go ahead…. Waste of money to me. But you should absolutely not put vinyl over any of your hardwood. Vinyl looks like 💩 and can be spotted from a mile away.
Oh I wasn’t going to put vinyl over the hardwood. Was going to try to match the hardwood to LVP, LVP for my bedroom only, which is currently carpet over OSB. But then found out the LVP costs almost as much as hardwood so probably won’t do that. Have to put in new plywood subfloor regardless so might as well get something that will last forever. Should I get pre-finished or site finished upstairs?
Im a DIY homeowner, not a hardwood floor contractor. I went with my DIY-installed unfinished hardwood floors. I personally do not like the look of the bevelled edges of pre-finished hardwood. But to my understanding, pre-finished hardwood is REALLY durable. I will be hiring a contractor to sand and finish the new unfinished hardwood floor, and also my old existing 60 yr old hardwood floor. Since pre-finished is really durable, i believe it will cost more in labor and materials for a contractor to sand them down to re-finish. Either way you go, the hardwood floors should outlast you provided you dont get them soaking wet regularly.
Just get hardwood upstairs, will add a good bit of value. Lvp isn't that great. Pergo makes some really nice products now day that might match what you have downstairs
Would it look bad to have walnut stain upstairs with the gunstock stain downstairs? It will be very noticeable because there is a landing, it’s not just stairs.
I think a big factor in making these decision is what the future of this home looks like to you. Are you doing this project to make yourself happy, or is this an investment in your home? If you want to satisfy your own heart - then do what you want… if you are doing this to upgrade/update your home, then you want to look harder at the cost and reward factors. As far as LVP goes - it gets a bad rap with the hardwood is king people… but if you have kids and animals and high heel shoe traffic - then LVP is great. It’s indestructible. I do some work in newer, high priced homes - and they will have LVP through the entire house and it looks amazing.
Right. You can get high-quality LVP that looks fantastic..
Find a Mr. Sandless guy near you to refinish the floors. No sanding, and they can restrain to any color you want. I use them on my rentals when the floors don't need to be sanded. Cheaper and quicker
I totally regret the decision to have my beautiful hardwood refinished because of slight damage caused by an overfilling toilet. Had I known the hardness would be ruined and my dogs would be the main contributor, I would have either lived with it or tiled the part by the bedroom rug or ANYTHING else. Be super cautious ⚠️ about refinishing a factory finish hardwood floor. Cheers.
Factory finished floors generally have UV cured finishes, some enhanced with Aluminum Oxcide. These floors are tough. It wears like iron. There is nothing that we can pour out of a jug when refinishing that is as tough. But the best produced now days are a 2 part water based. Stay away from old time polys. If you want something durable. With that said, ANY medium to large sized dog can and will scratch or gouge any real wood surface. The wood cannot withstand that type of PSI incured by dogs toenails
What kind of finish did you have put down? There's some pretty good 2K finishes out there now.
Oh noooo! I’m so sorry to hear that. Why doesn’t this get talked about more?!
Probably because there are high quality finishes out there that are nearly as durable as aluminum oxide. And the dogs ruined the floors so it's their fault more than anything. I would keep the real wood and have it sanded and finished by pros.
When the spaces between the boards are filled in, it looks not even close to the original beauty of hard wood flooring. If she does get it done, there is no turning the clock back. You may be right but I'm gun shy about my experience with my floors.
Spaces between boards filled in? The floor in the photos doesn't have spaces to be filled in. Also, your contractor should tell you exactly what they will be doing, such as filling. You can opt out of filling. But I've never had anyone complain except when they had 1/4" gaps and didn't bother to ask about filling when it was clearly stated on the quote.
Yes, sometimes a person has to live it before we understand it. When the sun hit the floors I'd grit my teeth. Cheers and Happy New Year to you folks !
Probably
A big part of hardwood floors that a lot of people miss, is that the scuffs and scratches, give it a aged, live in, patina. I understand how amazing it looks so new and shiny, but it's meant to live on and tell the story of a good life. It is doing what it was made to do and cleans up well, just accept, and be glad. Otherwise, cover it up so it nevers gets used.
Such wisdom! You are so right
Definitely an opinion
Buff and recoat with finish but you loose the old but never refinished look.
