Refinishing wooden floors

[Qacer]

Pictures of the floors in Florida:
Wooden Floors

I'm contemplating whether I should do this on my own or hire a professional. For the ATOTers who have done this before, do you have any ballpark figure on how much this is going to cost me to bring this floor back in shape. I also want to change the color into something darker. I want to get an idea on the cost difference between a professional or doing this on my own.

The area is about 596 sq ft. The floors seem to be in good condition. Although, there are places where it squeaks or seem loose.

Thanks!

 

[DayLaPaul]

I wouldn't bother with refinishing that floor. It looks like a hack job. The panels are all uneven and the wood looks pretty thin to begin with. If you want something easy that you can do yourself that looks nice, go with some wood laminate flooring. You can probably get the materials for about $1.50/sq ft and it will look 100x better than that crooked flooring you have right now. If you hire a professional to install the laminate for you, you're looking at around $3000 give or take including materials.

 

[waffleironhead]

if you wanted to refinish. rent a sander, be careful though as that flooring probably has a thin wear layer, so you could sand right thru it, then poly the whole floor. 3-5 layers depending on manufacturers recommendations.

My concern is as stated above. it looks like a pretty crappy install to begin with. uneven joints and loose tiles leads me to believe there are underlayment problems. What is it layed over?

 

[BoomerD]

I agree with the previous two posters. That's a horrible install job to begin with. It'd probably be cheaper to replace it all. Do you own or rent?

I don't know what the going labor rate is in Florida, but here in norCal, it'd cost you about $4.00 to $6.00/sq. ft. for labor plus the cost of the flooring.
We have some decent flooring stores here where you can get "discontinued" flooring at reasonable prices, PLUS, our Costco has some great hardwood flooring right now as well.

 

[mshan]

Think you also need to find out what kind of sub-floor you have so you can determine if a new hardwood floor, new engineered hardwood floor, or laminate floor are options, and whether nail down, glue down, or floating can be used.

Is sub-floor concrete (floating laminate floor), where moisture is an issue, or basically flat plywood that can accept nails if you want true hardwood floors.

 

[ManyBeers]

It looks like a laminate floating floor. in fig.4 there doesn't appear to be a sandable wear-layer.
Is there?

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: ManyBeers
It looks like a laminate floating floor. in fig.4 there doesn't appear to be a sandable wear-layer.
Is there?

It's not laminate but it indeed does look like it's floating cus I see carpet pad underneath it.

Take up all that crappy parquet. I hate parquet. Like DayLaPaul said, get laminate flooring. Cheap/easy install and looks great.

 

[Qacer]

Originally posted by: waffleironhead
What is it layed over?

I think the wooden floors are on top of concrete.

 

[Qacer]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
I agree with the previous two posters. That's a horrible install job to begin with. It'd probably be cheaper to replace it all. Do you own or rent?

I don't know what the going labor rate is in Florida, but here in norCal, it'd cost you about $4.00 to $6.00/sq. ft. for labor plus the cost of the flooring.
We have some decent flooring stores here where you can get "discontinued" flooring at reasonable prices, PLUS, our Costco has some great hardwood flooring right now as well.

I own. Thanks for the advice on Costco! I'll definitely check them out. My dad is going to come out tomorrow and provide additional opinion. I have not called to figure out the cost of renting the sanding and buffing equipments, but if those cost in the hundreds for daily rental, then I may as well go with new flooring.

 

[Qacer]

Originally posted by: ManyBeers
It looks like a laminate floating floor. in fig.4 there doesn't appear to be a sandable wear-layer.
Is there?

I don't know the answer to that since I don't know much about flooring.

 

[mshan]

If your sub-floor is truly concrete, solid hardwood floors are probably out (can't nail into concrete and moisture may warp floors anyways), glue down engineered hardwood floors may be an option (warping from moisture may still be an issue), and a floating laminate floor would probably be best option of the three. (Quick-step uniclic laminate floors are supposed to have very well engineered joints and could probably be a DIY project with a little research - for example, just search YouTube for tutorials by others).

Given that you live in Florida, one other option to consider is terra cotta* or ceramic tile.



* I read that terra cotta tile is supposed to feel cool in summer and warm in winter, unlike regular ceramic tile, which I think can feel cool in winter, but may not be much of an issue in Florida. Can't independently confirm, but have read that and found this via google search.

 

[feralkid]

Originally posted by: Qacer

Originally posted by: ManyBeers
It looks like a laminate floating floor. in fig.4 there doesn't appear to be a sandable wear-layer.
Is there?

