Let’s talk about wood, shall we? As we mentioned on Tuesday, we decided to go with solid oak hardwoods for the four bedrooms and the hallway upstairs since many rooms downstairs along with the stairs themselves have a nice medium toned oak already (pretty similar to the hardwoods in our first house that ended up being super dog/kid friendly).
As for where to get it, first we looked on craigslist to see if anyone had a large quantity of something in the right tone/amount (no dice) and then we headed to Lumber Liquidators, since we’ve had luck with them when it came to buying hardwood floors for half of our first house back in 2007 and it’s also where we got the cork flooring for our kitchen in 2011. They always have a ton of selection, and tend to have lots in stock along with all of the underlayment & tools in one place, so they’re pretty much a one stop shop for us now that it’s our third time to the flooring rodeo.
Clara walked right in and made herself comfortable (the girl’s right at home on wood flooring, what can I say?) and we had a look around.
She also had some fun on the tiny set of display stairs. According to the guys who work there every kid who enters the store does that as some sort of unspoken toddler rite of passage.
We ended up grabbing six different samples to hold up against the stairs to see which one would be the best match (we tackled this “sampling phase” right before ripping out all of that nasty upstairs carpeting). Since the sun was setting, we waited until the next morning to take them to the new house so we could judge them in natural light.
We decided to try stripping the carpet off of just the top stair so we could be sure the wood under there was still in good shape (if it was completely damaged we’d have to refinish them, which would mean that we could be less careful about picking a matching wood tone for the upstairs). Thankfully the floor under the runner was in great shape (after we pulled about a hundred staples out by hand) and we loved the medium brown tone (not too yellow, not too dark, not too light). Basically it’s the Goldilocks of hard wood.
For a bit more on why we love not-too-dark-not-too-light-not-too-yellow-not-too-red-toned oak, it’s probably 50% personal preference (some people love it redder or more golden) and 50% practical (if you go too dark with hardwoods we hear that every spec of dust and pet hair can be seen, and if you go too light we’ve heard that wear and tear is also easier to spot since it’s such a light surface). And since we had practically the same tone of oak hardwoods in our first house for years (and it worked well for us – we loved how it looked with our furniture, etc) that ended up swaying us.
Can you tell from this bad iPhone picture of all the samples (sorry!) which one works the best with the stairs?
Yup, it’s the bottom left guy. He was the only one in almost exactly the same color and with the same variety of grain (some dark grain and some light grain). It was also the same thickness (2 1/4″) as the hardwood downstairs. So although we loved some of the wider board options, it felt true to our house and nice and cohesive to go with the one that was the right color, had the right amount of wood grain, and was the same width as the rest of the wood flooring in the house.
It took everything in us not to keep going down each step with the crowbar and the pliers, stripping that stained old carpet as we went. But we knew we had a date with the carpeting upstairs (it’s more important to rip that out and lay the new hardwoods before we move than it is to get it off the stairs, which can be done at any time). In the bad news department, that top step took us about 20 minutes to wrestle free (which means we have about three hours worth of work in our future). But stair runner, you have been warned. We’ll be back.
So after judging those samples in the nice natural light of the morning, we returned to Lumber Liquidators a day after our first trip to officially put in our order. We were armed with the square footage for all of the areas we needed to do, so now that we had picked our Hardwood Bachelor (he accepted our rose and everything), it was pretty straightforward.
Here’s a close up of our winner winner chicken dinner. It’s called Lono Oak and it’s a solid wood floor (it’s not engineered, and it’s 3/4″ thick so it can be refinished many times) and it comes with a 25 year warranty. Most hardwood flooring is in the $4-7-ish range, but LL’s list price was $3.69 per square foot.
Here’s where I smiled sweetly and asked my favorite negotiating question, which is “what’s your best price?” Then you just stand there. Resist the urge to mumble “uh, not that I’m trying to be tough” or “I’m sorry, forget it” Just stand there in silence and wait to see what they say. If they can come down, they’ll tell you. And if they can’t they’ll say they can’t and you can smile and say “just had to ask.” John hates this step, so it’s always my job. And before I threw out my favorite line, I also mentioned how this was our third big order from them so we’re definitely loyal repeat customers.
Boom: 10% off our entire order for those two sentences. So that took the price per square foot down to $3.29 and also scored us 10% off other things we grabbed like a special type of underlayment to work with our subfloor (more on that when we get to the installation process). Speaking of installing it, we’re going to attempt to do it all ourselves, and we better get started soon if we hope to move in 2.5 weeks! Plus we want to paint all of the blue/mauve trim (and maybe even the doors?) while the carpet’s out but before the floor goes down. So… yeah. Tick tock, Petersiks.
Meanwhile Clara was busy spicing up their brochure displays…
We left feeling pretty excited about our big upstairs flooring overhaul. Especially since we asked how much it would cost to hire their guys to install all the flooring and they said it would be around four thousand bucks! So assuming we can do it (knock on hardwood) it’ll definitely add up to some serious money saved.
So our hardwoods are ordered and we have a whole mess of blue trim to paint. We’d like to buy a paint sprayer and try our hand at that, so we’ll keep you posted. Should be interesting…
More Flooring Projects
If you would like to read about other flooring projects we’ve done, please check out the posts below:
LOVE that you negotiate this way! I do exactly the same thing and it drives my husband insane. He gets so embarassed. But it WORKS, so he’s always happy in the end. :)
Yes! I guess it depends how many rooms and hallways you have, but four bedrooms plus a looong hallway like ours = mucho dinero. We were shocked because we thought they’d say 1-2K!
xo
s
I love the option you picked! It definitely has kind of a timeless feel. You sure are going to be busy but I know it will be worth it. Can’t wait to see it all! Oh, and Clara is just too cute. Good thing her dolls are so amusing to her!