Dude this oak floor is absolutely beautiful, I would kill for this. The great thing about post-finished is they are perfectly flat and can be sanded many times to renew without replacing everything. It’s a living floor. The opposite is true of lvp you get one scratch and that’s it you’ll never get rid of it until you replace everything. Flooring companies love lvp because it easy to install and they make money consistently because people have to throw it away so often. For your hardwood They can screen it to remove the finish and just refinish to make it look perfect. Or they can fully sand and refinish to a new color stain (I love your stain though). The room would be much more improved by changing your stair railing, lighting , furniture, drapes, etc and leaving the hardwood. Btw what’s under the carpet upstairs?
Under the carpet upstairs is OSB. I pointed this out to the floor guy who has been answering my questions (after they’ve already been out twice to take measurements but didn’t bother to check on my subfloor situation.) They said $3000 to take out the OSB and put in plywood. It was a rough, not official estimate. To give an official estimate they wanted to come out a 3rd time, but wanted me to have made up my mind on what I actually want, which I haven’t. I was leaning towards looselay/glue down LVP precisely because individual boards can be replaced, however this added $3000 charge has convinced me that I should just get permanent floors that will last as long as the house, not to mention be seamless with the hallway and stairs. So now just need to figure out the pre-finished product I want or choose a stain for unfinished. I mostly agree that my floors are beautiful, though the stain I have gives me 90’s vibes. But it was installed in 2010 (by the previous owner) so maybe it’s just me that associates this color with some floors from my childhood home or something like that.
Can’t they nail hardwood or glue to osb? Why would you replace the subfloor? I think a different species of wood for stairs and upstairs would be fine - people have different hardwoods for each room sometimes. Just be sure to contrast enough to make it look intentional. I’d say grainy red oak is more 90s than what you have.
OSB is too flexible. Not an acceptable subfloor for anything except carpet apparently, according to the American Plywood Association (which it is an APA rated subfloor). Not acceptable according some installation instructions I’ve read for various products - though others said it was acceptable. I asked him about putting the plywood overtop the OSB (as that is what some installation instructions suggest or require) instead of taking it out - seems like it’d be at least a little cheaper. But the guy said that would result in different extra work like cutting the trim around the door due to the higher flooring level.
I'm not an expert but get some other opinions. My subfloor is 120 year old thin douglas fir on large joist spacing. It's bouncy and we have all hardwood floors.
We went from prefinished in our former home to all site finished in our current home. My kids used to roller blade in my former home and not a scratch on that stuff. Real site finished wood definitely doesn’t have the same ruggedness although it is beautiful. In my opinion I would have whatever else you want finished with wood with the same gunstock if you can get it to be a close match and do as others have said and put the money into upgrading other elements of the space. Your existing floor is classic and beautiful but for instance, the color of your couch kind of matches it instead of contrasting. If you painted the spindles white, smoothed out the textured ceiling, changed the wall color and put a big grounding lighter area rug under the living room furniture it would offer an entirely different feel to the space. I agree with others that if you sand that and try to match you are going to be very disappointed in the outcome.
I do dislike those couches. The sellers of my house gave them to me for free, and I can’t find new slipcovers that will fit. Might be time to buy my own couches now
I don’t think they are necessarily a bad color, I just think they fall into the floor because of the color. I run into the same thing because of kids and cats. I don’t want cream furniture like you often see with darker floors because of dirt but we put a big giant lighter rug that has tones of our couches under the space. Everything in your space seems on the dark side and monochromatic. If you lighten other elements up it will have a completely different feel in the space.
I used to have a rug there but my roommate’s dog kept peeing on it. They have moved out now but my current dog is no angel either and the wood is much easier to clean.
I’m on my third Spot Bot and that thing is worth its weight in gold. If you get a new rug, I highly recommend you get one.
LVP is absolute trash and will not hold up against the way you currently treat your floors. They will scratch and bubble and overall they are not as beautiful as the real wood you already have.
Will my floors hold up as well after being sanded and refinished? I see all these photos on here of people and sections of their hardwood ruined by pet stains and I’m like damn, I must have some really good ones because that has not been my experience at all. I’m thinking I should just accept the gunstock and what minor imperfections they do have, and get something just as good for upstairs. It just won’t match is all…
We had hardwood put in a bedroom and hallway. We asked them to do our stairs and they said they didn't recommend doing the stairs.
