Talk to me about hardwood floors! + also kitchen backsplash

[Susie]

I've never done or researched HW floors before, but I've wanted them, and now that we're buying a new house, we're planning to do it.  We plan to have about a month of overlap between our closings, so we will not be living in, or have furniture in the new house when the floors are being done.  

We're planning to leave the foyer and kitchen flooring as they are right now.  Someday we'll probably tile those together to match.  We want to do HWs in:
- Dining room
- Living room (which will be an office)
- Family room
- Stairs, upstairs hall, and bedrooms (I'm pretty sure).

Here's the house as-is (from listing):











Fortunately the kitchen & family room are the only two rooms that still have stained trim.  Not too much to paint (we will do that promptly).

So questions...
1.  What should I know about HW floor options?  What would you do?  Pre-finished?  Finish in place?  Any specific recommendations?  This is probably going to be "The House" for the long term future, so ability to refinish maybe even more than once is probably worth something.

2.  Kitchen backsplash doesn't have to be done before we move in, but I will be so much happier with that kitchen if we do it early on.  I really dislike what's there.  I'm thinking ivory maybe, or some light shade that looks good with the counters?  3x6 subway?  I want it to be light in color, not too expensive, and also less busy.  What do you think?

[aprilsails]

We had prefinished hardwood installed at the last house, and site finished hardwood in the new house. The difference is night and day. It is so nice to clean the site finished hardwood since there are no gaps between boards. Very smooth. It is super stinky and gross when it is being done, but that won’t matter if you aren’t living in the house. I would definitely get pricing from a local installer and recommend site finished all the way.

I would ask if they come back to do touch ups though. We needed some after the first winter when some boards shifted a bit. You will also want a whole house humidifier so that the hardwood stays happy all winter.

Our house is standard oak floors with Coffee Bean stain. I think the finish I very close to the colour of a medium walnut wood, which is what I was going for.

I prefer to shop backsplash once I’m in the house. Definitely agree that going lighter would brighten that kitchen up a lot.

[simpsongal]

+1 to finished in place hardwoords.

I'd consider water based poly b/c oil based yellows over time.
I'd ask for true shoe molding, not quarter round. I also like the shoe painted to match the baseboards (so it looks integrated w/the baseboards) rather than staining to match the floors.

Are you sure you don't want to do hardwood in the entry too? If you and kids enter from the garage, the front may not be terribly high traffic such at it needs tile.

For the backsplash, I'd think a neutral ivory tone would work.

ETA - CONGRATS!

[icedcoffee]

I'd consider hardwooding the entry and kitchen too. It may not be that much more expensive to just bring it into those spaces.

We have tile in our kitchen and I can't wait to bring the hardwoods in through there.

[Susie]

I think we're pretty sure we want to keep the kitchen tile, because there are 3 doors to the outside that all go into that kitchen flooring.  The garage door goes into the kitchen, so does the slider, and the laundry room is also through the door at the far end of the hall in the kitchen pic in the OP:



All in, that kitchen flooring covers a lot of square footage (the kitchen alone is about 22x12, plus hall and laundry room), a lot of exterior entrances, and a lot of water sources.  Given all of that, which probably isn't obvious from the pics, we are pretty firm on not doing HWs in the kitchen.  The other thing is that we may change the layout a bit in the longer term, IDK.  Would rather not do new kitchen flooring until that's clearer.

The foyer doesn't currently match the kitchen, and it could match the LR/DR instead of matching the kitchen.  IDK about that.

[kate]

We had our oak hardwoods refinished a couple years ago. Some things to consider:

Water-based finish to reduce yellowing
Harder woods like oak wear better, as opposed to a softer walnut wood floor- my friend has walnut and regrets it


I think ivory/white backsplash would be good in the kitchen. Could also consider a light sage green as a neutral backsplash (if it goes with counters, hard to tell)

[penguingrrl]

Definitely finish in place. Also, are you sure there isn’t hardwood beneath the carpet? In my house we had carpeted bedrooms that had the original 1926 hardwood underneath. We got them sanded and refinished and they’re gorgeous! And it saved a ton of money to not need new materials! Four years later and they’re still in perfect shape despite three kids and a dog.

[origami]

We bought a home with prefinished hardwood and it’s very expensive to sand and restain them. We could just get new floors for the price they’re giving us. You’re also limited in the number of times they can be sanded. I would not get that kind of you’re planning to refinish them in the future.

Another issue is that flooring companies are very backed up. So book ASAP in order to get it installed before your move in date. We asked our sellers to let us do another walk through purely so I could look at flooring samples in the house. They agreed, and even with that I couldn’t get them installed within 60 days hopefully it’s better now though.