You’ll LOVE the sprayer. LOVE it. In a your-life-will-never-be-the-same way. The only hassle is getting it set up and cleaned out, so the more rooms that you can do at once, the better. And overspray will be more than you expect – so be sure to seal everything off completely. If it were me, I would do the whole house right now, while it’s still empty and you don’t have to worry about protecting furniture or new flooring. Good luck!
Dude’s, you need to get yourselves one of there bad boys! a rapid R3 staple remover!(E-bay or amazon). Its what upholsters use(like me). I started off using an old screwdriver till I discovered this beauty, changed my life. Good look with the rest of the house. love you guys! x
Wow, that is a lot to get done in 2.5 weeks plus pack up your whole house and move! Maybe you could try to get the master and Clara’s room done and then work on the nursery and guest room once you’ve moved in if you can’t get to them now? Don’t kill yourselves, enjoy it too! Good luck!
I have been raising 5 children for the past 10 years in a home with two wooden stair cases and no one has fallen yet! (knock on wood) I’ve never had wood in a bedroom, always carpet. Is it easy to keep dusted? Do you like it better than carpet? I love your blog, it’s really fun to follow and I love your cheerful personalities. Thanks a lot!
I guess I didn’t “knock on wood” hard enough. My oldest child, a 24 year old, fell down the stairs last night when she slipped in here socks! Gee, I shouldn’t have bragged. She has a few bruises but all is well.
One, it truly never hurts to ask. We got a $1,000 jacuzzi tub that was returned as a special order. At the store they had it clearanced at $500. Doubtful but not willing to dole out the cash that quickly, we asked – they dropped the price to $250. I use that thing EVERY week due to some health issues I have. Best purchase ever.
Second, when we redid our floors, we pulled up the trim with the carpet, knowing that our flooring choice might make the old baseboards or trim look as though they were floating. Is it typical to leave the trim up or replace? Just curious.
Love the jacuzzi deal! As for the baseboards they’ll be the right height and we’ll just add quarter round and it’ll all be finished and standard looking :)
Oh wow – we’ve been there and are still in the process of doing that – going from old nasty carpeted floors [carpet circa 1989] to prefinished hickory floors.
This is kind of a lengthy comment…but:
I say still in the process because we’re kind of slow movers when it comes to our projects. We’ve done our kitchen, dining room and most of our living room because they are all open to each other – but we still have the hallway and master bedroom and closet yet to do.
We did it ourselves and purchased our flooring online from Hurst Hardwoods. We’ve been very happy with our choice and they were great to deal with – we *almost* went with Lumber Liquidators – they were our second choice, but H/H ended up being a lot less expensive for our purchase and would ship freight directly to us whereas L/L required us to pick up our shipment directly from them.
A word of caution though – do some research on that special underlayment that L/L is trying to sell you. If it’s that real thin foam type underlayment – I’d skip it. We did a lot of reading online before we laid the first strip. Lots of contractors did not recommend using it because its bulk can create sort of a rolling “wave” type effect and your floors may not lay as evenly as they should which may cause some squeaking between the joints on the planks.
We just used the red felt paper that you can find at either Lowe’s or Home Depot [usually in the roofing department] as the underlayment with great success.
It’s a huge savings over the more popular Bostitch nailer – but it has served us well. Just remember to lube it often [that’s where we found any of the negative commenters on this model went wrong] and it will take care of all the hard work.
Good luck and can’t wait to see your flooring progress – you’ll probably be finished before we are! :)
We plan to put wood or laminate down at our house eventually, too, so I’ll be following this process with great interest. As for the stairs, I grew up in a house built in the 20s that had original oak stairs with no runner. Those stairs were tiny and wicked steep, but my family never had an accident (and my brother used to drag me out of my crib downstairs so we could climb up the stairs to our parent’s room, so I was very young when I started scaling them). I agree that SOME families might find a runner necessary, but just like with your child proofing method of “see what works best for us” you may not have any issues with them. I love the new house (which is hard for me because your second house is very similar to my current one) and I’m loving all the planned updates!
Love it! That will be such a great transformation from the old carpet!
We did something similar in our home when we moved in (tore out 25-year old mauve carpeting and replaced with bamboo flooring), and it was one of the easiest, most satisfying tasks that we’ve done to date! Good luck!
The new floors/existing floors downstairs look the same as ours!
Our house had glossy cheapie looking light yellow oak (I feel totally the same about avoid yellows and reds) when we bought our house & we had people come and sand it all back and restain in it Dark Walnut (still wondering if I should have gone even darker to get even less red. Jacobean? Ebony? Oh well) and finish it in satin poly. They did a really nice job and I’m very happy we had it done. With the darkness of the color of the color and the nice smooth finish it kind of makes the planks look wider than they are too, in my opinion.
We had the upstairs recarpeted though so I am certain I would never be able to convince my husband to suddenly agree to hardwoods up there too nice. Wish I had thought of this 3 months ago. Great choice!
It is going to look SO amazing up there. I can’t wait to see it.
This is one of those things I really want to do to my house at some point so I’m glad to see you do it. I love watching you guys do things I want to do because it’s a nice gauge for what I could realistically do myself (I’m single so I’d need to con my friends/mom for help or do it solo) and what I’d need to hire out for. :)
Get a spray gun! I borrowed a friend’s, along with his compressor, and now am wondering how did without it. Yeah, it takes a bit of practice but once you get it down… there’s nothing like it.
