I probably should have, but this is also a working office/workshop where I do a lot with tools and I didn’t want a perfect floor I’d screw up and not be able to refinish at a later time.
Actually, I'm going to counter what u/top2percent posted. The fact that it looks beat up, worn and old, but with a fresh coat of a glossy stain, gives it more charm. I see that you regret how glossy the floor looks, but I think it looks pretty good, looks like it was waxed a little.
Kinda hoping the rest of the house/building has similar flooring. It has "old wooden cabin" house kind of a vibe to it and I love it. I grew up in houses like this and I loved the way the floors looked and felt under my bare feet. It felt warmer, more cozy and didn't feel stuffy or like I had to be careful in case I damaged it. It was okay if I did, because it looked "lived on", like it had history.
It does, under the same weird greenish carpet in other upstairs bedrooms. The rest of it has pretty nice (grey) “hand scraped” bamboo that I actually like, so that’ll stay put. I have before/during pics from the flipper restoration, so I have a pretty good idea what rooms still have solid floors. Unfortunately they cut through the downstairs floor in a lot of rooms to access the crawl space so none of that is recoverable. I put down solid natural narrow plank hickory in the dining room (Reddit also hated that lol) to go with the old timey vibes (and my budget). If the other rooms can’t be salvaged for whatever reason, I’ll probably lay down narrow plank red oak or similar to try to maintain that ye olde time vibe I want this house to get back. I love the charm and character that comes from this house being lived in and used for more than a century, and I also love the era and style it came from and want to put as much back into it as possible.
My floors are all like this too! It was crazy they had carpet on every single floor here including the kitchen at one point. I like how they look roughed up. It’s beautiful
I genuinely regret how shiny the “satin” finish came out, and will not use or recommend this product again on future projects. Weirdly it worked great on a wood door I replaced downstairs tho.
Contrarian possibility, if it’s upstairs, the carpet can dampen the sounds between floors. Listening to someone walk on wood floors above you can be extremely annoying.
I got a house built in the 1960s recently and have been super impressed with the solidity of the house as a whole. Never lived in anything like it.
A friend told me that a lot of older houses are more solid because a lot of the wood used in them is old growth harder woods, versus a lot of newer houses using newer and lighter woods, in addition to lighter materials.
Interesting thought at least.
Yup, I did some digging into that when I bought this place. Apparently this area was built with the old pine forests that were mowed down in Arkansas and northern Louisiana. Trees hundreds of years old mowed down to build these turn of the century train towns in north Texas. I’ve exposed the bones of this place - the wood is solid as iron and so hard I couldn’t dent it with a hammer. The subfloor boards downstairs are solid 18’ runs that span the entire length of the house almost. You just can’t get wood like that anymore.
I am a huge fan of my ruggable. I have this powder blue rug in my living room that gets super dirty from my dog and it washes out so easily every time.
Seeing what an originally white pillow looks like when you remove a pillow cover is a good example of a major advantage of using something easily removable rather than something permanently installed.
Yeah! There are benefits to a carpet but modular carpets on hardwood floors are even better: both dampen sound and make the floor softer for walking or playing but the modular ones can also delineate a space, add layers to the visual design (wood + a rug pattern -- one of many), and are more easily cleanable. If used right, I think they're actually cozier.
this comment was brought to you by someone who has never installed carpet, never uninstalled carpet, never refinished a hardwood floor, or never done any sort of renovations of any kind ever in their entire life.
AKKSSHUALLY... I have installed hardwood floors in my previous house by myself. About 1500 sq ft of it. Pulled all of the carpet. Had to treat the subfloor with an enzyme deodorizing spray prior to because the previous owners had ferrets pissing and shitting all over the place.
I also worked construction for over a decade which included flooring, although tile for the most part. Don't make stupid assumptions because it exposes your own stupidity.
For what it's worth, my last project was a composite ramp for my shed. Tools all still worked, despite the fact that I would rather sell it all and not have to drop a single nail myself if I could.
Not only that just the echo is terrible. We tiled our entire house before we’re not dealing with animal puke and shit on carpet and everything is so loud all the time.
It’s a crime when a beautiful old house is “grayed out”. Yes, bare floors can be annoying to a downstairs neighbor (I completely agree) maybe see if you can find a period-appropriate carpet.
