Historical June 1994 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Most of the houses in our neighborhood have beautiful oak flooring which has stood the test of time and continues to look spectacular despite the wear and tear and abuse that has been heaped upon them.
In many instances, however, the original floors have been covered with carpet or other floor material that was in vogue at the time there was a make-over done to the house. (Remember orangeshag wall to wall carpeting? or how about indooroutdoor carpeting?) In this article I will attempt to establish some guidelines that will allow you to make an educated decision on how to refinish your hardwood floors.
If you currently have carpet and want to explore the option of refinishing the hardwood floor underneath, you first have to expose sections of the hardwood floor so that you can evaluate its condition.
The best evaluation can be done if all the carpet is taken up.
If there arc sections that are badly warped, or stained, or replaced with plywood, do not be disheartened if you are doing several rooms.
All that means is that you will not be able to have all hardwood floors. You can, however, take up good wood from the worst room and use it to patch the other rooms so that only one room will have to be carpeted. Patching floors is not as expensive as most people think it is, and I do this even with apartment buildings because in the long term it is cheaper to have hardwood floors than to replace the carpet every five years.
If the floors under your carpet are badly stained by water or pet urine, then you may have to stain your floors a little darker than natural so that those stains are not as prominent.
The light oak look is in now but in a few years tastes change so don’t worry.
In this neighborhood the kitchen floors were originally hardwood or pine.
The development of quality water-based polyurethanes makes it very attractive as well as practical to have wood floors in kitchens.
The advantage of water-based polyurethanes is that they allow the owner to do a quick hand-buffing and then put down another coat in a few years when the old finish looks worn.
The problem I face is that there is almost always vinyl in the kitchen which has been installed over luan plywood, and all the nails need to be removed and the nail holes patched to get a nice finish.
But if you are willing to get down on your hands and knees (or pay someone large dollars to do it for you!) you can end up with beautiful hardwood floors in the kitchen or anywhere else where vinyl has been installed. One thing in favor of hardwoods is that they are very easy to clean and maintain.
There is no stain resistant package or warranty to worry about just mop & go. By the way mop with plain water or just a little vinegar to prevent streaking. Those specialty products according to our hardwood guy are a bunch of hooey. Finally a word on pricing. Three coats – a base acrylic coat, and two coats of polyurethane – cost between $1.20 per sq ft to $2.00 per sq ft.
This does not include any patching or staining which is priced on a case by case basis. That works out to $10 – 18 per sq yard. So an average 10 X 12 room cost would be $144.00 to $240.00 which is very competitive with carpet or vinyl.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, June 1994.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1994_06.pdf, printed page(s) 4; PDF page(s) 4.