Tile installers are the same way. I waited 3 months for an opening with them, but part of that was waiting for the tile delivery.

[Susie]

Mar 29, 2021 13:28:58 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

Definitely finish in place. Also, are you sure there isn’t hardwood beneath the carpet? In my house we had carpeted bedrooms that had the original 1926 hardwood underneath. We got them sanded and refinished and they’re gorgeous! And it saved a ton of money to not need new materials! Four years later and they’re still in perfect shape despite three kids and a dog.

We didn't check under the carpet, but the house was built in 1993 or 1994.  It's usually in older homes than that where you find hardwoods hiding under carpet.

[hbomdiggity]

Finish in place -100%

That said, wood install for stairs can be $$$$. I think it was the same cost to do the stairs as the first level of our old townhouse. But I much much prefer wood on stairs so it would be worth it to me.

I also think wood floors in the foyer would look nice. Since you will have a mud room(!) you can hopefully limit the true wet messes to there.

[libbygrl109]

Another vote for finish in place using a water-based poly.

[penguingrrl]

Mar 29, 2021 14:17:29 GMT -5 Susie said:

Mar 29, 2021 13:28:58 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

Definitely finish in place. Also, are you sure there isn’t hardwood beneath the carpet? In my house we had carpeted bedrooms that had the original 1926 hardwood underneath. We got them sanded and refinished and they’re gorgeous! And it saved a ton of money to not need new materials! Four years later and they’re still in perfect shape despite three kids and a dog.

We didn't check under the carpet, but the house was built in 1993 or 1994.  It's usually in older homes than that where you find hardwoods hiding under carpet.

Gotcha, and that makes sense. I’ve never lived in a newer house than 1950, but have often come across carpet covering nice hardwood. That explains it!

[barefootcontessa]

Pay more for the water-based finish, specifically Bona High Traffic. It does not yellow/amber over time, stays clear.

[numbers]

Definitely authentic finish-in-place hardwood floors!

I would also also strongly consider doing the foyer in hardwood. It would make for a beautiful entryway and reduce the number of different flooring types (a personal pet peeve).

For the kitchen backsplash, what about a warm white/ivory glass subway tile?

[sju1982]

My husband just installed MSI tile in our kitchen, finally replacing the dated tile that came with our house (along with new granite, which we had installed). It was very affordable, and we are super happy with the quality. I was able to order samples direct from the manufacturer, and purchased from a local tile place & Wayfair. We went with their Portico Pearl color, subway & herringbone. 

ETA - last pic is from inspection day, while we were buying the house.

Attachments:

[Susie]

Thanks for all the advice.  I talked to H about it, and we're going to wait and see what the pricing looks like, but we're starting to lean toward including the foyer with the living & dining rooms for HW, although the kitchen will stay as is.  We're wavering a little on the stairs, since we know that will be $$$$ relative to other spaces, and the kids rooms since our kids (ages 1 and 5) trash nice things.  However, I feel like this is our one shot to do site finished HWs, so we should just do it throughout and if it gets damaged, the kid has to live with it, and we'll use area rugs.  IDK.  We'll wait to see the estimate, ha.

For those who have HWs on the stairs, do you do a runner or anything?  I'm a little worried about my 1 yo on wood stairs.  Right now we have wall to wall carpet on a lot of the house, and he bumps down the carpet stairs.  I know he'd learn, but both kids fool around too much on stairs, and I'm worried about slipping on wood.

[sju1982]

We have bare hardwood floors on our stairs, and have not had an issue. We've been in our house since 2016, and my kids are 3 & 6. We remind them to slow down if we hear them them speeding down them. Our kids refuse to wear socks in the house, which probably helps.

[Susie]

Mar 31, 2021 9:25:03 GMT -5 sju1982 said:

Our kids refuse to wear socks in the house, which probably helps.

See, my DD runs around constantly in just socks, which is my worry!  I know she'd learn, but sigh.

[lessel]

Finish in place is the way to go, as other PPs have said. We've had oak in a couple houses--really just kind of standard oak color and I love it. It's just classic to me and goes with everything. Also, the wood needs time to acclimate in the house before being put down. Our floor guy brought in the wood and let it sit in our house for about 10 days I think before starting install.

I think you can go with wood on stairs w/no rugs. I actually fall down carpeted stairs more than I do wood stairs. I think I'm probably more careful on wood and I also think the carpet is kind of slippery on the edges.

And yes, I fall down the stairs enough to notice a difference. It's a problem.