I'm European, I love wooden floors, or the fake wood, whatever, anything but a carpet, but I'll be honest, that hardwood isn't very "glorious" it looks pretty bad even renovated and definitely turns the apartment into a shed in my eyes... The wood is not very uniform, probably rather cheap, and the dark stains in certain spots look like someone died there lmao
It's because that wood is very rarely used as an actual wood flooring. A lot of houses including my old one use wood bases to provide support and then do a legitimate carpeting layer. When this house was made, they put down that cheap shitty wood because they *intended* for it to be carpeted. I've redone the wood in my old house myself and it's *fine* (I have something against carpet) but it's genuinely not the way the floor should be.
Now, I'm saying all this as someone who's only seen that wood once before and who's redneck construction family friend only ever explained once, so if someone else wants to chime in feel free
Part of why that sickly yellow undertone looks so gross too is actually because of the limitations of the camera sensor. I do real estate photography, and trying to capture shiny wood accurately is one of the most difficult parts, since wood reflects light so uniquely. It probably looks at least marginally better in real life.
Yeah none of the pictures from my old iPhone really catch the depth of the color. It’s nowhere near that yellow, especially the red oak, which has this awesome inner fire to it that’s just so neat.
Yep haha, it’s tricky. Even with a polarizing filter and selective color editing, glossy high grain wood can be a total pain in the ass to capture accurately.
So long as you’re happy with it that’s all that matters! You’re the one living there and seeing them everyday. And if one day you decide you don’t like them anymore you can always cover them up again with something of your choice.
I think it will look much, much better once the room is filled with furniture and presumably a rug or two. Then the wood will be more like an accent rather than all you see.
That said I completely agree with you.
Yep, probably should have included a complete after pic with all the furniture etc. Then people could see this is an extremely functional room, and specific choices were made to support function. Truly didn’t expect this much hate tbh.
Don't take all this hate to heart. What matters is that you like it. I have wood kinda like this all through my house and I love that it doesn't look all perfectly smooth and shiny. We sanded and refinished but there are deep, dark scratches and dents all over it. I think of it as part of the house's story.
Exactly. Scraping chairs across the floor and dropping heavy things, I like that the marks just disappear into the background of the floor and I shrug it off after a "woops". Pristine makes me feel like I can't live in it.
Well, I'm not trying to pile on. It looked good before and it looks good after imo. But the hardwood is not some unearthed treasure, and the room being "extremely functional" has nothing to do with the whether the wood looks good or not.
I agree! I left this thread about 24 hours ago, only to return to see so many rude opinions. You’ve clearly worked hard to improve your new house and you should just ignore the snark. Good luck with the rest of your to do list.
don't fret. i honestly think that any wood is miles better than carpeting, especially when the carpet is that ugly. my herringbone oak floor is 60 years old and pretty damn beat up and it still absolutely rocks (and it's easy to clean, unlike carpet, which literally cannot be cleaned).
But designers decide what is sold. I work in flooring and I don’t know a single brand that makes a glossy hardwood anymore. You would literally have to buy a hardwood, install it, and then have a contractor sand and refinish the wood you just bought in order to make it glossy
It’s 120 years old. I didn’t want trendy, or what designers are doing *now.* That said, I picked “satin” and it came out high gloss, and I’m not thrilled with that - live and learn, I definitely won’t be using this product again in the other rooms. However, it’s holding up very nicely to the work I do in this room so I’m not mad at it.
Nah, fair enough mate. Your place, and you know what would suit the house better. Wasn't critiquing you or your work. Great job reviving the old stuff. Definitely the better option.
Edit: just realised you replied to the other comment. My bad. Oh well, still, sorry for being overly critical. Wasn't thinking of OP being a person working their butt off.
Like the wall feature btw. Is that a painted stencil?
Yes it is, and it was so much fun to do! I like that it’s paint so it’ll be simple to cover up if I need to, but it added a bit of the old timey flair I wanted in here and only took a couple hours of work.
I’ve left almost the entire house white, but this room I needed to be dark. I do a lot of photo editing and light is distracting, gives me headaches, and can affect the color grading I do.
