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Carpeting over beat up hardwoods
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Anonymous
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A question for you all:
Our upstairs hardwood floors are in godawful shape: finish is shot, and many boards are in need of repair or replacement. We're not planning to move or sell for at least another 3-5 years, and are weighing the pros and cons of carpeting the bedrooms. When I see carpet in real estate listings, it's an instant turnoff for me, but how much better is beat up hardwood? We're due for our second baby in 2 months, so refinishing is not in the budget anytime in the foreseeable future (my sense is that carpet is cheaper than refinishing, plus a LOT less messy). Thoughts? Also, if we do carpet, should we look at the big box stores (Lowes/HD) or go with a carpeting company? |
Anonymous
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We have a 3400 sq foot home and refinished everything for about $5000. Are you looking to do the entire house or one level?
I have not budgeted out how much it is to carpet a floor so I do not have comparison numbers. |
Anonymous
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Personally, I would leave the hardwood floors as is and buy some inexpensive area rugs to cover them in the bedrooms and hallway until you are ready to move.
If you are expecting #2 and plan on selling in 3-5 years, I would refinish the floors just prior to selling. Kids are hard on floors so why spend that money refinishing now just to have them scratched and dinged before you sell. For the same reason, I wouldn't invest in wall to wall carpeting with kids and risk getting them stained etc. before you sell. Harwood is preferable over wall to wall for resale. |
Anonymous
| Agree with PPs--have any obviously broken areas fixed but leave the floors as is and get large rugs. Floors is one area in which beat-up seems to equal charm. Plus if you buy carpet now but don't sell for 3-5 years, unless your kids are super-fastidious (and whose are, really) the carpet is going to be fairly dingy looking by that time anyway. |
Anonymous
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I just bought a house with slightly beat up hardwood floors and I love them! I hate hardwoods that have been newly refinished with the polyurethane stuff.
I guess I am one of those folks who think beat up hardwood is charming. I grew up in an 1850s Victorian with beat up hardwood floors and always loved them. I would much prefer old wood floors to carpet that had kids and pets living on it for 3-5 years. |
TooOldToCare
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Member Offline
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We refinished ours 7 years ago.
two kids later dents and scratches in every room And they were absolutely lovely when we had them done. |
Anonymous
| Whatever you do, don't put carpet over them! I would definitely prefer to buy a house with hardwood floors that need refinishing than to buy a house with carpet, which may or may not have ruined the hardwoods underneath. I second (or is it third?) the vote to buy some area rugs. |
Anonymous
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we ripped up the wall to wall carpeting in our 60s place only to find that the previous owners had DRILLED approx. 200 black decking screws all throughout the hallway, living room and dining room to "stop squeaks" (nevermind putting in a bathroom fan in either of the bathrooms to control some of the moisture that made the squeaks, but i digress)
It looks horrible at first, and I had a flooring guy come out and tell me they'd have to replace the floors since they were so shot. (drilling and nailing doesn't stop squeaks, fyi--don't do this!!!) Still liked it better than the ratty carpet, so all I did was use a screwdriver, gradually take out each screw, and fill it with wood putty. over many months. Now it's not nearly as noticeable and I like the way it looks. Really we should replace or at least refinish the floors, but we have area rugs in the hallway, dining and living room now and wood floors throughout and it looks TONS better, even with the floors. The floors have character, what can I say? I'd take wood floors that need to be finished over nasty carpet or even a few years old carpet any day. |