Have a flooring person feather in new hardwood

@jck910: i had already three contractors out. None of them want to do the work without refinishing entire floor. They are telling me that this is a highly visible area and it would not look good. I told them that I am not looking for perfection.

I don't know if there is an alternative to feathering in new hardwood and staining everything to match - I feel like anything else will look like an oops.

FWIW if it were me, I would not do the project until I could handle the floor properly

Agree with la_la_ Girl

Do you have the palns for the project?

I love quirky floors and fun transitions. Contractors don’t love jobs like this, in general, because they take some creative thinking and time, both of which homeowners don’t necessarily realize they will need to or want to pay for. You don’t want to cheapen your upgrades either. That being said, don’t let that stop you.
Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing. Also start googling…”wood tile island transitions”

as requested here is the basic desing (the colors are not right. I am planning to go with light wood tone and an off white combo of fronts.

Also, the hardwood is finished with Bona natural, so no real stain. Of course, I know that the finish changes over time. I had some protected by a rug that is now a bit less yellowish than exposed. However, the difference isn't huge either.

The floor is now critical path of the project. I figured out the rest from removing wall, where pipes and electrical go. But I agree, I would not start the project until I have a plan for the floor.

Extend the hardwood and refinish just that area to match as close as possible. Sign a waver that ‘you don’t want it perfect’. Don’t highlight the area with tile or whatever- screams remuddle. I would also rethink the 12” overhang- minimum 15” for comfortable seating.

I guess you would be abl to get a quote to match the wood species and quality with installation as unfinished. Then experiment with extra pieces until you develop a finish you're happy with. You can finish it because you're your own customer. Your existing floors are very nice.

if anyone knows a hardwood floor contractor that might be willing to feather in new hardwood in Northwest Chicago burbs, pleases let me know.

I think another reason I am having a hard time finding one is that contractors don't want to hand sand the feather in planks.

Can you pull material from closets to reuse? We do that a lot.

Hold old is your existing flooring, it is most likely a prefinished floor (judging by the micro-bevels). The finish may be a bear to remove and you will never get it all out of those grooves.

Why are you resistant to refinishing all your floors: losing bevels, cost, disruption? We had to replace and finish our family room floors due to water damage.

We stopped by the kitchen. The same company had redone the floors nine years prior, so they used the same Bona product. It's not an exact match, but close. It's covered by a runner and doesn't bother me. Insurance might have replaced all the floors, but that seemed unnecessary..

"Sign a waver that ‘you don’t want it perfect’."

As a contractor, I would never use a waiver. I have a duty to my customers to keep them from making stupid mistakes. This floor will be done the way I want, it will be beautiful, or we aren't right for each other.

I'm not doing something that's not too fussy only to have the customer post pictures online and complain and my only defense is to post a waiver. Nu-uh.

hgtv chicago rehab - Google Search

This is info on Windy City Rehab on HGTV. Email her with your inquiry about a flooring contractor. Or locate her business address and contact her for help. Another option is to search out rehabbed residences currently listed. Talk to the owner about a contractor source.

Step 1: Find and purchase wood that is similar to what you have.

Step 2: Find a trim carpenter and pay them by the hour to stagger back the end joints in your existing floor, make sure the subfloor in the added area is flush and patch in the new wood.

This strategy absolves the carpenter of matching the wood color, grading, gloss level and bevel size, eliminating the sales push to refinish it all. If there's a marked difference in any aspect, you'll know ahead of time.

As someone with decades of experience installing new floors and refinishing, I can confidently say that factory finishes are all or nearly all superior to site applied finishes when it comes to durability. It's best to keep the factory finish as long as you can.

If you're not sure if a particular wood selection will be suitable, see if you can purchase a single box, with the knowledge that it cannot be returned. Once you find a suitable match, order enough to cull through for color and grading.

Thanks for all the suggestions. It looks like contractor #4 will do the work. I liked how described how we would approach the work. e.g. we measure thickness to align with existing floor, we do some samples. etc

A couple of answers:

1.) Liked the idea to "steal" some wood from a closet. Unfortunately, the only donor area I have is a small linen closet

2.) This floor was installed unfinished, finished on site with Bona

3.) Reasons for not wanting to sand entire floor:

- bevels will not look good afterwards. Floor is not even, so bevels would end up at different size to not existent.

- There are a lot of railings and other features. I doubt sanding along those transitions will be perfect and leave lines

- not to move out furniture, dust etc.

"Liked the idea to "steal" some wood from a closet. Unfortunately, the only donor area I have is a small linen closet"

I have also stolen wood from edges of larger rooms, where it is largely covered by furniture or on the otherside of a bed. We used the existing wood to patch the floor, then put new wood in the area we removed and finished it to match.

To be fair though, I've generally only done this when a perfect match was unavailable, like on a very old Pine floor in a unique width. It does also use up wood because you won't have 100% yield on what you remove.

I wouldn't ever have recommended this in your case because your wood shouldn't be terribly hard to match.