Hardwood flooring or carpet?

Question

I just found hardwood flooring under my carpet. My carpet needs to be replaced. Should I go with carpet or hardwood floors. It seems that a few planks are buckled or maybe even cracked as there are some weak spots in my floor. Is this hard or expensive to replace? Also what does carpet vs hardwood do to the value of your home? Is refinishing hard if I find worn out places?

Answer 1

You mentioned weak spots, cracks and buckling. Tongue and groove hardwood is not easy to repair. The boards are all locked together and fastened to the sub-floor with nails through the tongues. It is almost impossible to get the boards loose without doing more damage to them. To replace one board you have to either rip up the entire floor, from the closest edge, and then put it all back down. Or pry up the bad board, cut the tongue off the patch piece, and nail it down through the surface of the board. I did this in a bedroom after I moved a closet.
To refinish a floor, you need to rent a machine and sand them down. You'll need at least 3 progressively finer grits for the sanding. It is messy, dusty work. After the sanding is done, sweep and vacuum thoroughly, and put down several coats of floor varnish or polyurethane. Both stink up your house for days.
I also suggest you have a pro look at the weak spots. If you have a bad sub-floor or weak support joists under the sub-floor all your refinishing work will be wasted.

Answer 2

Hardwood is easy to refinish. Just rent the machine from Home Depot. The hardest part of it was getting the machine out the car and up the steps for us when we did it. Also get 2-3 more of the sanding pads and sand paper then they recommend. You can return it if it is not used.

We didn't have to fix any bad spots, except to use colored wood fill on a couple of old termite tracks. You couldn't even see it when I was done. You should look it up at This Old House b/c they've featured replacing boards on the "new" show. It didn't look that hard to do. If there is a cracked board, if your house is raised you may need to go underneath and add some support.

I think it hardwood does add value. Not to mention help if you have allergies. Just be sure and wear socks in the winter time!

Good luck and have fun!

Answer 3

I really can not answer some of your questions however I can say that hardwood floors seems to brighten up the house, and also if you have pets it is so much easier to care for without the carpet.

What I clean the hardwood floors with is Murphy Soap Oil, really good stuff at which will leave a nice shine to the wood as well as keeping the wood well perserved.