How to Know When to Refinish or Replace Your Hardwood Floors in Flint, MI

In almost every scenario, it’s going to be preferable to refinish your hardwood floors rather than replace them—hardwood is designed to last for decades, and it is much more expensive and inconvenient to have to replace it rather than to refinish the existing wood you already have in your home. Even by refinishing, you’ll still be able to change the color, fill gaps and patch knots.

There are, however, some circumstances in which it does make sense to replace your floors, which means you should know the situations in which you should refinish versus replace your hardwood flooring in Flint, MI. Here’s a quick overview from our team of the factors you’ll need to consider.

Time

This is one of the first factors you’ll have to take into account: how big of a rush are you in to get the project done? Refinishing does take a fair amount of time, as you’ll need to remove all the furniture from your room, sand the wood down to bare wood (removing all the finish), and make any necessary structural or cosmetic repairs before sanding and staining. During the entire time this process is happening, you cannot use this room for anything else—pets cannot walk through the area, and children cannot play in the area. The dust will be everywhere, and the smell will be quite potent.

Depending on the extent of the structural or cosmetic repairs you need to make to the floor, you might find it more convenient to just rip out the old floor and put in something brand new just so you don’t have to shut down that area of your house for as long a time.

Aesthetics

Refinishing can do a lot for your hardwood floor, but it can’t resolve every problem. Types of tiles or boards that were once fashionable but are now just plain ugly cannot be fixed by a different finish. If you want to go with a different type of wood species, then obviously you’ll need to replace the floor entirely. Some people like different patterns of wood placement, such as diagonal rather than horizontal, which would also require starting from scratch (though some of the existing wood may be able to be salvaged).

Cost

Keep in mind that it can cost five times as much to replace hardwood floors as it does to refinish them. If cost is one of your primary concerns, then replacing the floor entirely should probably not be at the top of your list of options for home improvement projects.

Ability to refinish

In some circumstances, you might have no choice other than to repair the floor, because the flooring cannot be refinished. This is especially a problem if the floor has had some significant structural damage, especially to the subfloor. There are also some circumstances in which the flooring has been refinished so many times previously that attempting to do so again would simply cause more problems with the wood.

For more information about refinishing versus replacing your flooring in Flint, MI, contact the team at Glenn’s Tile and Carpet today.

Categorised in: Flooring, Hardwood Flooring