Refinish hardwood OR replace carpet?

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woody

woody

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uugh...first off, previous owners are stupid...

spare bedroom has hardwood floors under the worn carpet...and really, overall, they are in very nice shape....

but, of course, they trimmed up the closet doors to fit the carpet, so now I have a 2" gap...

and to 'fix' some floor squeeks, they hammered nails into the hardwood in the entry area and I've got 20 or so nail heads and a few staples to deal with...


finally, I'm 'unsure' I intend to be in the home much more than another 2 years...

any thots on dealing with these? REALLY don't wana buy new closet doors and try to get those to match the balance of the room, and REALLY think the floor will look terrible with the nail heads showing OR getting filled in...

uugh...
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more pics...cause everyone likes pics..
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Report the previous owners to someone. I don't know who, but someone.

The doors weren't cut nicely either. More reporting.

I don't have a magic solution for you- either fill the holes and see how that looks, get someone out to replace the damaged wood, or carpet it. You could ignore the doors if you stay with the wood floor- they can't look much better with carpet.

My wife would kill for those floors.
 
i say if you like the hardwood look (i myself love it), the floors seem to be in great shape just a quick sand and a shot of poly on them. As for the doors i think they may need to be replaced no matter what you do. Just my .02. see if you can pop the nails out aor maybe even a dab of paint can hide the heads

good luck
Bryon
 
I second replacing the closet door. Around where I live, hardwood floors are highly sought after and would do more for the value than carpet. If you have someone lay some carpet, you will probably need to repaint all the walls going to the bedroom. Carpet layers tend to scuff walls with the roll of carpet. The floors may just need a quick application of refresher, see link below. This is just a dilluted poly fomula that is applied with a mopping pad. For the nail holes, you can do 2 things. The cheap and easy way is go to Home Depot and get some Minwax putty filler sticks. The more durable repair would be to use some burn in sticks (stick schellac) and an electric knife. You can custom mix the color to match by melting different colors. You can get this on-line or at Woodcraft if there is a store near you. EDIT, when filling holes, it is better to go a shade darker rather then lighter if an exact match can't be found.


Bona® Floor Care Products - Bed Bath & Beyond
 
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From what the pictures show those floors won't be too bad to refinish. I think the floor refinishers pull the nails and bore an oversized hole and then plug it with tapered plugs and then trim flush, sand and finish. The doors suck anyway, just replace them.

Talk to a realtor first though. In some parts of the world home buyers prefer carpet.
 
Pull the staples, ignore the nails, and either replace or ignore the closet doors. I'd bet, the next owners would not notice at all.
 
actually, pull the nails and replace with square ones. Tell new owners that it was a "historic" fix :D
 
Got some dust bunnies there... git the vacuum out.

Do the hardwood. It will probably cost less than decent carpet. Doors like that are cheap.
 
need to price out doors....good tips everyone, thanks :)
 
Hey, I gots some good idears. IOW, I've "sort of been there, done that" with something similar.

Can you access the area below the floors without cutting through tons of drywall? If so I'd simply push the nails through the floor from below, patch the tiny holes, and replace the crazy closet door/s. Even if you cannot access that area without cutting through some smallish spots of drywall, it might still be worth it to save that sweet looking flooring, as long as yer only cutting through some small spots.

If you cannot access the area below the floors then I'd:
1. Get a good "plug bit" from a woodworking store slightly larger than the nailhead ( I think that would be a 3/8 plug or 1/2 plug at the most ).

2. Carefully drill the area around the nailhead to almost all the way towards bottom of bit (don't bottom the bit out on the nailhead - try to leave 1/16th before bottoming out) practice on some scrap first so you know how to handle the bit under speed.

3. Take a strong and sharp pick (either carving pick or dental pick type thing) and basically manually breakup the wood right around the nail head - try not to chip the hole for the future plug just breakup the wood right around the nail head.

4. Take a small prybar and tape the ends with electrical tape and extricate the nail (sorry I've wanted to use that word all day today!), once out spit on them, call them something dirty and dump it in the trash.

5. Now take the plug bit to punch some plugs, if you have even one piece of scrap flooring from the original floor that works best but if not just get the closest you can. I recommend putting on whatever you want for finish before cutting the plugs and letting the finish totally cure before cutting the plugs. That way you can simply push the plugs in prefinished and they will basically blend right in. You can also always cut unfinished plugs and blend them but I've found that blending one tiny little unfinished plug can end up smearing stuff all around it in a really obvious way whereas one prefinished plug, even if a little off, basically blends right in most of the time.

Hope that helps. :cheers:
 
I vote wood floors. Pull the nails and staples and plug with putty. Any decent woodworking or flooring shop should be able to give you the right putty.

As far as the closet doors go, a cheap fix is to get a piece of wood the same width and attach it to the bottom of the doors, then paint the whole door.

:cheers:
 
correct, tack strips that haven't been pulled up yet...since the PO chose to not only use the nails but also some LONG staples too..

'believe' I can get under the floor to drive up nails (or some at least)...basement is a drop-ceiling...

great ideas everyone...gota get the 40 reassembled right now, but will get back on this soon!
 
Woody,

Re-finish the floor and replace the door. Hardwood floors adds lots of value to the house.
Nail holes are easily patched with wood filler.

Charles
 
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