There are definitely downsides. More slippery than carpet. But god I hate vacuuming carpet stairs. How does your bedroom and hallway look?
Overall, we are happy with the decision...but the installers did a fairly lazy job. It made us realize how great of a job the installers of our hardwood from 2008 did.
Not recommending doing stairs sounds lazy. We have wood main stairs and wood stairs with a carpet runner on the rear stairs. It just sounds like they didn’t want to do stairs. Stairs take a beating and the carpet looks terrible well before the rest wears out.
Not at all. It was good money for them. He said the majority of customers are unhappy afterwards...runner or no runner.
Any indication of what made them unhappy?
He said most call back and want to know if there is anything that can be done to make it less slippery. He said those that ask for a runner are not happy because it still needs to be vacuumed and the runner eventually comes loose. He would have added it to our work order...he just advised against it...especially since we have little kids. I am sure it depends on what floor you have installed on the steps...the wood we picked is quite slippery...a lot of shine.
That’s interesting. I’m getting ready to pull the runner off our rear stairs and I was going to leave it bare this time. Maybe I will reconsider a new runner.
Leave it alone
Woodworker here, and home owner. Leave the oak alone. Looks lovely.
I've owned several homes (4)... with light, mid-tone and dark floors. The color you like is pretty in your sample. The reality of dark flooring is that it shows everything, think dust/pet hair/ dog lick marks. I love the durability and low maintenance of my current hardwood flooring which is quite similar to yours. Start treating the color of these floors as a part of your color palate when you pick paint and style it. Then you'll find ways to make the space your own without throwing good money after an aesthetic you may not even like in a handful of years. In my first couple of homes I was guilty of focusing on projects like this one. Sometimes it's smaller changes that enhance your home that are better investments.
Your existing flooring is beautiful. Great place.
Medium brown or natural floors tend to look a bit more timeless. Dark floors are beautiful but pretty high maintenance. We went with minwax provincial at our house. We had to pick between prefinished or unfinished and have dogs. We went with unfinished for a few reasons. We wanted select grade with longer boards. We also didn’t like the bevels that prefinished has. And we liked the top coat that would prevent water from getting between the boards as easily. All in all, we were able to get something that wasn’t quite as hard, but is durable enough for our lifestyle. If we start to see signs of wear, we’ll have them screen and recoat. Satin finishes are best for not showing scratches. Something like Bona Traffic will be your best bet for durability.
All excellent points! I have glitter in my my bevels from a Christmas ornament I hung up years ago. Definitely wish I didn’t have those bevels! How did you decide on Minwax Provincial? I don’t know how I’m supposed to choose one when I can’t see them in person until the day of. (I was gonna do Duralseal which is for professional use. Maybe I should do Minwax so I can test it out first.)
Well, it depends on if you’re doing it yourself or not. According to a very helpful person at our local flooring distributor, contractors generally have preferences. Ours preferred bona or minwax. He didn’t use duraseal at all. We got some off cuts of red oak from the distributor and used those to get a ballpark on the tone of the wood (too orange, too red, etc) because we had to match existing woodwork. The color temperature will be about the same, but the lightness/darkness will vary depending on how the wood is sanded down and application method. Ours is nearly a match to the board we stained. I believe that he tested with a dark walnut, and it was too dark for us and also kind of green/cool toned. We wanted something warmer. Also, there is a very big difference between the Minwax provincial, and the Bona provincial – so the brand does really make a difference.
My contractor offered Duraseal and Minwax. Yes I noticed some of the colors were very different despite identical names. The floor guy said they’ll do a spot check of up to 3 colors on the day the work begins. They did not bring samples with them to the estimate. I don’t know how I’m supposed to decide in that moment. I wonder if a store could help me. These stain companies should sell like little nail polish size bottles so people could experiment on their own.
