Parquet or New Floors
We are redoing the first floor of our limestone. I love the look of new floors, so clean and easy to clean but apprehensive bc so many people don’t love their new floors. We could afford a wide plank oak or maple without borders. Our original floors are very thin, and were sanded etc 6…
We are redoing the first floor of our limestone. I love the look of new floors, so clean and easy to clean but apprehensive bc so many people don’t love their new floors. We could afford a wide plank oak or maple without borders. Our original floors are very thin, and were sanded etc 6 years ago and in desperate need of help. Can a GC install the new floors or better to go with a company like Buono? Do new simple floors add enough to the look of a limestone? Thanks
Oh and by the way, some part of the floor are fine, but we are constantly having to bang the nails back down, and watch out for splinters…will new varnish take care of this?
Thanks all! These are all really helpful.
We laminated our first floor, the one in question, a few years back. (totally regret that). So now I am also stuck between the look of a new floor and sheetrock wall which could appear a little flat versus the original parquet- which I like the look but never get that clean feeling like on new floors…
If we install new, does anyone think this is also a job for a GC?
Thanks all! These are all really helpful.
We laminated our first floor, the one in question, a few years back. (totally regret that). So now I am also stuck between the look of a new floor and sheetrock wall which could appear a little flat versus the original parquet- which I like the look but never get that clean feeling like on new floors…
If we install new, does anyone think this is also a job for a GC?
Totally agree, donnatella. Many years ago, when I bought my house, I did wall to wall carpeting in one small room because I had no idea just how well a good flooring company could copy or repair floors with feature trim and corner blocks. Of course, I don’t think I could have afforded it at that time either. In the major renovations I did over a 2 1/2 year span recently, I had some elaborate trims matched and two other floors totally replaced (because of their horrendous condition) with trims that I picked out. My pockets were deeper at this time, of course. Like yourself, I’m not a zealot about keeping things “period,” though I do not want them to look anachronistic either.
I had original parquet flooring here but it was in horrendous shape, missing parts, badly stained. I tried to match the parquet and almost hired a guy for more money than I wanted to spend to repair it but in the end, he didn’t have the right grade of replacement.
I had new parquet put in with trim of walnut and mahogony stripping matching the original. I had the guys copy the original design. It looks great. It really fits with the house and I have to say old and historic is wonderful, but I don’t make a fetish of it. To me there is nothing nice about cracked, damaged, floors with spaces that catch dirt.
I don’t know how your experience with Verrazano Flooring could have been any more radically different from my own. I used them to repair and refinish all of the parquet floors in my house. They re-created/matched existing elaborate borders in several rooms and also laid some new floors in a couple of places. (I must admit that I never heard of putting only one coat of poly down on a floor being refinished.) I found their workers very nice, hard working, polite and very able. And no, I am NOT an employee of Verrazano.
why not try new parquet floors. I did this with a great border on my garden floor. It added to the historic detail and looks great as well.
If you decide to go for new floors, check out Pioneer Millworks upstate. I’m always pushing them here but only because their remilled flooring (planks or T&G) from salvaged beams is such high quality and they are so nice to deal with. Doug Fir is less expensive than oak but period appropriate.
you can often screen floors that are too thin will take off all the old finish and you can recoat.