Old solid wood vs New Engineered wood

13 years ago

Hi,
We are in the rpocess of remodeling our house we just bought. It has 5/16" red oak solid hardwood in 3 bedrooms. However the living and family rooms are carpet, laminate respectively which we want to remove.
We are now deciding between 2 options:
1) Refinish old hardwood in bedrooms and install matching solid wood in living/family rooms. Will cost us $7000
2) Remove all flooring and install engineered wood throughout. Will set us back $9000.

Our contactor is pushing for option 2 since he thinks the current wood in the house is anyways not great quality to keep. But I believe solid hardwood might get some advantage during resale. How difficult is the maintainence of either with a small kid.

Any help is appreciated.

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Comments (6)

weedyacres
13 years ago
Definitely the solid hardwood. It's more appealing AND costs less.
Scott Nichols
13 years ago
The old will be finished right at your home. This will take longer and be messier. But the results will be terrific. No grooves between boards (crumb catchers), the exact color you want with the finish you like. The existing floors will have great character and look great once refinished. Just be sure to match the species of wood: red or white oak. We selected traditional oak flooring finished in our home.
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ruthie51
13 years ago
We have engineered wood floors and while they look pretty, you can't drop anything on it without denting. Also, bear in mind that you are limited to how many times you can refinish an engineered floor depending on the thickness.
User
13 years ago
It really depends on two things. How bad is the old Oak and what engineered wood was priced?
UniqueWoodFloor
13 years ago
I wonder if you can even sand and refinish a 5/16" thick solid wood. Can you share the total sqft of your 3 bedrooms and total on living and family? What will be the cost/sf for the new engineered wood option?
User
13 years ago
I missed that first time around. It's probably safe to say that the contractor is right about the existing 5/16" thick floor. The next question would be what engineered floor is being priced for install.
If you have wood subfloor you might consider something solid prefinished like Columbia Congress Oak.