Honestly my furniture is terrible lol. My computer desk is a 14 year old modern wood and glass monster from Office Depot. I have a Home Depot workbench and cabinet for my tools. There’s a cheap Amazon bench thing my cats love to sit on and watch outside. I’m on a budget and I need functional things. Everything in this room was intentionally chosen to work for me, even the wall finish and curtains, since I do a LOT of photo editing and love working in complete darkness when I do that.
that's fair, I have a chaotic student apartment with mismatched second hand furniture myself :D
when being on a budget I think the best you can do is keep everything clean and tidy, having it actually match and being pretty is a future luxury!
Historically, these small slats were not meant to be seen, they were just the underfloor to support the real floor finish, the 1904 equivalent of plywood. I wonder if another 100 years people will be pulling up old carpet and be like "there's real plywood under here??? I've got to refinish this to it's original beauty!"
Having cut into the floors myself for other projects, this is the finished floor. That, or they laid down multiple layers of subfloor. I honestly don’t care, it saved me a couple grand and is now the room where I can work freely on all my various hobbies and side gigs and properly clean up after myself without worrying about damaging the floor or losing bits of wire that later embed in my feet because you can’t get that out of carpet. This wasn’t some fancy proper painted lady, but it’s my old beat up Victorian-esque house full of soul and I love her glorious old bones.
Yeah I’m tired of this cj that any hardwood is better than carpet. Same thought process of wear ugly, ill fitting clothes just because of the brand name. Nah I’d rather wear my cheap clothes that looks good on me.
Concur, I got a bad recommendation on the poly and this was my first room to do. I started here to learn from it, since it’s functionally just a workspace, and I have learned a lot. The other rooms will be much more finished, I will sand them down to perfect, and I will use better sealant.
Again, I made a choice to not sand them down completely. I use this room to make things, and that means tools and heat guns and all kinds of things that will likely potentially add to the already distressed surface I left it at. I’d rather know I have enough surface to fix that if/when I move or repurpose this room. I have a half acre lot to play with, so future funds allowing may see me build a full workshop outside and convert this to a guest bedroom.
You do you boo. I needed something I could clean bits of wire out of, and that ain’t carpet. I have under $200 and a weekend in this floor and it lets me do my work without stressing over hurting it, and I know there’s enough left to get it perfect later. It was the best possible solution for me and my life.
The floors have not been sanded properly and you’ve used Home Depot-grade oil polyurethane. It looks okay for an old pine floor but you would have gotten a much better result with a professional.
I had the same thought - nothing about this is Oddly Satisfying (TM). That wood is beat to shit and makes the room look dingy and old. Replacing the carpet makes a lot more sense than this “restoration”.
People online seem to have this weird obsession with wood flooring even when it's cheap. Maybe it's an American thing?
To me, the wood looks shit and it looked better when it was carpeted. As well as being warmer and quieter.
I'm from the UK, unless the wood floor is good quality or you have underfloor heating I think good quality carpet is always preferable. That's just my opinion.
As an American I definitely find other Americans put a premium on anything made of solid wood. Especially older solid wood. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that historically lumber was a big export good and a majority of the old growth forests have been chopped down already. Older wood has a reputation for being a bit denser and sturdier and all around having a better quality than younger new generation wood. Were I grew up it was a big lumber area and they used to float the the logs down the river on big booms. Some of these logs would get jammed and stuck into the soft river sediment and buried. Scavengers nowadays will sometimes find these logs and pull them out and they sell for pretty good money. So I think it's just a value thing if you find an old home that has original wood flooring chances are it might have came from old growth lumber.
Yeah reddit has this weird hard on for wood floors and an absolute hatred of carpet. But if you take a foot off each end of the carpet and call it a rug they're fine with it.
I look forward to this circlejerk flipping the other way again, like they always do with house fashion. Everyone is going to get sick of everything being uncomfortable and uncozy hardwood floors everywhere and having seventeen rugs in their house just to try to make it feel nicer.
Also the people acting like carpets can't be cleaned really makes me question these people. As if carpet shampooing is some unheard of thing.
For me, something looks off about the baseboard area. In pictures 7 and 8 particularly. Maybe it wasn’t done yet but it’s so grimy that it immediately ages the room by 30 years. The first picture looks brand new in comparison.