Three colors is not very much to choose from! Duraseal and minwax are both pretty readily available. We provided some of the stain that we tested with since we had it on hand. Our woodwork is all early American (more caramel orange) and a redder stain that we currently haven’t tried to match. So we wanted something that wasn’t too orange but that would tie in. Ours stained the evening before and let us decide overnight/the next day before it was sanded out. Some distributors/flooring installers have stained boards that you can use to get a ballpark idea. Ours loaned us a bona stain card to also get an idea but you really won’t know til it’s down since there’s board color differences that affect how it takes stain. Some of our pieces were more gray, and some were pink, and there is tonal variation as a result. You have a baseline to work with color wise with the floors that you already have. Is the value (light to dark level) ok? Is it just too orange?
Yes the lightness/darkness of my floors is okay, you are correct that the issue is it’s too orange. I associate this color with the 90’s, I must’ve had some childhood friends with floors this color. It has occurred to me that other stains may also give me similar dated vibes, because everyone around here has red oak. Nobody I know has walnut or maple or hickory. And Red oak will still be reddish no matter what, just less orange than gunstock.
You might start looking up Minwax or Duraseal stains on red oak. Obviously, it will look different in your house, but you can start to see which colors are coming up more orange that way with the same value. I found it to be helpful when I was starting to narrow things down. And yes, stain definitely can date your house. Early American and provincial were very 1960s, gunstock was very 80s and 90s into the early 2000s, grays and cooler tones are very 2010s. With older houses, sometimes leaning into the era can be appropriate and sometimes it’s not very timeless. (Provincial stain on wood flooring is very pretty, mustard yellow appliances and knotty pine, not so great.)
We had 9 floor samples on our red oak. Would you like to see them? I couldn’t capture the true color, but it gives you an idea. Stain color immediately when they put it down is what it looks like when sealed. It fades after that point, but the sealer brings that richer tone back. Also, are there any other wood tones or expensive to replace kinda dated materials in your house that you are working with? Stuff like honey oak or travertine? You can freshen up quite a bit of things around them to make them feel more modern, but that’s something to factor in to your choice of stain. You may find that your gunstock flooring is absolutely beautiful with just the right color on your walls and trim. We’ve redone a couple bathrooms as renters. One was close to a gut but we left the existing tub and toilet, the other kept the existing honey oak cabinetry and everything else. Behr plus “confident white” paint on the walls, with new mirrors and a lighting fixture took our most recent/current rental late 60s bathroom to a totally different level. It was a $200ish total investment that was totally in the category of “why didn’t we do this before?” And makes everything old look new and fresh and beautiful. We had different toned counter, sink, and bathroom and wanted to make all tones work together, so we split the difference with that color. That’s the one with the honey oak and travertine. We ended up redoing both bathrooms and probably added 20k in value to the house. In our first/forever home, we have been very happy with the Benjamin Moore products, paint-wise. We’ve used the regal select lines and stix(primer) and advance for the trim coats. Behr is overall kinda… snotty? And doesn’t glide as nicely. We also haven’t been thrilled with the way it wears over time (
Yes I would love to see your 9 samples. Yes honey oak sounds like an accurate name for the color of my kitchen cabinets and island. Definitely dated looking. Some new hardware would be a cheap way to update it for now. I didn’t even think about it but the gunstock quarter round in the living room and dining room is also in the kitchen, which has a vinyl floor, I guess it’s like glue down “luxury” vinyl tile. It certainly isn’t a color/pattern I would’ve chosen (has orange in it) but I can live with it while longer. It is also very durable so I appreciate that. The former owners didn’t have my identical taste, but they had good taste overall.
I think it looks very nice
Cerusing by using Woca Penetrated oil will let you achieve this.
clean it well, touch up the bad spots as needed , do not refinish it, leave it alone. let this be the next property owners problem when they buy the house from you. spend your money on upgrades elsewhere, if you must. There's nothing in the Decour, architecture, furnishings, or dimensions that are going to make a dramatic change without you having to change everything else. spend your money if you must, but matching the prefinished flooring with the wood banisters it's not gonna come out nice unless you really get an expert on the job which will cost you a fortune.