That said, we think my dog slipped on our wood stairs at our old house and injured her knee (ACL repair). Don't know if it was because of the wood or if it would have happened on carpeted stairs.

[lacey]

Definitely site finished hardwood. I think we did Minewax Early American oil based stain - the color is brown so whatever yellowing has happened from the oil seems fairly complementary to me, I think with some of the lighter colors with yellow undertones the water based would make more of a difference.

Our stairs were wood when we bought but we haven’t had any problems with falling with similar aged kids, but this is all they’ve known.

The dining room and formal living room were already site finished hardwood when we bought so we added more of the same wood type and then they sanded and finished everything together. You can’t really tell what was original and what was added, so I think you could do the kids rooms later if you did it at a time you were restraining the hallway. We also have an area where we built wooden basement steps after the first floor floors were done. The transition there is more noticeable, the stain is the same but the sheen on the finish is off. It doesn’t bother me because it’s behind the basement door and would probably be fine for a kids room upstairs too (and it might be less of a difference if you kept better notes than I did and you matched products), but that might be an option for the future for the kids room as well.

[aprilsails]

We left the bedrooms as carpet. I doubt we will ever put in hardwood but we are in a colder climate and cold feet suck in the morning.

We did do hardwood stairs. The 1 year old is very careful but we keep a close eye on him, particularly since it is a straight run for 16 steps. I have only fallen once when I straight up stepped on the cat. I fell down our carpeted stairs far more often.

For us it was a smidge cheaper to do white risers. Don’t know if that’s a look you are into.

[Susie]

Mar 31, 2021 12:08:06 GMT -5 aprilsails said:

We left the bedrooms as carpet. I doubt we will ever put in hardwood but we are in a colder climate and cold feet suck in the morning.

We did do hardwood stairs. The 1 year old is very careful but we keep a close eye on him, particularly since it is a straight run for 16 steps. I have only fallen once when I straight up stepped on the cat. I fell down our carpeted stairs far more often.

For us it was a smidge cheaper to do white risers. Don’t know if that’s a look you are into.

I have always felt this way in the past.  In our current house though, our master bedroom floor wins the most-puked-upon award, thanks to our dogs who sleep in our room.  Both our older (now late) dog and our younger current one have had penchants for getting into stuff, ingesting it, and waiting until the wee hours of the AM to yarf it up.  Sigh.  We wake up and clean it up right away, but I'm so tired of cleaning that out of carpet.  So I was thinking HWs would be better.  IDK.

White risers would not bother me, esp. with the white trim.  So that is definitely an option.

[nicolewi]

House looks awesome!

Finished in place. I would consider leaving bedrooms carpeted. Floors are SO expensive and There’s not a huge upside to having them upstairs and in kids’ rooms. Kids usually prefer the feel of carpet anyway.

I would 100% do the foyer, for sure! I’d consider doing the kitchen, but I get your point about traffic in an out and also there’s always the issue of possible water spills or leaks in the kitchen.

I would use some of the money you save from not doing hardwood upstairs, to price also replacing the kitchen counters while you do the backsplash. Unless you love them! Looks like they are granite, which is great, but if you want to do a lighter backsplash, you could do the lighter counter is right at the same time. It would be difficult to change them out later without messing up your backsplash.

[expectantsteelerfan]

My preference is at least a runner on hardwood stairs. My dd was almost 3 when we moved into a house with wood stairs, and she was fine at that age, but it would have made me super nervous before that. But it's been a bigger issue for our dog. She also had an ACL injury (although not from the stairs), but she absolutely hates slippery surfaces now. She won't even go up the stairs now. We did put down temporary grippers on them, and years later she will now go up occasionally, but she still doesn't like them. If you aren't a dog person, you might be able to get past the toddler years without anything on the stairs though.

[Susie]

Mar 31, 2021 14:12:12 GMT -5 expectantsteelerfan said:

My preference is at least a runner on hardwood stairs. My dd was almost 3 when we moved into a house with wood stairs, and she was fine at that age, but it would have made me super nervous before that. But it's been a bigger issue for our dog. She also had an ACL injury (although not from the stairs), but she absolutely hates slippery surfaces now. She won't even go up the stairs now. We did put down temporary grippers on them, and years later she will now go up occasionally, but she still doesn't like them. If you aren't a dog person, you might be able to get past the toddler years without anything on the stairs though.

We have a golden retriever, and if my dad moves in with us, he'll bring two more.  Definitely a dog house.  That is something to think about.

[penguingrrl]

We have hardwood stairs with no runner. Knocks on wood (stairs) but my kids have never slipped on it. The only time one of my kids fell down the stairs and my mom’s carpeted stairs that were too slippery.