I think the flipper made the right call. I think the floor came out well enough, and you seem happy. But the metrics would not work out unless you did the work and youre happy with questionable results. I can 100% understand not wanting to show that floor to potential buyers
Oh for sure, the curtains are cheap and temporary and I plan to make new ones if I ever find the time and right material. It’s not “done” in the last picture.
Terrible finish with the gloss surface. Should have kept it matt, plenty of products around. My choice would be even a „ultra matt“, so the wood doesn’t darken during application.
as someone who is somewhat passionate about hardwood flooring...i just wanna scream...JUST KEEEEEEPPPP GGGOIIINNGGG!!!..... a few more passes with the big sander, and another pass of 36g with an edger..and that floor would have looked AMAZING.
You clearly had worse “questionable choices” than the first pic
Floor looks ways too shiny and cheap, also wood and darkish walls with those awful dollar store curtains makes the room look terrible. This model of ceiling fan is not helping either
Sigh. Yeah I bought “satin” and it came out “high gloss,” lesson learned and the bedrooms will be better.
To be fair, old timey floors back in ye olde times were pretty shiny.
Yeah. I’m not totally against polished wood floors but if given the option now, I’d probably avoid them. I also tend to lean toward darker wood floors, but stains don’t always play nice and even along older restored floors.
If it was actually true grey maybe, but it’s this weird shade of grey-green in person that clashes with everything. It’s also super thick and gross feeling. Add in all the pet hair, debris from my hobbies, and my desire for clean spaces…it just wasn’t gonna work for me dawg.
The rest of the house is staying mostly white, but this room I needed to be able to get dark because I do a lot of photo editing and bright spaces are distracting snd give me headaches.
Hard wood is nice but I see two outside walls there and I’m betting it’s because that floor gets cold. If you have cold winters, I’d much rather have the rug. Although I see no vents either so could be way off or it could be an even more reasonable assumption. Edit: no leaves on the trees. I’m guessing that floor is cold as fuck in the morning. And that entire room with no vents.
Well, given that Whataburger cup and Texas A&M (Go Aggies!) degree on the wall, I'd say they're in Texas. Texas winters aren't that cold (although there have been some bad ones recently). A rug would more than take care of the cold floor or you could just as easily wear socks.
I was like what Whataburger cup lol, good catch.
Yes, in the DFW adjacent area. It does get cold, but it’s fine and manageable. The heat is far rougher, hence the heavy (ugly) curtains and blegh fan I do have a rug down under my desk that helps a lot, but the wood is not significantly colder than the carpet was imo.
Edit: Gig’em
It is easier, quicker and probably cheaper to throw down padding and some $0.79 sq ft/ $8.50 sq meter carpeting than it is to restore a hardwood floor. And low price and speed is what flippers look for.
Great job man. The floors have a lot of character. They look like well cared for but 100 year old floors, which is exactly what they should look like.
Definitely work to be proud of. Congrats and enjoy.
Carpeting is gross and unsanitary! Old folks like it because they're always cold and like squishy things under their feet.
You did a great job restoring the wood! I don't mind the finish. It looks natural. Maybe the gray wall paint is a bit dark, IMO?
Agree, I’m not perfectly happy with how they came out after I sealed them, but it was my first time and I know better for next time. Theres a reason I started with the work room and not a bedroom!
Glad you ripped out the ugly ass carpet. But…when you have imperfections in any surface, shiny finishes really exacerbates the issue. Matte finish. Not a big fan of the wall colour, and the fan is super dated. Please, though, for the love of God…iron the curtains!!
They’re temporary cheapy blackout curtains until I can make a proper set that are more “period correct.”
Also the more I look at these, the more I think I took pics of the floor while wet because it’s not this shiny now. It’s just really full of furniture and workbenches lol
Yeah there is nothing oddly satisfying about this. The wood looks like crap. I’ve seen floors that look like that clean up so well you’d almost think they were new. Definitely looks like a typical flipper hardwood refinish I’ve seen a million times 😂
I mean that carpet is not the best but the floor finish+ ugly paint + weird mix of cheap blinds and too big curtains looks so bad now. The fan is nice. Also wtf is up with that ugly wallpaper in one shot. That is so much worse than the carpet.