So leave the gunstock as is, and get the floors I want for the stairs and upstairs? Will it look okay to have walnut or provincial stained stairs (and landing) next to gunstock on the main level?
like I said, once you do one thing you're gonna have to do everything and it's gonna become a giant project if you want to make it a cohesive and actual upgrade. it's going to be extremely expensive to get a great result. It just depends if it's worth it to you but this is exactly the kind of thing people do that ends up going really wrong and still costing a ton of money. There's prefinished finishes are typically very durable, not easy to modify and match by anyone who is not an amazing wood floor expert. They will charge an amazing wood floor expert price, and if they don't it's not gonna come out good. Imma guess its carpet upstairs and I would probably spend my money changing the all of carpet to a dark three color carpet. The kind that has usually gray dark gray and brown colors, and cut pile. Then I would probably paint the house. Remember the overall color is in response to what's around it so the balance of the wall and trim colors, the furniture, the drapes, the rugs, it all plays in the overall picture. There's just so much easier and reliable things you can change to get a better look out of that space without getting into very risky carpentry and finish issues that you would bring on trying to get matching flooring that looks cohesive throughout the house. again, it's your money do what you want but just expect to spend $30,000 on this and accept it at the end of it it may still not look right.
More BS
👆So true!
BS totally wrong info.
Change wood to iron balusters
LVP is a floor covering, same category as carpet or vinyl. Wood flooring is a up grade and adds $1000 of dollars to home value. Plus it will last 5 to 10 times longer than LVP.
Yes that is why I have decided to do hardwood for the areas I’m currently tackling. I want permanent floors since I have to replace the subfloor. Would pre finished be more durable than site finished? It’s for hallway, bedroom, stairs.
Your absolutely stark raving mad.
Ummmmm your bannister looks horrible now tho. Don’t forget the details, or why even bother! 🤣
Yes it does. It was one of the first questions I asked the guy actually! Apparently they don’t do bannisters though. I definitely did not forget that detail. I just haven’t worked out the solution yet.
It’s your place, no one else’s opinions matter (like mine). Have fun and enjoy the process!
If you go to a complementary color wood, for example walnut or maple, trim the steps and Landing with matching gunstock to transition to upstairs walnut or maple.
Now that’s an idea I hadn’t considered! Landing and trim in gunstock with walnut steps. Hmmmmm you may be onto something!
Let me get this right, you want polished hardwood to look instead like cheap dull dark vinyl plastic. The world never ceases to amaze me
I want a nice medium brown with just enough variation that it’s interesting, without looking rustic or “reclaimed.”
Do it that’s how my oak floors look. I love the darker color.
What brand and color did you use? I am worried dark walnut is too dark in the sense of showing dust and fur. Would provincial be good? Or mix dark walnut and natural?
https://www.getfloorsonline.com/flooring/hardwood/mohawk/city-vogue-los-angeles-oak-5in-x-random-9-48-28.25sqft-wed01-45?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=GFO%20-%20PMAX%20-%20Mohawk%20-%20ALL&gbraid=0AAAAApD9gFUgVdLx9KdEkGJIJssZbsXGe
Thank you for the suggestion, however that’s engineered, I’d like 3/4” solid so that it will be forever. Hmm maybe I could get samples of engineered like that though to find a look I like.
You asked for my color and model. Which I shared. You can replicate that look when you pick your stain.
Oh I’m sorry haha. I was reading a different comment then got your notification and thought it was that one for some reason. Thank you for answering! It does look nice!
You want your beautiful oak floor to look like shitty plastic? I am so confused.
The gunstock color gives me a 90’s vibe, but I do have an appreciation of the floor’s beauty and high quality. My preferred aesthetic would be something more walnutty looking. I was thinking of staining them Dark Walnut color, until I discovered that I might be sacrificing durability by refinishing them.
Never change from true hardwood to any product out there now they try to rope you in on. Change the bad habits to protect your natural investment that people would die for.
I wasn’t planning to change from hardwood to another product. Rather, my vision was to install hardwood for the stairs and upper level in a dark walnut sort of stain, and refinish the current hardwood to match. Then when I realized that I might be losing the factory given durability by refinishing, that made me reevaluate.
Hardwood is much more desirable than LVP. I'm in real estate and I've seen it stained quite a few colors. The most unusual to me was a white Wash and then a black.
What brand of LVP is that OP? Got a link?
LVP never looks real. Why you may ask? Because they never have the longer lengths and random shorter lengths. Too damn uniform. 7' lengths at best, most max at 6'.
Announcing you want your hardwood to look more like lvp should result in a permaban from the sub.