We put in the pre-finished hardwood floors in our first house and it was pretty easy. My tips are”
1. Make sure that the first piece in the room is parallel to the starting wall. If it isn’t perfectly parallel (or if the walls aren’t plumb), then eventually, you will need to “adjust” the floor by cutting part of one row into a wedge to get it back to square.
2. Do the hall separate from the rooms and use a threshold at the doors if there is a chance that the walls aren’t plumb.
3. If you do have to cut a wedge for adjustment, put it in a part of the floor that will be hidden (like by a couch).
Have you considered demolishing the linen closet in the upstairs hallway so that you could regain some space? Maybe you could use a piece of furniture there for storage. It just seems to me that the linen closet takes up too much space in the hallway, and removing it now before you put down new flooring would make great sense.
We have though about making that a built in bookcase or cabinet so that’s definitely a possibility!
xo,
s
Katesays
I’m so impressed with your ability to pick something and do it! I’ve been wanting to replace our kitchen/living room/hallway floor for about a year now (the carpet in the living room/hallway is original cheap builder stuff and is very stained and matted, and the linoleum in the kitchen is damaged and peeling by the doorwall due to sun damage), especially since we’ll have a baby crawling around soon. But I can’t pull the trigger and make a decision! I’m thinking vinyl click planks since it’s a kitchen and entry and my husband is not good about messes (the vinyl is waterproof but looks like laminate), but I feel like I should go with wood. However, the price of any of it is so high, plus we want to get it installed (just not enough time with the baby). I don’t think I’ll EVER be able to pull the trigger!
I know it sounds silly, but you’re so brave for actually just picking something and going with it!
Having been in the middle of a flooring project going on 7 months now, it WILL take you longer than you think to get it done. We just couldn’t handle the insane install cost, so it’s been a long road. But, my husband also works full time and isn’t always gung-ho about coming home from a long day at the office to then work all night on the floors.
Regardless, it takes longer than you think it will, even once you get into a good groove. There are a LOT of cuts to be made, even in big rooms. GOOD LUCK though! The pay-off is incredible and so so worth it!
For your general information, the max. stair riser is 8 1/4″ and the max. difference between any stair riser is 3/8″. So you can increase the top stair nosing depth 3/8″ as long as the riser is not more than 8 1/4″ high. You can find this in the Residential building code section R311.7.4.1. Hope this helps, don’t want people falling down the steps.
We just bought a bunch of flooring from lumber liquidators too! You’ll have no problem DIY’ing it – we’ve done it three times now and it’s an easy, albeit somewhat tedious, project. I recommend buying a flooring stapler! It worked out to be cheaper in the long run and meant we didn’t have to rush through things with a rental. Good luck!
I don’t usually comment, but I thought I would put in a word about my paint sprayer experience. I will say that you get what you pay for. We bought a middle of the road sprayer last fall, around $150, and it would sputter and spit globs, stop working, and clog constantly. We ended up returning that one and renting a professional grade sprayer for $40/day from Sherwin Williams. (We did need to get our paint from there to recieve that rental price.) It worked great! It was nice to not have to worry about storage, maintenance, or clean up of the machine. Just my experience. Good luck with your decision!
We have original 1930’s herringbone hardwood that is light with a dark inlay around the edges. It is gorgeous, but definitely the lighter color shows wear and tear easily. Especially with potty accidents(thank you kids and dog). I think you were right to go with not-too-dark-not-too-light. Good choice! Are you keeping the stair-wood, or just the railing?
My husband and I installed Lono Oak in our hallway and our daughter’s nursery using Lumber Liquidators’ Elastalon product. It was time consuming, but the process was very easy, and the floors look great now that they are finished.
We are in the same boat. We have been pricing floors for a month now. We are going to float a Hickory Handscraped engineered floor. We have concrete slab foundation and I have heard this is the best option in case you have to replace a board or two. We went with handscraped because it is already distressed and less likely to show wear and tear.
We found a guy through a friend that will install them for $1.00 per square foot in a prepped area (carpet up, tack up, cleaned). Considering most companies wanted $4 a foot we were THRILLED. Also checked him out on Angie’s List and he had a good rep too.
We had originally planned on doing this ourselves but we both work full time and have never done it before. We want this job to be a one time thing so we want it done right. Besides he can do it in two days and it would take us a month with our schedules. Sometimes it seems better to pay then to screw it up…LOL.
Besides we have plenty of other projects to tackle that we can handle ourselves :)
Something to consider if you haven’t lived in a two story with hardwood upstairs: you are going to hear more downstairs than you would with carpet. (In fact in our bathrooms where it’s just subfloor and tile you can hear if a person drops a comb.)
I grew up in a house with hardwoods upstairs but good underlayment and area rugs (and a no shoes rule) and it wasn’t too bad. I think it’s all about the underlayment :)
Good negotiating tactic. It’s always a struggle to force myself to ask the question, but it’s worth it. Going to have to check out Lumber Liquidators next time I attack a project. Flood Damage Carrollton TX
So funny about negotiating. It makes my husband so uncomfortable. When we first moved to NYC we cringed at the 15% “standard” broker’s fee for apartments (that’s 15% of the annual rent!). At the very last minute, as we were writing the check, I said, “Don’t you guys have a Welcome to the Neighborhood discount?” BOOM – knocked down to 10% and basically paid for a new couch.
I’m the negotiator in our fam…my kids used to hate it when they were teens, but now, in their first apartments, it’s all “Mooooom, how do I do that?” It’s great.
Buy the paint sprayer-you will use it so much it’s a worthwhile investment. Saves SO much time/effort.
BTW will you be painting the kitchen cabs?
