Background:

We recently purchased a 4 bedroom home, where the entrance to one bedroom was inside another (in the form of a pocket door). That room was simply not being used at all, so we decided to remove the wall separating the two rooms, & make one humongous room for our boys to share.

The problem:

The bamboo floors in each room is at different levels. The inner room was about half an inch higher than the outer room. We were originally planning to simply leave the floors as is, & install a threshold/lip between the two rooms. But the level difference key bugging us. So when the contractors showed up today and tore down the wall, I asked them to pull up a couple of the bamboo boards on the higher side, to see what was underneath. This is what we found

1. The two rooms were at the same level on one side, but about half an inch off by the time you got to the center of the rooms

2. There are oak floors under the bamboo floors. These floors extend for about 15 inches into the inner room. Beyond the 6 inches there is plywood under the bamboo floors in the inner room

3. The level mismatch is due to some padding installed on one side of the room, but not on the other

We are definitely going to rip out the bamboo floors in the two rooms to have a single contiguous floor in the new room.

The question is, do I or can I save the existing oak floors in the outer room and add additional oak to the inner room and then finish both in place to have even contiguous floors in the new larger room

OR

Go with new floors and cover up the existing oak and plywood but maintain the same level throughout