Hardwood floors are made to look beautiful. They also must be well maintained in order to stay beautiful. You likely picked a floor several years ago that is strong, goes well with the rest of your room, and has been walked on as diligently as possible.
Your
hardwood floor might not look as you remembered it back then. You might notice it feeling much softer as you walk on it. You also probably notice the number of scratches on it rise each month, if not week. Or, you simply notice that it isn’t a shiny as it used to be. All of these are indicators that your floor is wearing out.
Related Article: Faux Hardwood Floors
Should You Refinish or Replace?
With that in mind, you likely are wondering whether you should have the floor refinished or replaced altogether. Refinishing your hardwood floor will make your floor look newer and extend the life of it, but eventually, repairing wooden flooring will be necessary.
It costs much more to replace your hardwood floors than to refinish hardwood floors, but you get a completely new floor that has a handful of years ahead of it. This is also an opportunity to change the color or type of wood, or even consider wood tiling, should you choose to replace your wood flooring altogether.
Why Refinish?
It is very likely that your floor just needs a touch up in order to look like brand new again. The life expectancy of wood floors, if maintained properly, are a good 20 or 30 years. Unless your wood floor is decades old, you likely do not require the floor to be replaced, so just have it refinished instead.
Restore Shine and Color
Refinishing will restore shine and color to a hardwood floor so that it no longer looks old, dry, and unappealing. In the process of how to restore hardwood floors, your floor gets sanded in order to remove the old finish, in addition to a thin portion of the wood’s outer layer. In its place, your floor receives a new finish so that it looks like brand new and is better protected from the life that goes on around it. You are recommended to refinish your floors every few years so that the floor can last the longest amount of time possible.
Replaced an Isolated Board
There could be instances where one or two isolated boards have experienced deep scratching or gouging that can penetrate into the bare wood. These boards can be individually replaced, so long as the issue only involves a small area of your floor. The problem with replacing single boards is that you might find it rather difficult to find a new board that is the same color as the rest of your floor, even if you do get a new stain or finish.
Sunlight
If your hardwood floor is in a sunny room, it might be a different color today than it was originally. You would end up with a board in the middle of your room with a slightly different color, and it may be even more noticeable than the irregularity that you were looking to get rid of.
Why Replace?
While you should look into refinishing your hardwood more than replacing it, there are a few scenarios where replacing your hardwood floor would be much more necessary.
It’s Past Its Prime
Firstly, if the floor has been installed and in use for over 30 years, it may just be past its prime. The next time you refinish a hardwood floor that is this old, the results you might get are very minimal and hardly noticeable. If you acquire a home or building that had long been abandoned, you should also consider having the floors replaced.
Refinished Too Often
Secondly, the hardwood flooring that you may own could have been refinished so often that the wood has severely been worn down. The finishing nails can also become exposed if the wood has been worn down too much, or the groove elements or tongues inside the boards can break apart.
Warping, Slight Bends, or Curves
Thirdly, your boards can experience warping, slight bends, or curves. Warping happens when your floor is exposed to moisture or humidity, and this movement occurs as two boards are pushed into one another. There are some procedures that you can consider to fix floorboards that are warped, but more serious cases will warrant a hardwood floor replacement.
You Want Something New
Finally, you might believe that a change in the room is necessary, and you would like to install a new type of wood floor, or a different floor entirely, like tile or stone. If you are looking to remodel a room, having the wood floor replaced is not uncommon.
Where To Turn
Not often should you consider getting your hardwood replaced over just having it refinished, but hardwood floor replacements are not all that rare to come by. If you are looking to do something about your wood floors soon,
contact Carpet To Go for a free consultation today!