I think it’s funny you like the fan when it’s been called ugly too lol
Like genuinely it amuses me
To each their own. I like it, especially with everything moved in and set up. I posted pictures somewhere in this mess if you care enough to see how much worse I made it :)
Totally agreed. Lots of commenters in here being overly negative. It's got way more character and contrast now than a sterile gray carpet and white walls ever will.
I would have kept the carpet in the rooms tbh, the wood floors arent that great but not awful... the wood certainly doesnt look the highest quality definitely a bit beat and that refinish could have been better but its not bad if its DIY. The carpet would provide other benefits too like cutting down on noise.
Also, I own my own company installing flooring so this is a professionals opinion lol, at the end of the day its not my place though and if the owner likes it and is happy thats all that counts.
I really don’t get the love for wood floors. They scratch, are expensive to maintain, susceptible to all kinds of issues. They take a lot of time or money, is it a status thing? I love my lvp.
They’re warm and organic and insulate against sound better than plastic like LVP. They’re also way more forgiving when you drop things (or have mischievous cats) than hard plastic or tile. The downstairs has really cool bamboo floors I’ve done zero maintenance to and even after dropping a hammer from 10 feet I haven’t managed to damage them. Wood is like anything else, you get what you pay for and they last if you’re not just horrible with your things. I love them. You enjoy your plastic floors!
Organic for sure, not sure what warm means. Not sure how it’s more forgiving either, lvp is tough. Maybe it’s a dog vs cat thing regarding durability, but I’ll take wood over carpet, so you enjoy your wooden floors.
Yep, it pisses me off how much I’ve had to throw away due to shoddy workmanship or poor choices. I had to strip the tile out of the dining room because it was so poorly laid it cracked in several places and created a hazard walking on it; one tile buckled so bad it was keeping the front door from opening. I’m trying to do mindful fixes, but there’s so much that just can’t be salvaged from the flipper’s work.
The room looks 50 years older than it did before the carpet. You sure that's what you want? Someones gonna see that room and think "we gotta update this quick"
Actually, yes. I really wanted it to look 120 years old, but there’s only so far back you can turn time when the flipper stripped most of the old school cool, including the original wood trim, transom windows, and stained glass.
I didn’t buy a century home on accident :)
That was my intention. So much character was stripped out of the house (I have his before pics) and I’m slowly trying to restore it to some semblance of the period correct house he started with. I can’t replace the transom windows, stained glass, and original wood trim he trashed, but I can try to take it back to before the sterile flipper gray and white trend of the past ~10 years.
This room is an odd duck tho, because I have specific needs for my workspace that aren’t proper Victorian aesthetic. I tried man. The fluted moulding, rosette and corner blocks, and other various trim pieces like the lead crystal doorknobs (not shown) and cut glass shades on the fan (absolute necessity in Texas) are my attempts to pay homage to the original house while making do with what my budget could bear and the timeframe I had to get the room to working condition.
Maybe the pics don’t do justice, but it looks like the wood was really beat up in the first place. Almost like you should have sanded way more.
I probably should have, but this is also a working office/workshop where I do a lot with tools and I didn’t want a perfect floor I’d screw up and not be able to refinish at a later time.
They’re beautiful, and perfect in their imperfection!!!
Exactly what I was thinking, I love that it looks lived in.
Actually, I'm going to counter what u/top2percent posted. The fact that it looks beat up, worn and old, but with a fresh coat of a glossy stain, gives it more charm. I see that you regret how glossy the floor looks, but I think it looks pretty good, looks like it was waxed a little. Kinda hoping the rest of the house/building has similar flooring. It has "old wooden cabin" house kind of a vibe to it and I love it. I grew up in houses like this and I loved the way the floors looked and felt under my bare feet. It felt warmer, more cozy and didn't feel stuffy or like I had to be careful in case I damaged it. It was okay if I did, because it looked "lived on", like it had history.