I don't know the answer to that since I don't know much about flooring.

It looks like glued down parquet squares, not laminate.

Not really a good candidate for refinishing.

 

[Modelworks]

I would rip it up.
If the floor is concrete I would patch the concrete if needed and install some form of tile. Either vinyl based or ceramic. It will last forever on a concrete based install. Mom had some installed for 30 years still looks good.


I know vinyl had a reputation of being cheap or low quality but the new stuff that is out there is great, low cost and easy for a diy installer, doesn't creak, and is very tolerant to water and wear.
http://www.armstrong.com/floor...planks/floors-4504.asp

 

[Vette73]

You can't refinish that floor like you can a true solid hardwood.

IMO rip it out and do what you want and do it right. If you want quick and cheap then go with a good laminate "hardwood" floor. You will need to treat the convrete (sodium silicate) then put down a 6mil plastic, then foam if the lam doe snot have it (costso Lam has this already on as do others) then install the Lam.


If you want true solid hard wood you will need to treat the concrete, cover in plastic, put down 3/4 plywood, tar paper, and then install the hard wood.

 

[richardycc]

those look like cheap parquet floor, they are like $1-2/sq ft, refinish them will probably cost that much, you might as well replace them with something better.

 

[Qacer]

I'm going to go to Costco and maybe IKEA later today to see what my options are.

Here's some more pictures of the floor for reference:
Picture Floor A
Picture Floor B
Picture Floor C
Picture Floor D

It looks like the bottom is concrete, but I may have to patch it a little bit because I saw some chips on it. The house is a 1957 one, so it's quite old. I was told that houses built around that time have concrete layer.

Thanks again for your inputs!

 

[iGas]

Not worth the effort to repair and refinish the parquet flooring. Laminate is cheap and is much more scratch resistant than wood floor. Wood floor is beautiful and will increase the valve of your house.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Qacer
Pictures of the floors in Florida:

don't get why that matters....

Originally posted by: Qacer
The floors seem to be in good condition.

I think you linked to the wrong floors then.

I'd redo them...Craigslist has awesome buys on wood flooring and installs. Some of the product is 'gray market' so they may not honor a warranty in the US as it's meant to be sold outside it...but chances are if the floor is put down right the warranty is not that important.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: iGas

Not worth the effort to repair and refinish the parquet flooring. Laminate is cheap and is much more scratch resistant than wood floor. Wood floor is beautiful and will increase the valve of your house.

just keep in mind many laminates are not good around wet areas.

 

[MrDudeMan]

I wouldn't attempt to refinish that floor. Get something new imo. Personally I can't stand laminate flooring. Some people might like it, but imo if you are going to spend money making a floor look nice, get real wood. I just installed 300 sq ft. of Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba) solid hardwood in my house to replace some carpet. I have another 1200 sq ft. of the same wood on the first floor and this 300 sq. ft. section was installed to be continuous with it. I've installed laminate flooring as well and it isn't very difficult, but I just can't stand how it looks. Both have pros and cons obviously, but the little bit of extra maintenance to keep a wood floor looking nice is worth it to me.

 

[alkemyst]

The deal with real solid hardwoods is that they are much more expensive than laminates. There are advantages and disadvantages to both if you are comparing at comparable quality levels.

 

[Qacer]

So, I'm taking the majority advice and replacing the old floors with laminate.

My next question is. What is this stuff holding the parquet tile to the concrete?
Floor A
Floor B

How do I get it off the concrete? Is there a special solution? Or can I just get away with putting the laminate underlayment and call it a day?

Thanks!

 

[mshan]

Maybe start googling for glue down hardwood floor and go from there?

If you are installing a floating laminate floor, it may not be necessary to remove glue if surface is basically flat (don't know for sure if glue should be removed just because of age, though).

You typically install a foam padding underlayment (example) between concrete and laminate and flooring floats on top of that.

 

[Qacer]

Originally posted by: mshan
(don't know for sure if glue should be removed just because of age, though).

I smells a little funny. I tried using acetone as suggested by one of the sites, but it doesn't seem to come off. The next thing will be to by a floor scraper tomorrow and see if that works.

Also, I noticed a huge crack at the joint of the old part of the house and the addition. Seen in these pictures:
Crack A
Crack B a closer look at Crack A
Crack All the way

Is this something that can be patched up with epoxy? Or maybe filled back with cement? Or do I need to call the pros for this DIY project?

 

[Modelworks]

Have you had anyone give you an estimate ? If not I would call around and find out what the cost of having someone else to do it is . Can't hurt to ask.