As far as kids bedrooms, we haven’t had an issue having hardwood there. Both kids rooms got throw rugs but have held up beautifully. After ripping the carpet out myself I’m glad we removed it and didn't’ replace because the amount of dirt and dust despite buying from someone who was meticulously clean was remarkable.

[rivers3]

We just built and put in an engineered hardwood. I really really wanted site finished hardwoods but it’s very expensive (~$12/sq ft for white oak was our quote and that was about 10 mo ago) in my LCOL area. Our builder (who I very much trust) indicated that the factory finish on the prefinished hardwoods with aluminum oxide are stronger/hold up better in his personal experience (possibly we just don’t have many good finishers in this area?). He also told us not to go over 4” width in a solid hardwood due to warping possibility in our climate. In any event, our 5” prefinished hardwoods are super matte in appearance and we are very happy with them. I went to multiple flooring stores and only found 1 prefinished option that looked realistic in a medium brown tone, many look plastic-y to me. It’s called Flint River Rock Hollow Oak. It was more like $5/sq for plus install. The stairs are plain white oak stained to match (Minwax special walnut) with white risers.

[Susie]

Circling back on this, we have talked to a few suppliers, we tentatively have an installer, and we're looking at moving forward with site-finished floors.

I've had lots of people try to talk me out of it, and tell me all the reasons I should do pre-finished.  Harder finish!  Better for pets/kids!  Some retailers were trying to push engineered floors too, and even wood look LVP.  It was honestly kind of frustrating.  Everyone kept telling me I shouldn't do site-finished unless there was existing HW floors that I was trying to match, which isn't the case.  Nonetheless, I really wanted that smooth surface and wood feel that are only really attainable with site-finishing.  With a month between purchase and move-in, we're relatively ideally situated to do it (now and only now).

We were planning to do red oak, but right now inventory is down, price is up, and just getting it at all is hard.  We have one supplier who has better availability with American cherry than oak, and it's <$5/sq. ft.  Initially I thought cherry floors were pretty extra, but I think I'm here for it.  I like cherry, and a lot of our furniture is made of it.  

Right now it's looking like they're going to measure next week (hopefully inventory holds up through then), and we're going to try to do the entire house except for the kitchen, laundry room, and bathrooms.  Gulp!  It helps that our installer is a friend of H's and is giving us a break on install cost.  We should be able to stay <$10/sf.  

[KellyEasterbrook]

May 3, 2021 10:36:55 GMT -5 Susie said:

Circling back on this, we have talked to a few suppliers, we tentatively have an installer, and we're looking at moving forward with site-finished floors.

I've had lots of people try to talk me out of it, and tell me all the reasons I should do pre-finished.  Harder finish!  Better for pets/kids!  Some retailers were trying to push engineered floors too, and even wood look LVP.  It was honestly kind of frustrating.  Everyone kept telling me I shouldn't do site-finished unless there was existing HW floors that I was trying to match, which isn't the case.  Nonetheless, I really wanted that smooth surface and wood feel that are only really attainable with site-finishing.  With a month between purchase and move-in, we're relatively ideally situated to do it (now and only now).

We were planning to do red oak, but right now inventory is down, price is up, and just getting it at all is hard.  We have one supplier who has better availability with American cherry than oak, and it's <$5/sq. ft.  Initially I thought cherry floors were pretty extra, but I think I'm here for it.  I like cherry, and a lot of our furniture is made of it.  

Right now it's looking like they're going to measure next week (hopefully inventory holds up through then), and we're going to try to do the entire house except for the kitchen, laundry room, and bathrooms.  Gulp!  It helps that our installer is a friend of H's and is giving us a break on install cost.  We should be able to stay <$10/sf.  

That’s so exciting! Cherry sounds gorgeous, and it’s awesome you e got an installer you can trust.

We looked into having hardwoods installed when we bought our current house. It’s wasn’t until the installers arrived to measure for quotes that we learned our subfloor isn’t all plywood and would have to be redone for hardwood flooring. Our estimates came back in the $24K + range for just 1300 sq ft (and this was pre Covid price escalation). So that’s the one thing I’d advise in triple checking— the state of your subfloor.

[kate1482]

I think simple cream/ivory 3x6 subway tiles would look great! We did something similar. My only recommendation would be to go to a tile store vs Home Depot and bring home all their cream/ivory subway tile samples. It’s really important to get the right undertone so it compliments your granite. (The ivory at our Home Depot had a pink undertone so it would have clashed). It cost just a bit more but it was worth it.

Congratulations on the new house!