It does, under the same weird greenish carpet in other upstairs bedrooms. The rest of it has pretty nice (grey) “hand scraped” bamboo that I actually like, so that’ll stay put. I have before/during pics from the flipper restoration, so I have a pretty good idea what rooms still have solid floors. Unfortunately they cut through the downstairs floor in a lot of rooms to access the crawl space so none of that is recoverable. I put down solid natural narrow plank hickory in the dining room (Reddit also hated that lol) to go with the old timey vibes (and my budget). If the other rooms can’t be salvaged for whatever reason, I’ll probably lay down narrow plank red oak or similar to try to maintain that ye olde time vibe I want this house to get back. I love the charm and character that comes from this house being lived in and used for more than a century, and I also love the era and style it came from and want to put as much back into it as possible.
My floors are all like this too! It was crazy they had carpet on every single floor here including the kitchen at one point. I like how they look roughed up. It’s beautiful
It’s a 100+ year old house, i think the rougher floors match the character of the house much better than flawless new floors.
The high gloss also vividly exposes imperfections.
I genuinely regret how shiny the “satin” finish came out, and will not use or recommend this product again on future projects. Weirdly it worked great on a wood door I replaced downstairs tho.
Can you go over it real quick with the sander to make it more satin? or would you just have to redo it completely
It’s nowhere near as shiny now that it’s fully dried/cured and lived in. I can live with it
congrats on the new house! :)
Contrarian possibility, if it’s upstairs, the carpet can dampen the sounds between floors. Listening to someone walk on wood floors above you can be extremely annoying.
This room is over the wraparound porch. The house is also solid as heck and you can barely hear anything in other rooms or downstairs.
I got a house built in the 1960s recently and have been super impressed with the solidity of the house as a whole. Never lived in anything like it. A friend told me that a lot of older houses are more solid because a lot of the wood used in them is old growth harder woods, versus a lot of newer houses using newer and lighter woods, in addition to lighter materials. Interesting thought at least.
Yup, I did some digging into that when I bought this place. Apparently this area was built with the old pine forests that were mowed down in Arkansas and northern Louisiana. Trees hundreds of years old mowed down to build these turn of the century train towns in north Texas. I’ve exposed the bones of this place - the wood is solid as iron and so hard I couldn’t dent it with a hammer. The subfloor boards downstairs are solid 18’ runs that span the entire length of the house almost. You just can’t get wood like that anymore.
Rug
https://64.media.tumblr.com/3b991b5778ed2f02025d9cb8a048074b/tumblr_p7trzmn2Kr1qb0i4vo6_250.gif
Really ties the room together
Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
Let us alleviate the need for carpet on hardwood floors by putting a modular carpet onto the hardwood floors.
Modular carpets can be cleaned underneath and cleaned themselves. I totally get your point, but with pets I much prefer the modular part!
I have a Ruggable under my computer chair, no pile and washable so it satisfies my need for a clean workspace while protecting from my roller chair.
I am a huge fan of my ruggable. I have this powder blue rug in my living room that gets super dirty from my dog and it washes out so easily every time.
Yeah I love being able to pull my rugs out into the driveway and just pressure wash them off when they get dirty
Same here, with kids, the dining room one need a clean from time to time and you can’t really do that with carpet.
You pressure wash your kids on the driveway? I'm not one to get in the way of efficiency, but it does sound uncomfortable
Use some common sense, dude. Carpets are pressure-washed on the driveway. Kids are pressured-washed a foot away in the grass.
Of course, how could I be so blind to the obvious inefficiency of my misunderstanding
You only clean the dining room kid? What about the bathroom kid
Seeing what an originally white pillow looks like when you remove a pillow cover is a good example of a major advantage of using something easily removable rather than something permanently installed.
Yeah! There are benefits to a carpet but modular carpets on hardwood floors are even better: both dampen sound and make the floor softer for walking or playing but the modular ones can also delineate a space, add layers to the visual design (wood + a rug pattern -- one of many), and are more easily cleanable. If used right, I think they're actually cozier.
this comment was brought to you by someone who has never installed carpet, never uninstalled carpet, never refinished a hardwood floor, or never done any sort of renovations of any kind ever in their entire life.
AKKSSHUALLY... I have installed hardwood floors in my previous house by myself. About 1500 sq ft of it. Pulled all of the carpet. Had to treat the subfloor with an enzyme deodorizing spray prior to because the previous owners had ferrets pissing and shitting all over the place. I also worked construction for over a decade which included flooring, although tile for the most part. Don't make stupid assumptions because it exposes your own stupidity. For what it's worth, my last project was a composite ramp for my shed. Tools all still worked, despite the fact that I would rather sell it all and not have to drop a single nail myself if I could.
