Urban Renewal: We're Floored

As mentioned in our first post, our home was covered in the lowest grade, ugliest blue, “elementary school” carpet. We were happy to find perfectly good hardwood floors underneath the gross carpet, albeit with scratches (more like gauges) and stains. This made the floor a perfect candidate for refinishing. We also took this as an opportunity to have them stained a little darker because there is just something so luxe about dark hardwood floors.

We also wanted to extend the hardwoods into the kitchen area that was covered in cracked ceramic tile. The food prep area was ceramic tile. NOTE: We discovered there was laminate underneath the ceramic tile installed by the previous owners. If you place ceramic tile over laminate, your ceramic tiles will crack. We decided this was something we wanted to leave to the pros to complete since we did not have any experience with that kind of stuff and we figured with all the headaches it would be completely worth it. We received many recommendations to use Arlandria Floors, a local flooring shop not far from where we live and they were comparable to the big box stores.

We were not sorry that we went with Arlandria Floors; its staff did such an amazing job and the customer service was top notch. Staff also used a sand-less machine, which was a plus since it would reduce (not eliminate) the dust that resulted from the sanding.

It was obvious when the renters moved their furniture out they took no care in making sure they did not scratch the floors in the dining area. We were a little concerned that the deep scratches would be too deep to get out. Now you cannot even tell the deep scratches ever existed. Arlandria Floors was able to add in the kitchen portion and it looks much better and is exactly what we were hoping for.

The other flooring areas look more polished with the darker stain and they coordinate with our funiture better than the blonder-looking wood.  

Lessons Learned:

• Always look underneath carpet—you might just find hardwood floors!
• Laminate underneath ceramic tiles will cause the ceramic tiles to crack
• Look outside the big box stores; you could find a comparable product and excellent customer service
• When possible, look for a hardwood floor finishing service that will use a sandless system
• The stain and polyurethane that is used during re-finishing is not a pleasant smell. If you are sensitive to this kind of thing you might want to move out while your floors are being refinished

 Follow our journey: Urban Renewal