Refinish wood floors vs. LVP
We have hardwood floors on our LR and DR that are in need of refinishing but we have a toddler and he is very rough on the floors. We’ve done high end vinyl planking in the kitchen and are generally happy with the look and they really take a beating but at the end of the day they’re not hardwood! Would it be insane to cover up the wood floors with LVP for a few years and then once the kid is less animalistic, refinish the wood? Price wise, LVP is cheap to lay down and would cost a lot more to do the refinishing, plus winter is coming and we can’t really be out of the house for 3+ days in between the poly coats and off gassing. Thoughts and collective wisdom appreciated!
carolina-moscoso
in General Discussion 2 years and 9 months ago
15
Please log in, in order to post replies!
15 replies
andriywww1990 | 2 years and 9 months ago
whoa, i am sorry i used what you mentioned to take this further. i realize that most people really don’t want to tell others how to raise their children.
there is another possibility here: OP may not realize that perhaps the child is NOT doing anything to the floors that generations of children have done to floors (since this post appeared i thought about my mother and how she was always worried about the wood floors; i realize why now, she grew up in a levitt house with no wood floors). OP, roller skates are out. steel i-beams are out. but short of using hard and heavy or sharp metal like objects, these floors can deal with all sorts of things. things with plastic wheels are ok. plastic toys are ok. these finishes are hard and can deal with it.
unless you have some extenuating circumstance, if you are teaching the child to tap dance, you may wish to have the floors done, finished with low odor fast drying water base poly so you can live and work in the house that evening without getting high off oil base poly. the child may scratch them a litt le here and there and you can always have them screened and overcoated with a like product in a few years; all floors should be screened and coated every 10 years anyway (before the finish gets worn through from normal wear and tear).
and just so you know, i got called once to a floor that had been roller skated on – right after the parents had it refinished. it was in a narrow hall way and i did not yet own a floor buffing machine for screening so i got on my hands and knees, sanded it out with probably 180 and over coated. problem solved. a floor can be screen and overcoated to fix damage.
we know a lot about finishes on this board.
markwalker | 2 years and 9 months ago
I’ve been there, lived in a 3 room apartment with gorgeous parquet floors, all 4 of us my DH and two babies. I did what I had to do. But I do not mean to tell others how to raise their children, just
offering a cost free suggestion.
It occurred to me that the greatest challenge of a toddler is toilet training if that is going on you need something quite waterproof on the floor wherever the toddlers are . Sheet vinyl rather than interlocking tiles would be better.
andriywww1990 | 2 years and 9 months ago
Whoawhoa is right and i was thinking the same thing.. I did not want to be the one to say it. We never had a problem with our guy damaging anything in the house or anywhere. He never got in trouble in school. This started with my better half and i when he was a very young age. My wife is from another culture and she said this to me when he was about 3 mos old; “we can talk to him a lot now or yell at him a lot later”. He is a senior now and the dividends have been pouring in – all to his benefit. Setting ground rules benefits them later; it makes it easier for them to be in situations in school or around adults or in their first job when they will have to show restraint. It starts very young.
Back when i was a kid, our parents told us not to damage the floors and that was the end of the discussion. It was that way in every household. Keep in mind, people did not have the money back then like many youger people have today. We had to make thi ngs last.
We set up a corner in the living room. We put interlocking mats down. We allowed him to do whatever he wanted there. He tended to gravitate there and keep his toys there anyway: it was his space.
markwalker | 2 years and 9 months ago
Toddlers grow fast. Have you considered a rug that covers the main traffic areas? An indoor outdoor low pile rug, over a nonslip rug pad.. And not allowing the kids to run around but to teach some self control when in public rooms.
andriywww1990 | 2 years and 9 months ago
Bob, neither of us are in a position to insist on old(er) things looking brand new.
RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 2 years and 9 months ago
Or simply how fussy you are and whether you insist on old things looking brand new.
andriywww1990 | 2 years and 9 months ago
It depends on the lenses you are looking through.
RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 2 years and 9 months ago
Steve,
I think the point is that the application of Rejuvinate might make further sanding and refinishing unnecessary.
andriywww1990 | 2 years and 9 months ago
I don’t if there is a downside. Its one of those homeowner fixes that those of us who sometimes have to repair finishes don’t think about. But if you are going to sand later, i do not see the point.
carolina-moscoso | 2 years and 9 months ago
Thank you both.
@doors What would you say the potential dangers of Rejuvinate are? Can we not use it and then sand later down the road?
As far as the LVP goes, they are entirely “floating”’ and friction fit so no nails or fasteners except for maybe the perimeter where you need to tack down some quarter round.
andriywww1990 | 2 years and 9 months ago
I don’t see harm using rejuvinate on floors that won’t be sanded again. And maybe there is no harm, period. But working in this, when we are charging money, it is better to go on what we think so long as if we err it is on the side of caution. If we did not err on on the side of caution, we would have finishes chipping and prematurely failing all over the place.
RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 2 years and 9 months ago
Steve,
The person who installed the vinyl planks in my pantry did nail down the end planks. It’s a small space; perhaps more fasteners would be needed in a real room.
My parquet floors were sanded and refinished when we first moved in. They’re too thin for another sanding so I don’t think Rejuvinate does any harm, especially since I wait years between coats. . However I think the stuff is water soluble and can be washed off
andriywww1990 | 2 years and 9 months ago
They must nail those floors someplace bob, no?
So if you intend to keep the wood floors and even if you are going to sand them later, don’t start adding things like rejuvinate to the floors. Even cleaners like murphys or the bona) as these might have things in them that are inconsitant with later work. (To those who saw what augustiner said to me in a reply about bona: one reason i don’t like bona is they make a clear and my wife buys it and it is my belief that wood floors be cleaned with a mop dampened with water; we don’t need all these other products in our lives; we never had them).
Why not lay big area rugs. Or get the floors done and lay big area rugs.
RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 2 years and 9 months ago
I had vinyl plank flooring installed in my pantry a couple of years ago and the planks interlock—they aren’t glued down—so I imagine they could be removed without damage. That being said I wouldn’t want the stuff in a room.
If your wood floors aren’t too bad a coat of Rejuvinate might be enough. The stuff is easy to apply. I’ve been using it for many years on my parquet floors.
andriywww1990 | 2 years and 9 months ago
My guess is you can put something over wood and remove it later. But we cannot lift things like glued veneers and i suppose vinyl straight up as we remove it as it will damage the wood.
I am not sure what these are glued down with, but prior do doing this, get some wood, the adhesive, and a sample of the intended overlay, and laminate it together. Then do this: get a chunk of dry ice. Let the dry ice sit on the laminate for 30 seconds and see if it breaks the glue bond. That is how you will safely remove the temporary floor. We have removed old vinyl tiles from entire floors of buildings this way. Lie 3 or 4 12×12 pieces of dry ice down and push them along and lift.
In so far as having to remain out of the house for 3 days as floor finish off gasses, most floors i now see being done are being finished with water base poly. I like a product called street shoe by basic coatings. These dry so you can walk on them in two hours. Two coats a day, during the day, and you are walking ion them at 6 pm. So two days to finish.
You can consider this: have the floors done with a commercial water base product with a cross link hardener in it. Let the child scratch them so long as they don’t go through the finish to the wood, and in a few years have the floor guy come back and “screen” the floor off and spot treat anything that went through to the wood with a coat, let that dry and recoat the entire floor.
Floor people do not talk about screening. I have floors in this house that had been refinished years ago and when we were moving in, i noticed some wear marks and thin areas so i screened the entire house with all grits (60, 80, 100, 120, 180, 220) and recoated. All of the floors that had no physical damage looked brand new. 16 years on, my wife and i have worn through a spot of the finish about 1×1′ outside our bedroom door. The rest of the hallway looks new. This is easy to fix but the floor guys are not going to tell you this because it is a lot of running around for nothing: sand the damaged area to 100 or 120 to clean it up. Apply a thinned coat of varnish over the repair plus a full coat (and a second full coat) after the thinned has dried. Screen the entire floor (i am not carrying a floor machine up here to screen a little hallway. I will get on my hands with a ro sander). This is easy. The floor guys will hate me for telling you all of this-