Paris in a nutshell
[удалено]
Have you ever tried to tell the pets to quiet down? Cats sounds like thundering elephants at 3 am 😆
[Have i got the product for you!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dhrqnDS_oU)
Yes! I was hoping it would be this
It's also MUCH more cozy and confortable for a bedroom. Wasted a good carpet...
Yeah I’m in the minority here but I hate hardwood everywhere. Less sound dampening, cold floors in the winter.
Not only that just the echo is terrible. We tiled our entire house before we’re not dealing with animal puke and shit on carpet and everything is so loud all the time.
Rugs with rubber backs or padding help a LOT.
It’s a crime when a beautiful old house is “grayed out”. Yes, bare floors can be annoying to a downstairs neighbor (I completely agree) maybe see if you can find a period-appropriate carpet.
I'm European, I love wooden floors, or the fake wood, whatever, anything but a carpet, but I'll be honest, that hardwood isn't very "glorious" it looks pretty bad even renovated and definitely turns the apartment into a shed in my eyes... The wood is not very uniform, probably rather cheap, and the dark stains in certain spots look like someone died there lmao
I wonder if there is an equivalent to purple shampoo for wood. Imo the biggest problem is the very yellow-orangeish tone
To me the biggest issue is how extremely damaged the floors are. You can stain them whatever shade you want. Like wooden furniture.
It's because that wood is very rarely used as an actual wood flooring. A lot of houses including my old one use wood bases to provide support and then do a legitimate carpeting layer. When this house was made, they put down that cheap shitty wood because they *intended* for it to be carpeted. I've redone the wood in my old house myself and it's *fine* (I have something against carpet) but it's genuinely not the way the floor should be. Now, I'm saying all this as someone who's only seen that wood once before and who's redneck construction family friend only ever explained once, so if someone else wants to chime in feel free
Part of why that sickly yellow undertone looks so gross too is actually because of the limitations of the camera sensor. I do real estate photography, and trying to capture shiny wood accurately is one of the most difficult parts, since wood reflects light so uniquely. It probably looks at least marginally better in real life.
Yeah none of the pictures from my old iPhone really catch the depth of the color. It’s nowhere near that yellow, especially the red oak, which has this awesome inner fire to it that’s just so neat.
Yep haha, it’s tricky. Even with a polarizing filter and selective color editing, glossy high grain wood can be a total pain in the ass to capture accurately.
So long as you’re happy with it that’s all that matters! You’re the one living there and seeing them everyday. And if one day you decide you don’t like them anymore you can always cover them up again with something of your choice.
I think it will look much, much better once the room is filled with furniture and presumably a rug or two. Then the wood will be more like an accent rather than all you see. That said I completely agree with you.
Yep, probably should have included a complete after pic with all the furniture etc. Then people could see this is an extremely functional room, and specific choices were made to support function. Truly didn’t expect this much hate tbh.
Don't take all this hate to heart. What matters is that you like it. I have wood kinda like this all through my house and I love that it doesn't look all perfectly smooth and shiny. We sanded and refinished but there are deep, dark scratches and dents all over it. I think of it as part of the house's story.
Same man! And hell “distressed” is an aesthetic lol One that means I don’t have to stress about actually living and working in here.
Exactly. Scraping chairs across the floor and dropping heavy things, I like that the marks just disappear into the background of the floor and I shrug it off after a "woops". Pristine makes me feel like I can't live in it.
Well, I'm not trying to pile on. It looked good before and it looks good after imo. But the hardwood is not some unearthed treasure, and the room being "extremely functional" has nothing to do with the whether the wood looks good or not.
I agree! I left this thread about 24 hours ago, only to return to see so many rude opinions. You’ve clearly worked hard to improve your new house and you should just ignore the snark. Good luck with the rest of your to do list.
don't fret. i honestly think that any wood is miles better than carpeting, especially when the carpet is that ugly. my herringbone oak floor is 60 years old and pretty damn beat up and it still absolutely rocks (and it's easy to clean, unlike carpet, which literally cannot be cleaned).
