Pulling up old hardwood floor and installing new engineered wood floor (the kind that locks together)

[Anonymous]

Has anyone done this themselves? Is it a doable project?

[Anonymous]

It would be so much smarter to get your floors refinished. This will steal so much value from your home.

[Anonymous]

It is hard work. I think it depends on how handy you are.

[Anonymous]

You have to let the floors sit in the box in your house for a while to acclimate.

Refinishing might be easier and cheaper in the end.

[Anonymous]

don't do it! real floors look so much better.

[Anonymous]

I see no reason you should remove the old floor. Just lay the new laminate over the old wood floor. Removing the old floor may be an enormous task and may be difficult without damaging the under flooring. Laying the new floor would be relatively easy.

[Anonymous]

Why would you do that? Original hardwood floors are so much better than new ones. Try to restore the old ones first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be so much smarter to get your floors refinished. This will steal so much value from your home.

Oh really? Thanks for this tip. The HW floors look like they are in such bad shape, I just assumed it would be better to replace them with this new engineered wood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be so much smarter to get your floors refinished. This will steal so much value from your home.

Oh really? Thanks for this tip. The HW floors look like they are in such bad shape, I just assumed it would be better to replace them with this new engineered wood.

Hardwood floors are much more salvageable than most people think. Unless there's serious fire or water damage, they more often than not can be saved. I would do this anyd ay over putting in laminate. The latter might be cheaper than refinishing (assuming you don't have to tear up the old floors) but wood floors have way more value and are a significant selling point.

[Anonymous]

OP are your floors really old -- like 100 years? Our RH floors have gaps you could drive a truck through, and we've been told they really can't be refinished again. So I get it.

Still, I'd rather have the authentic wood than something that looks like plastic.

[Anonymous]

1. Yes, there's a good chance you can refinish. You can also re-stain. So, you really can make the floors look almost however you want without replacing it.

2. If you do need to replace, whether it is a DIY project partially depends on how the current hardwood is installed and how you plant to install the new engineered wood. If the old wood is nailed down, and you are replacing it with a floating install, this is a very easy DIY project that requires basic carpentry skills and that's it.

3. Half of y'all are confused about what engineered hardwood is. It doesn't even look a little bit like plastic. You are thinking of pergo. Engineered has a thin layer of hardwood sandwiched between composite. You cannot tell the difference between correctly-installed hardwood plank and engineered hardwood on visual inspection alone. Its major downsides are that it often can't be refinished and it can feel a bit more springy when you walk on it.