They look beautiful in the pics, but I know that up close and personal could be a different story.
Some of them are really rough (gnawed on by a dog, cracked, splintered, etc) so down the line we think we’ll have to replace them but we’ll live with them a while just to see where we end up :)
xo,
s
Erica Martenssays
I am the bargain negotiator in our house as well, but my line is “Is there any wiggle room?”. I just used it with the purchase of our new carpeting and they also took about 10% off!
Love the flooring but I am getting stressed as to how you are going to do all these in 2.5 weeks – With a birthday party and memorial day get-together thrown in; but if anyone can get it done, its you guys!
Also, LOVE LOVE LOVE Clara’s 3 year birthday pic! She looks so happy! :)
I’m exhausted at the very thought of all you have to accomplish in the next couple of weeks, Petersiks!
(I tend to lean towards the lazy…for example: I give you credit for using the word ‘underlayment’…I’d have just went with ‘underlay’ …no need to break a sweat at the ol’ keyboard :)
Looks great!! We are trying to decide whether to do hardwoods on our second floor but I have always heard that carpet is best for upstairs to soften some of the noise from walking/playing/general mischief from children… Our house already doesn’t have very good “sound proofing” between the floors and you can always hear it when people walk on the upstairs tiled bathroom floors in our kitchen. What are your thoughts? Did you consider this or do any research before you made your decision?
Oh yes you can scroll back in the comments for that info :)
xo,
s
Ericasays
I picked those exact floors just over a year ago!!! And I love them! They don’t compete with the other wood in the space and they look rich and have just enough of a rustic touch that I don’t freak out when there is a scratch- just touch up with a stain pen.
I had been planning on bamboo or engineered hardwoods but then picked this one at the last second and am so glad I did. This made my day!
You can totally do it! We put solid bamboo down upstairs by ourselves. We were first timers w/wood floor. If we can, you can. Each room took one day for us, plus some of another day to reinstall all the trim. We rented the floor nailer and I highly recommend that. I think it was like $50 for a day or something? Good luck!
You will LOVE the sprayer! I agree w/ a previous poster–if you can, do as much of the painting in the house before you move in the furniture b/c of overspray. Fresh out of college I moved into one of my dad’s rental apartments. The previous tenant was a B&W photographer, so EVERY ROOM INCLUDING THE CEILINGS, were painted dark gray. It was like a cave. As a learning experience my dad decided not to hire someone to paint but have me do all the painting (at that point I had never painted even a wall!). So I rented a sprayer and it was glorious! So much fun!!! The furniture definitely needs to be moved out of the room beforehand.
Also, I’m horrible at negotiating (my hubby is the negotiator in our partnership) but someone wise once told me: “If you don’t ask, the answer is automatically no”.
Love your choice on the flooring! My hope is that we’ll find a house with hardwood floors or with some really ugly/worn carpeting that I don’t feel bad ripping out for hardwoods, and I’m totally on the medium-dark train with you guys. I’m going to have to get my hubs to ask the discount question though, I’d feel too awkward/guilty to ask for a discount :-)
We just did the EXACT same thing with our house. We put in 1,200 sq ft of solid hardwoods in the entire upstairs. We went with the Tobacco Road. I’m assuming I can’t put links in comments, but our blog is linked on my name, and there are quite a few posts about ours, mistakes and all, and including how I did the stairs. Ours were unfinished, so I went the more creative (but very expensive) way of doing the treads. Any tips you need, I’d be happy to share!
You should teach Clara to ask for a best price! No one says no to a cute kid. It was always my job. I was a car-girl (and a daddy’s girl) and haggling for engine parts as a 6 year old blue-eyed blonde was a breeze! I also came in handy for waving down help from sales people and getting the cars to pass inspection but that was when I was a little older :)
Rando question: I know you guys are stair newbie s (love it!), but wondering about traction on hardwood stairs and possibility of the old fuzzy-slipper-late-nite-stair-fall risk. Thoughts? Our staircase is GORGEOUS hardwood original to our 1936 home. Previous owner had put a runner-type carpeting on it, where you can see the wood on either side like yours, because he took a bad fall on the slippery stairs. We went back and forth but ended up leaving it because it seems to go ok with our decor. Just wondered if you guys had puzzeled that one out yet! Love yas!
There are a bunch of people talking about their experiences back in the earlier section of the comments. Sounds like some folks fall more on carpet and others on hardwood while some do runners or grippy things or just do carpet or bare wood :)
xo,
s
Skittlesays
I can’t wait to see what you guys do to cover the blue paint. Our 1967 kitchen was COVERED in it. No amount or type of primer worked. The white paint literally just jumped right off if you breathed on it. We’ve had to sand it completely off to get it to stop showing up. I’m talking 35 cabinet doors plus some drawers, plus all the crown moulding & baseboards, and the INSIDE of the cabinets. Ugh. There are still blue parts because I finally just gave up, so the kitchen looks a hot mess. Maybe you can teach me a better way to get that done already!!
I helped my Dad & his friend install the hardwoods in my parents house. It’s not that hard..just a bit time consuming. And if I could do it, then you guys DEFINITELY can :)
Is there any sort of issue with whether your floors can handle the weight of the hardwood? We had to do some sort of little test to figure out whether there was enough support before we laid tile in our upstairs bathrooms. Sometimes, they don’t build the floors with enough joists in them to handle tile/wood. But, since this is an older home, you are probably all good.
