Hi guys!
When we bought this house they had 3 rooms with the wood flooring going 3 different directions, diagonal, horizontal, and vertical (and they laminate flooring over tile in the kitchen.) That solidified that we had to replace the flooring instead of sanding and staining the existing. I do have to say the flooring was the most expensive part of our reno. We did include it in the closets as well as the entire upstairs in bedrooms so we ended up doing about 2200 sq ft of new flooring. If we did pre-engineered wood it would have been cheaper because the contractors wouldn't have to sand and stain them and we'd only get charged for demo of the existing and then installation of the pre-engineered. But there are some cons of pre-engineered wood which is why we went for original wood. Con number 1 being it cannot be repeatedly sanded and refinished if we wanted to change the color. Con number two, the planks usually separate a bit which can trap dirt and grime.
SO we went with 5 inch natural white oak wood planks.
Our floor guy (Jacek 773-280-0226) just sanded it down and stained it natural seal with Bona.
He is Polish but he did know some English! We also live in the Chicago land area FYI.
For the stairs he sanded the top red oak and railings and stained it to match the flooring. Then our contractor painted the risers and sides of the stairs. It's not a perfect match since it was red oak but it'll do! I don't even notice!
BEFORE
DURING
AFTER (with filter)
AFTER (without filter)
(obviously the lighting in the house changes the color of the floors but tried to give you guys all different views of it!)
ITEMS:
Our floor guy (Jacek 773-280-0226)
baseboards: 7 1/4 inches MDF #7163 from Top Quality- painted Pure White by Sherwin Williams (all other walls, moldings and ceilings in our house is also Pure White by Sherwin Williams- Flat on ceilings, semi gloss on moldings, and satin on walls)
door casings: 3.5 inch MDF #374 from Top Quality
Some of the photos have been edited with my presets
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xoxo ela