Refinishing vs. Replacing: Can Your Wood Floor be Salvaged?

Wood flooring is one of the best investments that a homeowner can make, adding big aesthetic value and lasting well into the future. Over time, however, your wood flooring might start to look a little faded, picking up scuffs and scrapes after years of use. If you’re wood floor isn’t looking as good as you deserve, then you have two options: Refinish or replace.

Before you decide to refinish or replace your wood flooring, it’s important that you learn about some of the strengths and advantages of each option so that you can make the right choice for you. Here is some information about whether you should refinish or replace hardwood flooring in your home so that you get the fantastic flooring you deserve.

How Much Are You Willing to Spend?

One of the biggest factors that can help you decide if you should refinish or replace your wood flooring is how much you’re willing to spend on the project.

As you might imagine, refinishing your wood flooring costs a fraction of the amount that it does to replace your floor. For a hardwood replacement, there are a number of costs to consider. Labor, for example, can cost between $2.03 and $4.03 per square foot, and that’s by no means your only expense. Materials ($1.15 to $10.44 per sq.ft.), moving furniture ($23 to $53 for two pieces) and molding ($4 to $28 per section) can all contribute to your costs.

If you want to restore your floor’s original appearance but have a limited amount of funds to work with, refinishing your wood flooring is usually the better option.

Expectations vs. Reality

Before beginning any large home improvement project, it’s important to examine your expectations for the project versus what you can realistically accomplish.

Some homeowners simply want to give their floor back its original luster, and if that’s your main goal, then refinishing your floors is a suitable option. However, if you completely change your floor’s appearance to give your home a refreshed style, then replacing your old, worn wood flooring is the perfect solution. Replacing wood flooring gives you the ability to switch wood types, designs and finishes, which cannot be accomplished through refinishing.

Knowing what you want out of your project at the outset will help you choose between refinishing and replacing your wood flooring.

Think About Your Floor’s Age

Because wood flooring is so durable, it’s possible you’ve had the flooring in your home for years, if not decades. What you might not realize, however, is that the age of your floor can actually help you decide whether you should refinish or replace.

Older flooring, for a variety of reasons, can sometimes be resistant to refinishing, especially if it has already been refinished multiple times. After a certain point, refinishing an old floor is not worth the effort, which means that replacing can be a much better, if more expensive, option. Examining the age of your floor can be the best way to choose between refinishing and replacing.

Replace Hardwood Flooring to Transform Your Home

Eventually, after years of use, the wood flooring in your home will need a little TLC to keep looking its best. Before you can restore your floors look, you must decide whether you’re going to refinish or replace. While costlier, it can be a better idea to replace hardwood flooring, as replacement gives you options for new styles and means you’ll have a floor that will last for decades to come.