Oh yes some joists aren’t strong or laid close enough but the homes in our neighborhood were built to hold hardwood upstairs (it was an option at sale time to choose carpet or wood so they built it to support either).
xo,
s
BurnsEsays
Good luck with the installation! To give you a sense of time, we installed hardwoods last year, anticipating a full week to do a little under 1800 square feet. It took closer to two weeks of nearly full-time work. Obviously you’re not doing as much square footage :) The big time-sucks for us were the first row (because it MUST be aligned to the wall where you’re starting, as well as the ending wall, which could be in another room) and sanding the subfloor where it was uneven (hopefully not an issue for y’all). But once you get going, installation is pretty quick.
I highly recommend the team approach, where one of you is laying out/cutting boards for the nailer, which seems to speed things up. Please feel free to email if you have questions and have fun!
sarah says
LOVE that you negotiate this way! I do exactly the same thing and it drives my husband insane. He gets so embarassed. But it WORKS, so he’s always happy in the end. :)
Shannon says
Big Lumber Liquidators fan here! They gave us a 15% law enforcement discount for anyone who is interested!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s amazing!!
xo
s
Jenn @ Home Style Report says
I would have never guessed that it would cost that much to install! Holy hardwood! I do love your choice and good luck with the project!
YoungHouseLove says
Yes! I guess it depends how many rooms and hallways you have, but four bedrooms plus a looong hallway like ours = mucho dinero. We were shocked because we thought they’d say 1-2K!
xo
s
Megan @ Rappsody in Rooms says
I love the option you picked! It definitely has kind of a timeless feel. You sure are going to be busy but I know it will be worth it. Can’t wait to see it all! Oh, and Clara is just too cute. Good thing her dolls are so amusing to her!
Laurel says
You’ll LOVE the sprayer. LOVE it. In a your-life-will-never-be-the-same way. The only hassle is getting it set up and cleaned out, so the more rooms that you can do at once, the better. And overspray will be more than you expect – so be sure to seal everything off completely. If it were me, I would do the whole house right now, while it’s still empty and you don’t have to worry about protecting furniture or new flooring. Good luck!
Amanda says
This is so exciting! I can’t wait to see the finished results. Get on ‘er. hehe
And you’re right it never hurts to ask!
Tom Power says
Dude’s, you need to get yourselves one of there bad boys! a rapid R3 staple remover!(E-bay or amazon). Its what upholsters use(like me). I started off using an old screwdriver till I discovered this beauty, changed my life. Good look with the rest of the house. love you guys! x
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds pretty snazzy.
xo
s
Alison says
Wow, that is a lot to get done in 2.5 weeks plus pack up your whole house and move! Maybe you could try to get the master and Clara’s room done and then work on the nursery and guest room once you’ve moved in if you can’t get to them now? Don’t kill yourselves, enjoy it too! Good luck!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, we think if we get under the gun we can just do two rooms, move into those, and finish the other two after the big move :)
xo
s
Alison says
Phew! Glad you guys are being realistic! I was starting to feel overwhelmed for you! :-)
Julie says
I have been raising 5 children for the past 10 years in a home with two wooden stair cases and no one has fallen yet! (knock on wood) I’ve never had wood in a bedroom, always carpet. Is it easy to keep dusted? Do you like it better than carpet? I love your blog, it’s really fun to follow and I love your cheerful personalities. Thanks a lot!
YoungHouseLove says
We tend to think its easier to keep clean than carpet (with a dog and a toddler wood floors are great to wipe down :)
xo,
s
Devon @ Green House, Good Life says
And the Roomba works SO well on wood floors!
Julie says
I guess I didn’t “knock on wood” hard enough. My oldest child, a 24 year old, fell down the stairs last night when she slipped in here socks! Gee, I shouldn’t have bragged. She has a few bruises but all is well.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no! So glad she’s ok!
xo
s
Tish says
I accidentally tried to “like” the picture of Clara sprucing up the brochure display! :)
Love your flooring choice!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo,
s
Emily says
Two things:
One, it truly never hurts to ask. We got a $1,000 jacuzzi tub that was returned as a special order. At the store they had it clearanced at $500. Doubtful but not willing to dole out the cash that quickly, we asked – they dropped the price to $250. I use that thing EVERY week due to some health issues I have. Best purchase ever.
Second, when we redid our floors, we pulled up the trim with the carpet, knowing that our flooring choice might make the old baseboards or trim look as though they were floating. Is it typical to leave the trim up or replace? Just curious.
YoungHouseLove says
Love the jacuzzi deal! As for the baseboards they’ll be the right height and we’ll just add quarter round and it’ll all be finished and standard looking :)
xo,
s
Erica says
Oh wow – we’ve been there and are still in the process of doing that – going from old nasty carpeted floors [carpet circa 1989] to prefinished hickory floors.
This is kind of a lengthy comment…but:
I say still in the process because we’re kind of slow movers when it comes to our projects. We’ve done our kitchen, dining room and most of our living room because they are all open to each other – but we still have the hallway and master bedroom and closet yet to do.
We did it ourselves and purchased our flooring online from Hurst Hardwoods. We’ve been very happy with our choice and they were great to deal with – we *almost* went with Lumber Liquidators – they were our second choice, but H/H ended up being a lot less expensive for our purchase and would ship freight directly to us whereas L/L required us to pick up our shipment directly from them.
A word of caution though – do some research on that special underlayment that L/L is trying to sell you. If it’s that real thin foam type underlayment – I’d skip it. We did a lot of reading online before we laid the first strip. Lots of contractors did not recommend using it because its bulk can create sort of a rolling “wave” type effect and your floors may not lay as evenly as they should which may cause some squeaking between the joints on the planks.
We just used the red felt paper that you can find at either Lowe’s or Home Depot [usually in the roofing department] as the underlayment with great success.
