Old Wood floors - Replace - refinish ? Keep ?
Doing a live in BRRR of a two unit and ripping up the old green shag carpet . Inspecting the wood floors beneath - Do you think these can be saved , or just replace
with LVP flooring ? The house will turn into a Calss B rental in hte next year
@Kenneth Hynes from the pics they look like "Rochester hardwood" floors, which is narrower gauge oak flooring. Unless there are holes, deep gouges or black stains from dog urine, I would sand and coat them with several coats of poly. No need to apply stain. They will look great without it. Hardwoods in Class B rentals can be quite durable and cost effective. And they will be more consistent with the look of the house. When our hardwoods start to loose their sheen after several years, we buff them hard with a screen and apply another layer of poly. It's cheap, and they look good as new.
The floor still looks good. Refinish them.
@Kenneth Hynes
Those will look great after a proper refinish. I would not suggest you doing it yourself.
Originally posted by @Kenneth Hynes:Doing a live in BRRR of a two unit and ripping up the old green shag carpet . Inspecting the wood floors beneath - Do you think these can be saved , or just replace
with LVP flooring ? The house will turn into a Calss B rental in hte next year
Kenneth,
IMHO never, ever use hardwood in a rental. Several reasons: Too easily scratched by tenants and their pets, too easily ruined by water leaks, to finicky around humidity changes and lastly, holds every odor (including pet urine) known to man. It's also time consuming and messy to refinish and is limited to how many times it can be sanded.
Today's LVP is extremely durable and inexpensive to purchase and install and in my opinion looks as good or better then most hardwoods.
I say this after 120+ rental doors and many hardwood installations I regret.
Respectfully,
Gary
There are few good surprises when rehabbing property. You just had one. As @Jim K. mentioned, that is expensive flooring and will be absolutely beautiful when refinished. Have the floors refinished and advertise for no pets. With those floors and stainless appliances, you'll have female applicants refusing to leave the viewing without a lease.
A few years ago, I found hardwoods under 1970s green shag carpet throughout a 1950 ranch. I was skeptical they would refinish nicely, especially some black stains under sheet laminate in the kitchen. Stupid me, the floors looked brand new when refinished. Probably a $20K surprise at the point I sell the property.
Hilarious that people covered real wood floors with carpet in the 70s. I shouldn't laugh, my mom did the same and we thought we were uptown when we covered that awful hickory hardwood with soft, beautiful, gold, thick shag carpet.
@Gary L Wallman - If you don't mind me asking, what vinyl plank flooring brand & color did you go with in that picture? It looks really good.
Originally posted by @James Allen:@Gary L Wallman - If you don't mind me asking, what vinyl plank flooring brand & color did you go with in that picture? It looks really good.
SuperFast® RidgePlex Lite Mist 6.93" x 36.81" Floating Vinyl Plank Flooring (19.48 sq.ft/ctn)Model Number: JK50 Menards® SKU: 7256662
Originally posted by @Kenneth Hynes:Doing a live in BRRR of a two unit and ripping up the old green shag carpet . Inspecting the wood floors beneath - Do you think these can be saved , or just replace
with LVP flooring ? The house will turn into a Calss B rental in hte next year
I just did a project with floors just like this. It is a 50s home that had large stains. I was worried they wouldn't come out, but with sanding they came out beautifully. Definitely refinish. It cost me approx $400 for the entire house. Sand, clean, seal and polish. Almost everyone commented on the beautiful floors.
@Kenneth Hynes I would not refinish a wood floor in a rental. Put in some loose lay LVP and tenant proof the floor. You will be much happier in the long run.
@Kenneth Hynes
I would always refinish them. Higher quality tenants appreciate them and will pay more rent.
IMO: We don’t want to be known as the generation who put sheet vinyl and carpet over hardwoods like they did in the 60s and 70s 😂.
Good luck!
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@Kenneth Hynes these are definitely able to be saved. It will be a lot cheaper to save these than to try to do something different. The only time you don't save real wood is if there are significant repairs. We recently pulled up some rugs in Berwyn and found termite damage which made it impossible to save the floors. That is probably the only time I have had to cover original wood in my life.
@Kenneth Hynes LVP looks more modern and will help the apartment stand out. LVP is easier to coordinate with color themes most of the time as well.
You should 100% have these floors refinished. If professionally done it will look better and be nearly just as durable as LVP (and likely cost less.)
If using an oil based polyurethane coating (do multiple coats), the floor can be buffed and recoated as needed opposed to a LVP where you can't really do any maintenance and in the even of a repair often times you're stuck taking up all or most of the interlocking floor which is a huge hassle.
I love LVP in the right situations and almost always use it in a kitchen or bathroom remodel, but have found it cost effective both on the front end and for maintenance reasons to save the hardwood when possible.
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Refinish the hardwoods. I know I can get floors on my jobs refinished for $2.75-3.25 a square foot. You'll have to take into account if you'd want pets on your newly finished hardwoods.
