first step in finishing the finish room

allen levine

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new york city burbs
I dont recommend pulling carpet up and having to remove6000 staples from a floor.
I had to lay on the floor like a beached whale to get all the staples out.
And when I thought it couldnt get worse, then I had to start taking down wallpaper borders, that where glued on top of each other.
eh.I ripped every piece of molding off except the casing around the windows.I even threw out the closet doors, give me another build to try to make a set of closet doors and install the hardware.
So I got to looking at the floor.
Its the original floor installed when the house was built back in 1948.
There are no other original floors in the house, they were all ruined by glueing tiles or other flooring over them.
I was going to install a maple floor in this room, but I started thinking.
Its a bit nostalgic, a floor thats 65 years old, maybe I should just have someone come in and sand and refinish it. Keep something in the house original.
Take a look, what do you think? keep it or floor over it?
(it was much cleaner until I starting ripping down wall paper today, made a mess all over the place, just swept up, didnt clean the floor)
I believe its common oak flooring.
 

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Im putting the small twin bed I built in there.
I will start building a new closet, small simple desk, radiator cover and a dresser/armoir and maybe a nightstand somewhat matching.
My original plan was to do built ins, but it doesnt make much sense at this stage.
We might move out within 5 years, and the built ins dont come or my kids cant take them . If I build a small hall desk, and a small armoir, they can always use those pieces somewhere.
Im building thinking of where the pieces will end up.
IM ready to get out of NY during the winters, and my son already told me I can have his garage to set up a shop, alot smaller, but Im willing to compromise and not even sure if Ill be healthy enough to do this stuff by then.

bob, I still have the other smaller bedroom unoccupied, so thats my new finish room as soon as I paint this room and have the floor in or redone.

Im hoping to have it painted and ready to start building some furniture long before Thanksgiving.
 
As long as the price isn't ridiculous, my vote would be to refinish the old floor. It looks like it's still in pretty decent shape.
 
out here, its around 2-2.25 a sq foot to have floor sanded and refinished.
Figuring, its around 160 sq ft total, thats a huge amount less than paying 4.50 a sq ft for new flooring then paying someone to install it, or worse, breaking my back and renting a stapler and installing it.
My wife thinks we should keep the floor and have it sanded.
Her sister just had her floors done by someone who came reco'd by someone on my street, and both jobs were excellent, and very reasonable.
Im thinking after I paint, Ill call him to see what hell charge me.
 
I vote for redoing the original floors...then if you do sell, you can include that in the description..."Original wood floors..." That's a big selling point for some people...even if it is the only room in the house. :D

BTW, I pulled staples out of floors of an entire 2500 sq ft house once in my youth...I can't imagine doing that again!! :(
 
couldnt believe the floor guy cant get here till thanksgiving weekend, yes, hes so booked to do a small bedroom he will do it on thanksgiving weekend.
No problem for me, hes just forcing me to go out to the shop tomorrow and start doing some woodworking, thought Id finish off some painting and molding, but now it can all wait.
quoted price of 250 dollars to sand, repair , apply filler and poly, 2 coats.
50 bucks more and an extra day if I want it stained, but I think Ill go with the natural color.
 
... quoted price of 250 dollars to sand, repair , apply filler and poly, 2 coats...

Dang, that's a low price...$250 would just be enough to get me to show up at the door with the tools. I'd want at least that much more to actually do the work. :p No wonder the floor guy's booked solid.

Heck, we charge $195 for the first 30 minutes just to hang pictures. (It's $95/hr after that, pro-rated in 15 minute increments. Plus hardware, with additional costs for tricky or heavy installations.) I'd be charging twice that much to refinish someone's floor.
 
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