Also, after lots of reading online and reading reviews we found this pneumatic nailer, the Freeman PFL618BR 3-in-1 Pneumatic Flooring Nailer, was the best BANG for the buck. http://www.amazon.com/Freeman-PFL618BR-Pneumatic-Flooring-Nailer/dp/B002EVPO54/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368715890&sr=8-1&keywords=freeman+floor+nailer
It’s a huge savings over the more popular Bostitch nailer – but it has served us well. Just remember to lube it often [that’s where we found any of the negative commenters on this model went wrong] and it will take care of all the hard work.
Good luck and can’t wait to see your flooring progress – you’ll probably be finished before we are! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much for all the tips!
xo,
s
Lara says
We plan to put wood or laminate down at our house eventually, too, so I’ll be following this process with great interest. As for the stairs, I grew up in a house built in the 20s that had original oak stairs with no runner. Those stairs were tiny and wicked steep, but my family never had an accident (and my brother used to drag me out of my crib downstairs so we could climb up the stairs to our parent’s room, so I was very young when I started scaling them). I agree that SOME families might find a runner necessary, but just like with your child proofing method of “see what works best for us” you may not have any issues with them. I love the new house (which is hard for me because your second house is very similar to my current one) and I’m loving all the planned updates!
Laura V. says
Love it! That will be such a great transformation from the old carpet!
We did something similar in our home when we moved in (tore out 25-year old mauve carpeting and replaced with bamboo flooring), and it was one of the easiest, most satisfying tasks that we’ve done to date! Good luck!
Melody says
The new floors/existing floors downstairs look the same as ours!
Our house had glossy cheapie looking light yellow oak (I feel totally the same about avoid yellows and reds) when we bought our house & we had people come and sand it all back and restain in it Dark Walnut (still wondering if I should have gone even darker to get even less red. Jacobean? Ebony? Oh well) and finish it in satin poly. They did a really nice job and I’m very happy we had it done. With the darkness of the color of the color and the nice smooth finish it kind of makes the planks look wider than they are too, in my opinion.
We had the upstairs recarpeted though so I am certain I would never be able to convince my husband to suddenly agree to hardwoods up there too nice. Wish I had thought of this 3 months ago. Great choice!
Steph says
It is going to look SO amazing up there. I can’t wait to see it.
This is one of those things I really want to do to my house at some point so I’m glad to see you do it. I love watching you guys do things I want to do because it’s a nice gauge for what I could realistically do myself (I’m single so I’d need to con my friends/mom for help or do it solo) and what I’d need to hire out for. :)
monika says
Get a spray gun! I borrowed a friend’s, along with his compressor, and now am wondering how did without it. Yeah, it takes a bit of practice but once you get it down… there’s nothing like it.
CohoesMom5 says
We put in the pre-finished hardwood floors in our first house and it was pretty easy. My tips are”
1. Make sure that the first piece in the room is parallel to the starting wall. If it isn’t perfectly parallel (or if the walls aren’t plumb), then eventually, you will need to “adjust” the floor by cutting part of one row into a wedge to get it back to square.
2. Do the hall separate from the rooms and use a threshold at the doors if there is a chance that the walls aren’t plumb.
3. If you do have to cut a wedge for adjustment, put it in a part of the floor that will be hidden (like by a couch).
Kayla says
Clara just cracks me up! I hope I have a kid as fun and independent as her!
Kate says
Have you considered demolishing the linen closet in the upstairs hallway so that you could regain some space? Maybe you could use a piece of furniture there for storage. It just seems to me that the linen closet takes up too much space in the hallway, and removing it now before you put down new flooring would make great sense.
YoungHouseLove says
We have though about making that a built in bookcase or cabinet so that’s definitely a possibility!
xo,
s
Kate says
I’m so impressed with your ability to pick something and do it! I’ve been wanting to replace our kitchen/living room/hallway floor for about a year now (the carpet in the living room/hallway is original cheap builder stuff and is very stained and matted, and the linoleum in the kitchen is damaged and peeling by the doorwall due to sun damage), especially since we’ll have a baby crawling around soon. But I can’t pull the trigger and make a decision! I’m thinking vinyl click planks since it’s a kitchen and entry and my husband is not good about messes (the vinyl is waterproof but looks like laminate), but I feel like I should go with wood. However, the price of any of it is so high, plus we want to get it installed (just not enough time with the baby). I don’t think I’ll EVER be able to pull the trigger!
I know it sounds silly, but you’re so brave for actually just picking something and going with it!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw good luck Kate!
xo,
s
Colleen S says
Having been in the middle of a flooring project going on 7 months now, it WILL take you longer than you think to get it done. We just couldn’t handle the insane install cost, so it’s been a long road. But, my husband also works full time and isn’t always gung-ho about coming home from a long day at the office to then work all night on the floors.
Regardless, it takes longer than you think it will, even once you get into a good groove. There are a LOT of cuts to be made, even in big rooms. GOOD LUCK though! The pay-off is incredible and so so worth it!
John says
For your general information, the max. stair riser is 8 1/4″ and the max. difference between any stair riser is 3/8″. So you can increase the top stair nosing depth 3/8″ as long as the riser is not more than 8 1/4″ high. You can find this in the Residential building code section R311.7.4.1. Hope this helps, don’t want people falling down the steps.
YoungHouseLove says
Great tip!
xo,
s
Allison B says
We just bought a bunch of flooring from lumber liquidators too! You’ll have no problem DIY’ing it – we’ve done it three times now and it’s an easy, albeit somewhat tedious, project. I recommend buying a flooring stapler! It worked out to be cheaper in the long run and meant we didn’t have to rush through things with a rental. Good luck!