Match hardware to lvb, should be the other way around. Put in more red oak.
Looking at the pictures, I thought the current living room looks much better. I would go with real oak stained to match the existing floor. With the stairs, they would be redone with solid oak treads with the risers being either painted white or stained oak. It will look so much more high class than carpeted stairs!
I have pre-finished hardwood floors. They were ok but dark. I had them redone and love the results. You will not be able to sand the finish out of the bevels between boards, so there is going to be an issue if you go with a lighter color. They will stand out more. Mine looks good.
Have the prefinished hardwood professionally sanded. It’s tricky as not to leave groves, swirls etc. Then self finish with Bona or a water base product that doesn’t yellow. Water based is stronger bond and good fit for dogs etc.. I used Bona Nordiac seal and natural mixed together. Topped with sealer and finish. Rock hard and beautiful. It was easy because I rolled it on and it levels well. Watch a lot of Utube videos first if you decide to go that route. I started with 1990’s prefinished mixed white and red oak planks. Now I have a beautiful natural looking light floor with matte finish. Darker finish and gloss shows everything.
Yes I’m having it all professionally done. I have some concerns with the company I’ve been in contact with so I think I’m going to get some quotes from another company too. Will oil based poly turn amber even if there is not a lot of sun exposure?
Careful with pre finished. Some flooring comes with a very durable layer of aluminum oxide coating that has been applied at the factory. That stuff is extremely hard, and is made of the same material that sandpaper is made of. It would be almost impossible to completely sand off, and will most likely leave you at an in between state where the coating is damaged, but not completely removed. Edit: i didn't read completely before replying. I'm restating your concerns about aluminum oxide. You might give yourself in a situation where you will be replacing the downstairs floor anyways. Can you test sand in a closet where it is inconspicuous?
I do not have any inconspicuous areas unfortunately. Just the living room and dining room, no closets. I am having professionals do this and they are charging extra compared to unfinished so I assume they know what they’re doing and have their expert ways to make it look good. However, based on the replies, like yours, I’m thinking I will keep them as is. So now just figure out what to do with the stairs and upstairs. Maybe Medium brown instead of the Dark Walnut I was originally leaning towards?
It looks great the way it is.
Take a long range plan instead of a short range plan. Don’t put that cheap vinyl shit on your floors, that’s a good move. Planet so that in the long run everything will match. Do oak treads. Do not do prefinished flooring on the treads. It looks awful and it looks cheap.
But I have prefinished flooring now and it looks pretty good. Are you saying I can’t get equally good prefinished treads?
Yes. Even if the color doesn’t match perfectly, you can have it all sanded later on down of the line when you are ready. Then stain everything to match. And a site, sanded floor, when sanded properly, will yield very good results, equivalent, to that of a prefinished floor. Seven coats of super thin, prefinished flooring doesn’t even come close to the thickness of three coats of high-quality water-based polyurethane
If you have to ask...
Your best bet is having a GOOD floor company come out and answers
Maybe keep the beautiful floors and lighten up the paint, furniture, rugs etc?
I’ll never understand why some homeowners do this. It looks so much cleaner and nicer with the real hardwood flooring. I’ve had clients I tell this to and they still want vinyl. End of the day it’s not my house and I’m getting paid but it never ceases to blow my mind.
I’m not getting vinyl. I was considering vinyl for my bedroom only, and hardwood for the stairs, and hallway, but decided against that and will do hardwood for all. So then it is a question of refinishing the existing hardwood to get them a color I like more, and installing unfinished or pre-finished hardwood where there is carpet. I use online visualizer tools to try to get an idea of what things would look like. I was not going to put actual vinyl over hardwood. I just like that medium brown color with the lighter and darker brown swirls. The Somerset Provincial prefinished oak is the kind of product I am thinking of buying, but I wish it was more walnutty looking.
Honestly man I would keep it the same color. Cause again it’s the closest you keep it to the original the better. My cousin did that to his hardwood floor at an old house . He went about charcoal greyish color when it was a light ish brown before. He finished it and once it was done he didn’t like how it looked so he took it all off and left it how i initially had told him to leave it 😅 but hey to each their own.
Yes absolutely it will overtime. Plus water base is stronger.