Originally posted by @Jim K.:I'm going to amplify my answer, because you're getting some spotty advice here, @Kenneth Hynes.
This is nice wood flooring. You would think that hardwood flooring, back in the days, would have been more expensive the wider the planks were. It wasn't (even though it is now). Narrow-planked floors like this showed off the skill of the installer better, and were more expensive. The industry standard remains at 2 1/4 inches. This looks significantly narrower.
The hardest of North American hardwoods is hickory, which is what this floor is made of. So, you are in the possession of a very nice, desirable floor, one that someone who knows something about quality vintage flooring would likely want someday. In order to remove this floor's planks, some very careful prying operations would have to be done. It would be best if as much of the original floor remained when you did that, that is, if the floor were not refinished at the time you sold the floor to a specialty vintage dealer.Blind-nailed hardwood strip flooring like this is always shaped into a tongue-and-groove configuration. Refinishing this floor will remove quite a bit of the surface. Let's say you decide, years from now, that the floor is best kept where it is. If you refinish this floor well now and put tenants in, they will beat up the floor a bit, not matter how much polyurethane you put on it, and when you sell this place, you will have to refinish the floor again to get top dollar for it. That second refinishing will (A) cost a lot and (B) further compromise the thickness of the top third layer of the floor.
And here's the final point: a good refinishing job like this is going to require a good refinisher. You don't have experience with this. You don't know if the guy you pick for this is the right guy. This is not the floor to experiment on. Find some 2 1/4 strip beat-to-hell old oak floor for that. Floors like that are a dime a dozen where you are. This is hickory. This is money to the right vintage guy.
Therefore, the wiser course now, for the BRRRR you want. would be to cover it, with carpet, padded laminate flooring, or luxury vinyl plank flooring.
I strongly agree. I saw videos all over youtube on diy hardwood projects. I decided not to do it myself because I was tired from painting and cleaning...my house was filthy. I always recommend doing things that you want to do if you can do them well. I knew I didn't feel confident, so I hired it out. Watching the process, ESPECIALLY the sanding was not something I felt comfortable with. Even watching the lady do it, only showed if they are really beat up it's probably not easy. OP try asking people on Facebook or RE agents that work with investors, or BP for referrals. I received a few referrals from an agent that works with investors that wants my business.
Protect them, Carpet Over them( no Glue) and be ready for the future resale.
@Jim K. is right. Tenants do crazy stuff, and those floors deserve protection until you resell.
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Originally posted by @Owen Dashner:@Kenneth Hynes - Not sure of the cost in your part of the world- but in the Omaha area, refinishing hardwoods runs around $2.75/sft, including the stain and poly.
$2.75/ft is great. In my area it's $5.
I would refinish myself in my area and have 14 times. It's a 20x return project DIY, especially if retailing up for sale.
This floor is a vintage floor. In good condition, it will add value to the property.
Sadly, idiots usually nail a tack strip at the edges to hold carpet. Thus, your vintage, narrow oak flooring is fair at best.
This is most likely the case. So, you need to figure out who your customer is. If you will keep the property, you can have a bit of leeway in your options. If you are looking to sell, you need to renovate according to the buyers you are looking to sell to.
I love a well renovated wood floor. However, if the trend is for marble or perhaps engineered flooring, your buyer will take your wood floors as a minus, as they will desire to rip up your restored wood floors, considering it a renovation!
After I make a property sound, I think of my end user, and how I can profit.
House Hacking, I would renovate to the end user.
Hope this helps!
@Kenneth Hynes
If they cannot be refinished, you can always paint them. I know some successful investors who have used Behr DeckOver paint on their wood floors. It is super, super durable!
@Kenneth Hynes I would like to caveat when I'm about to say by saying that I do not own any real estate. But I was listening to one of the bigger pockets podcasts and someone talked about the hardwood floors in the place that they had just purchased and It ultimately depends on what your extra strategy is. Are you going to rent it out eventually? If so then what they suggested was to put down a laminate on top of that flooring that only cost $2 a square foot as opposed to refinishing the floor which cost substantially more per square foot. Then if you ever go to sell the house you rip up the cheap flooring that has basically protected the hardwood floor underneath and refinished the hardwood floor to its best luster. it makes no sense to refinish the floors and get tenants that are going to wear and tear them down over years and then have to refinish them again in order to sell it.
If you are just going to flip the house then you might want to refinish the floors immediately.
@Kenneth Hynes they look like you can RE finish them, but I’d wait to do that for when you sell. It’s probably more cost effective and tenant proof to do LVP for the time being. Wood scratches pretty easily.
It’s been said a few times already here, but I vote for refinishing the wood floors. I always refinish wood floors and put the vinyl planks in kitchens, bathrooms, and entryways. Wood floors are super durable and it’s usually cheaper to refinish them over installing new vinyl planks. I usually the common gray and white color schemes though and wood floors stand out a lot. So, My refinished has been adding a gray tint to the wood floors and I have been happy!