Rhonda says
I don’t usually comment, but I thought I would put in a word about my paint sprayer experience. I will say that you get what you pay for. We bought a middle of the road sprayer last fall, around $150, and it would sputter and spit globs, stop working, and clog constantly. We ended up returning that one and renting a professional grade sprayer for $40/day from Sherwin Williams. (We did need to get our paint from there to recieve that rental price.) It worked great! It was nice to not have to worry about storage, maintenance, or clean up of the machine. Just my experience. Good luck with your decision!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s an awesome tip!
xo,
s
Jesika says
We have original 1930’s herringbone hardwood that is light with a dark inlay around the edges. It is gorgeous, but definitely the lighter color shows wear and tear easily. Especially with potty accidents(thank you kids and dog). I think you were right to go with not-too-dark-not-too-light. Good choice! Are you keeping the stair-wood, or just the railing?
YoungHouseLove says
We’re keeping the stair wood for sure!
xo,
s
Julie says
My husband and I installed Lono Oak in our hallway and our daughter’s nursery using Lumber Liquidators’ Elastalon product. It was time consuming, but the process was very easy, and the floors look great now that they are finished.
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo! We’ve heard such great things about Elastilon!
xo,
s
Sheri says
We are in the same boat. We have been pricing floors for a month now. We are going to float a Hickory Handscraped engineered floor. We have concrete slab foundation and I have heard this is the best option in case you have to replace a board or two. We went with handscraped because it is already distressed and less likely to show wear and tear.
We found a guy through a friend that will install them for $1.00 per square foot in a prepped area (carpet up, tack up, cleaned). Considering most companies wanted $4 a foot we were THRILLED. Also checked him out on Angie’s List and he had a good rep too.
We had originally planned on doing this ourselves but we both work full time and have never done it before. We want this job to be a one time thing so we want it done right. Besides he can do it in two days and it would take us a month with our schedules. Sometimes it seems better to pay then to screw it up…LOL.
Besides we have plenty of other projects to tackle that we can handle ourselves :)
Nancy says
Something to consider if you haven’t lived in a two story with hardwood upstairs: you are going to hear more downstairs than you would with carpet. (In fact in our bathrooms where it’s just subfloor and tile you can hear if a person drops a comb.)
YoungHouseLove says
I grew up in a house with hardwoods upstairs but good underlayment and area rugs (and a no shoes rule) and it wasn’t too bad. I think it’s all about the underlayment :)
xo,
s
Sadie says
Good negotiating tactic. It’s always a struggle to force myself to ask the question, but it’s worth it. Going to have to check out Lumber Liquidators next time I attack a project. Flood Damage Carrollton TX
Rosemary says
So funny about negotiating. It makes my husband so uncomfortable. When we first moved to NYC we cringed at the 15% “standard” broker’s fee for apartments (that’s 15% of the annual rent!). At the very last minute, as we were writing the check, I said, “Don’t you guys have a Welcome to the Neighborhood discount?” BOOM – knocked down to 10% and basically paid for a new couch.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s awesome!
xo,
s
Susan says
I’m the negotiator in our fam…my kids used to hate it when they were teens, but now, in their first apartments, it’s all “Mooooom, how do I do that?” It’s great.
Buy the paint sprayer-you will use it so much it’s a worthwhile investment. Saves SO much time/effort.
BTW will you be painting the kitchen cabs?
They look beautiful in the pics, but I know that up close and personal could be a different story.
YoungHouseLove says
Some of them are really rough (gnawed on by a dog, cracked, splintered, etc) so down the line we think we’ll have to replace them but we’ll live with them a while just to see where we end up :)
xo,
s
Erica Martens says
I am the bargain negotiator in our house as well, but my line is “Is there any wiggle room?”. I just used it with the purchase of our new carpeting and they also took about 10% off!
Shreya says
Love the flooring but I am getting stressed as to how you are going to do all these in 2.5 weeks – With a birthday party and memorial day get-together thrown in; but if anyone can get it done, its you guys!
Also, LOVE LOVE LOVE Clara’s 3 year birthday pic! She looks so happy! :)
Laura & the Shell says
So exciting!!!
Ally says
*WHEW*
I’m exhausted at the very thought of all you have to accomplish in the next couple of weeks, Petersiks!
(I tend to lean towards the lazy…for example: I give you credit for using the word ‘underlayment’…I’d have just went with ‘underlay’ …no need to break a sweat at the ol’ keyboard :)
xox
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo,
s
bekah says
My husband is the born negotiator in our family. I turn into a puddle at the thought of it – so I tend to wander off at that point!
Beautiful floors!
Ali E says
Looks great!! We are trying to decide whether to do hardwoods on our second floor but I have always heard that carpet is best for upstairs to soften some of the noise from walking/playing/general mischief from children… Our house already doesn’t have very good “sound proofing” between the floors and you can always hear it when people walk on the upstairs tiled bathroom floors in our kitchen. What are your thoughts? Did you consider this or do any research before you made your decision?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes you can scroll back in the comments for that info :)
xo,
s
Erica says
I picked those exact floors just over a year ago!!! And I love them! They don’t compete with the other wood in the space and they look rich and have just enough of a rustic touch that I don’t freak out when there is a scratch- just touch up with a stain pen.
I had been planning on bamboo or engineered hardwoods but then picked this one at the last second and am so glad I did. This made my day!
