Hardwood floors pro or con?

[Bushman]

What is the verdict on hardwood floors for a rental property? I've owned this place for a lot of years and it has always had carpeting over the hardwood floors, but I'm getting really tired of replacing the carpeting every few years. The floors underneath are like new yet and I'm wondering if I should just polish them up and leave them as the existing floor. Carpet is quieter and warmer to walk on, but it is a dust and dirt collector. I'm thinking that if someone wants to walk on carpeting that they can get their own area rug to put down. Harder floors sweep up and clean up well and while I can write off the expense of new carpeting, it does cut into the bottom line. Floors are only as good as the people who take care of them and these last people I evicted because they didn't take care of anything. I tiled most of my own house and that is some durable flooring, but cold and slippery when it gets wet. How delicate is an oak hardwood floor? Do people like those or do they see them as cold and noisy? Right now that hardwood is in the living room and two of the three bedrooms. That third bedroom has linoleum as does the kitchen area.

[dave-t.]

Hardwoods floors are great, but they show every bit of dust and dirt. I have hardwwod floors at our current house, and in every room of our last house. They're great if you sweep 2 times a day, and don't have any issues withh water.

[Bushman]

By issues with water Dave do you mean like wet feet coming into the living room, or leaking water through a window or a water pipe? Showing dirt enough to motivate someone to clean it might be a good thing. I pulled up a section of carpet and pad today and there must have been half a pound of fine sand all the way through to the sub-floor. Those last people spilled something and then just walked it into the carpeting. I didn't know that people could be that dirty.

[ncboman]

I think there's fine sand under all carpet.

I have hardwood floors covered with carpet in most bedrooms and vinyl in the high use areas. I heat primarily with an inside woodburning space heater and it's messy. The vinyl floor makes it a breeze to clean up after loading the heater. Somewhat sandy land here and it tracks and wears flooring fast. We find vinyl last longer, looks better, an 'feels better' than anything else.

Maintaining a hardwood floor is more expensive than covering it.

[Bushman]

Yes, I thought about that too, but I guess covering it after it is worn is another option down the road. Maybe living with a nice wood floor will motivate a new tenant to give a damn. I've elected to carpet at least the hall and master bedroom hardwood or not. I was talking with my contractor yesterday and he said that he doesn't use vinyl much anymore. Then when I go into Wal Mart vinyl is what is on their floor and it seems to hold up to lots of traffic. Shopping for ceramic tile today for the bathroom floor. Something that I didn't realize about vinyl in a bathroom is that it will discolor from a chemical reaction under those rubber bottom non-slip floor mats.

[dave-t.]

Yes water leaks, and even entry ways will start showing degradation of the floors. It aint an easy fix either.

When they are good to start with and cared for though, hardwood looks awful good.

[45seventy]

I would give my vote for hardwood. I like the natural beauty
that hardwood provides. I have brazilian cherry in my house, and
it wears pretty well. You don't have to stain it, just a few coats of
polyuerathane and you are good to go. However, if you have a
dog, trimming its toe nails do go a long way.

[CJ5]

I envy you guys with the hardwood floors. Natural beauty of the wood being the main attraction for me. But the idea of it being less of a germ, bacteria, and dirt trap than carpet is a motivator to install as well.

[GF.]

I think I read somewhere that bamboo makes a hardwood floor that's more durable than hardwood... I do know for sure that it doesn't take much abuse to turn a hardwood floor into a damned expensive repair project, though.....

Hardwood floors are valuable - too valuable, IMO, to jack them up by covering 'em with linoleum, on account of it being so hard to get rid of the stuff. Like wallpaper - once you've got it, you're pretty well stuck with it.

Before you decide, I'd get a real reputable estimate for what it'd cost to re-do the floors in between tenants and then determine how often you'd have to do that vs. replacing carpet. I know that some states have laws regarding how often carpet has to get replaced, but don't think it applies to hardwood refinishing. So maybe you can balance the cost of a refinishing against the value of shiny floors in getting the place rented at the price you want. And presumably, you should be able to recover a considerable chunk of the refinishing costs through the damage deposit.....