Rebecca says
I just wanted to let you know that I love these shorter posts! They really get to the heart of the matter in a quick and thorough way. :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Rebecca!
xo,
s
Bren says
You can totally do it! We put solid bamboo down upstairs by ourselves. We were first timers w/wood floor. If we can, you can. Each room took one day for us, plus some of another day to reinstall all the trim. We rented the floor nailer and I highly recommend that. I think it was like $50 for a day or something? Good luck!
LeAnna says
You will LOVE the sprayer! I agree w/ a previous poster–if you can, do as much of the painting in the house before you move in the furniture b/c of overspray. Fresh out of college I moved into one of my dad’s rental apartments. The previous tenant was a B&W photographer, so EVERY ROOM INCLUDING THE CEILINGS, were painted dark gray. It was like a cave. As a learning experience my dad decided not to hire someone to paint but have me do all the painting (at that point I had never painted even a wall!). So I rented a sprayer and it was glorious! So much fun!!! The furniture definitely needs to be moved out of the room beforehand.
Also, I’m horrible at negotiating (my hubby is the negotiator in our partnership) but someone wise once told me: “If you don’t ask, the answer is automatically no”.
Good luck w/ the move/floor laying/painting!!
Sally G. says
Love your choice on the flooring! My hope is that we’ll find a house with hardwood floors or with some really ugly/worn carpeting that I don’t feel bad ripping out for hardwoods, and I’m totally on the medium-dark train with you guys. I’m going to have to get my hubs to ask the discount question though, I’d feel too awkward/guilty to ask for a discount :-)
Derek says
We just did the EXACT same thing with our house. We put in 1,200 sq ft of solid hardwoods in the entire upstairs. We went with the Tobacco Road. I’m assuming I can’t put links in comments, but our blog is linked on my name, and there are quite a few posts about ours, mistakes and all, and including how I did the stairs. Ours were unfinished, so I went the more creative (but very expensive) way of doing the treads. Any tips you need, I’d be happy to share!
YoungHouseLove says
We love links in comments! Feel free to link away :)
xo,
s
Derek says
You asked for it! Here are the six posts I did on flooring, that should help you not make mistakes and feel great about putting the floors in!
First Row –
http://wolvenhouseproject.blogspot.com/2012/11/get-on-floor.html
First Mistake – http://wolvenhouseproject.blogspot.com/2012/11/flooring-disaster.html
Almost Done – http://wolvenhouseproject.blogspot.com/2012/12/winter-is-here.html
DONE – http://wolvenhouseproject.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-dishes-are-done-man.html
Stairs Pt. 1 – http://wolvenhouseproject.blogspot.com/2013/04/attacking-stairs.html
Stairs Pt. 2 – http://wolvenhouseproject.blogspot.com/2013/05/tread-heavily.html
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Derek!
-John
Sarah says
You should teach Clara to ask for a best price! No one says no to a cute kid. It was always my job. I was a car-girl (and a daddy’s girl) and haggling for engine parts as a 6 year old blue-eyed blonde was a breeze! I also came in handy for waving down help from sales people and getting the cars to pass inspection but that was when I was a little older :)
YoungHouseLove says
Genius! I’ll have to prep her next time.
xo,
s
bethany says
Rando question: I know you guys are stair newbie s (love it!), but wondering about traction on hardwood stairs and possibility of the old fuzzy-slipper-late-nite-stair-fall risk. Thoughts? Our staircase is GORGEOUS hardwood original to our 1936 home. Previous owner had put a runner-type carpeting on it, where you can see the wood on either side like yours, because he took a bad fall on the slippery stairs. We went back and forth but ended up leaving it because it seems to go ok with our decor. Just wondered if you guys had puzzeled that one out yet! Love yas!
YoungHouseLove says
There are a bunch of people talking about their experiences back in the earlier section of the comments. Sounds like some folks fall more on carpet and others on hardwood while some do runners or grippy things or just do carpet or bare wood :)
xo,
s
Skittle says
I can’t wait to see what you guys do to cover the blue paint. Our 1967 kitchen was COVERED in it. No amount or type of primer worked. The white paint literally just jumped right off if you breathed on it. We’ve had to sand it completely off to get it to stop showing up. I’m talking 35 cabinet doors plus some drawers, plus all the crown moulding & baseboards, and the INSIDE of the cabinets. Ugh. There are still blue parts because I finally just gave up, so the kitchen looks a hot mess. Maybe you can teach me a better way to get that done already!!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s the stuff of nightmares!
xo,
s
amy @ drivethirtythree says
I helped my Dad & his friend install the hardwoods in my parents house. It’s not that hard..just a bit time consuming. And if I could do it, then you guys DEFINITELY can :)
Jennifer I says
Is there any sort of issue with whether your floors can handle the weight of the hardwood? We had to do some sort of little test to figure out whether there was enough support before we laid tile in our upstairs bathrooms. Sometimes, they don’t build the floors with enough joists in them to handle tile/wood. But, since this is an older home, you are probably all good.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes some joists aren’t strong or laid close enough but the homes in our neighborhood were built to hold hardwood upstairs (it was an option at sale time to choose carpet or wood so they built it to support either).
xo,
s
BurnsE says
Good luck with the installation! To give you a sense of time, we installed hardwoods last year, anticipating a full week to do a little under 1800 square feet. It took closer to two weeks of nearly full-time work. Obviously you’re not doing as much square footage :) The big time-sucks for us were the first row (because it MUST be aligned to the wall where you’re starting, as well as the ending wall, which could be in another room) and sanding the subfloor where it was uneven (hopefully not an issue for y’all). But once you get going, installation is pretty quick.
I highly recommend the team approach, where one of you is laying out/cutting boards for the nailer, which seems to speed things up. Please feel free to email if you have questions and have fun!