[Rock Chuck]

Most vacuum cleaners will wreck hardwood finishes after a few years because of the spinning brush and/or wheels. You need a vac that just rolls and sucks. A shop vac with a good rolling hard floor head works great.

Bamboo is good but it will start showing scratches in a year or 2. Dog feet are pretty hard on it, particularly in front of doors where dogs are urgently wanting out.

Take a good look at some of the new laminates. Most of them have printed joints that are ugly and scream LAMINATE. However, some come in 5" +/- wide planks with no printed joints. When laid, you really can't tell them from wood and they come with a 25-30 year warranty against scratching. They'll outlast carpet several times over and you can loose lay it over the hardwood so the wood is preserved. Use good quality rugs in front of doors to catch water and crud.
The snap together laminates are very easy for DIYer to install. The brands with pre-attached underlayment are particularly easy to lay.

[ncboman]

Hardwood floors are valuable - too valuable, IMO, to jack them up by covering 'em with linoleum, on account of it being so hard to get rid of the stuff. Like wallpaper - once you've got it, you're pretty well stuck with it.


Not so with vinyl sheet flooring. Just don't use glue and leave space for expansion/contraction around the edges, (under the molding). With minimum care, quality vinyl sheet flooring can last 20yrs or more. I know this for a fact.

[Rock Chuck]

Let me add this about laying laminate. You probably wouldn't want to do this laying it over good hardwood, but it works on other surfaces. Use a long straight board to check the floor for uneveness that will leave spaces under the laminate. Get some of the cheapest 3-tab shingles you can find. Many stores will have a bone yard with broken bundles that you can get for very little or nothing. Break off pieces of the shingles as needed to fill in the gaps under the laminate as you lay it. You don't need to fasten it.

The drawback is that loose granules are abrasive. You'll have to keep them swept up as you work to keep from scratching the laminate. If you do this over hardwood, they'll likely scratch it, too.

[Bushman]

I'm going to get some foot wiping rugs like you suggested. They laid the carpet in today and the carpet guy said "You aren't going to put carpet over that hardwood are you?" Yep, in the master bedroom I am. I'll start showing the place in the next week or so and I'll get a good handle on what people think about that oak hardwood floor in the living room. The carpet guy said that he wished that he could live there and the door guy yesterday said that the solid oak trim that I've got is now mostly oak veneer over press board in the new houses. You don't realize what you've got until you hear it from someone else.

[Bushman]

Well, the deal is done. Forty seven inquiries about the place so you can't tell me that the stimulus package has stifled the rental market locally. Everyone that I showed the place to was favorable about that living room hardwood floor. I got some stuff called Orange Glo and put it on last night after everyone was gone. What a difference that made! It has been covered with a carpet all the years that I've owned it and if a floor could talk, this one would have been yelling "I'm parched, feed me, feed me!!!"

Thank goodness for that website where you can check people's court records. Lust almost overrode logic when this 30 something single female showed up at the place just cuter than a button. Ten entries within the last 5 years listing her as the defendant owing tens of thousands of dollars in judgments!

[testarossa]

I think there's fine sand under all carpet.

I have hardwood floors covered with carpet in most bedrooms and vinyl in the high use areas. I heat primarily with an inside woodburning space heater and it's messy. The vinyl floor makes it a breeze to clean up after loading the heater. Somewhat sandy land here and it tracks and wears flooring fast. We find vinyl last longer, looks better, an 'feels better' than anything else.

Maintaining a hardwood floor is more expensive than covering it.

I agree with it.. having the carpet is a good choice...

[Daniel Marshall]

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[Daniel Marshall]

Good luck....

[Daniel Marshall]

You have made interesting post.

Thanks

[Altjaeger]

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[swamp]

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