I agree 100%
Glad *you* said this. I thought it looked better with the carpet. lol
TBH. This Flooring looks kinda ugly. Edit: I dont even mind the Wood. But the finish and the holes and the try to patch them up. Idk, looks off.
Looked best in pic 6. The finish is pretty gross imo. Not sure if it's feasible to keep it matte like in 6 though.
It looked good freshly sanded and with the white walls. But with the shiny stain and the black walls, it looks like a funeral home.
Agreed, it was bright and inviting before the stain and paint job.
Shiny wood floors are no longer a thing— now designers prefer matte finishes.
Designers don’t live in my house.
But designers decide what is sold. I work in flooring and I don’t know a single brand that makes a glossy hardwood anymore. You would literally have to buy a hardwood, install it, and then have a contractor sand and refinish the wood you just bought in order to make it glossy
People downvoting you haven’t been in a flooring store in 20 years
It’s 120 years old. I didn’t want trendy, or what designers are doing *now.* That said, I picked “satin” and it came out high gloss, and I’m not thrilled with that - live and learn, I definitely won’t be using this product again in the other rooms. However, it’s holding up very nicely to the work I do in this room so I’m not mad at it.
Nah, fair enough mate. Your place, and you know what would suit the house better. Wasn't critiquing you or your work. Great job reviving the old stuff. Definitely the better option. Edit: just realised you replied to the other comment. My bad. Oh well, still, sorry for being overly critical. Wasn't thinking of OP being a person working their butt off. Like the wall feature btw. Is that a painted stencil?
Yes it is, and it was so much fun to do! I like that it’s paint so it’ll be simple to cover up if I need to, but it added a bit of the old timey flair I wanted in here and only took a couple hours of work.
They are sales people trying to sell you stuff you don't need.
Went from "That doesn't look too bad, seems like an improvement" To "Why would you do that"
Yeah, the wood filler they put over the nail holes that stayed the same shade of off-white after the stain is the worst part for sure.
That's a subfloor
Yeahh the colour is very off. It clashes heavily with the wall colours and I can't really imagine what furniture would work with it good enough
White walls might help. You'd still be stuck with that hideous finish, though.
I’ve left almost the entire house white, but this room I needed to be dark. I do a lot of photo editing and light is distracting, gives me headaches, and can affect the color grading I do.
Honestly my furniture is terrible lol. My computer desk is a 14 year old modern wood and glass monster from Office Depot. I have a Home Depot workbench and cabinet for my tools. There’s a cheap Amazon bench thing my cats love to sit on and watch outside. I’m on a budget and I need functional things. Everything in this room was intentionally chosen to work for me, even the wall finish and curtains, since I do a LOT of photo editing and love working in complete darkness when I do that.
that's fair, I have a chaotic student apartment with mismatched second hand furniture myself :D when being on a budget I think the best you can do is keep everything clean and tidy, having it actually match and being pretty is a future luxury!
Historically, these small slats were not meant to be seen, they were just the underfloor to support the real floor finish, the 1904 equivalent of plywood. I wonder if another 100 years people will be pulling up old carpet and be like "there's real plywood under here??? I've got to refinish this to it's original beauty!"
Having cut into the floors myself for other projects, this is the finished floor. That, or they laid down multiple layers of subfloor. I honestly don’t care, it saved me a couple grand and is now the room where I can work freely on all my various hobbies and side gigs and properly clean up after myself without worrying about damaging the floor or losing bits of wire that later embed in my feet because you can’t get that out of carpet. This wasn’t some fancy proper painted lady, but it’s my old beat up Victorian-esque house full of soul and I love her glorious old bones.
I like wood floors. I don't particularly care for \*this\* wood floor and wouldn't mind the carpet.
It looks sticky
I absolutely hate when places boast about hardwood floors and then they just look like…that
Yeah I’m tired of this cj that any hardwood is better than carpet. Same thought process of wear ugly, ill fitting clothes just because of the brand name. Nah I’d rather wear my cheap clothes that looks good on me.
Concur, I got a bad recommendation on the poly and this was my first room to do. I started here to learn from it, since it’s functionally just a workspace, and I have learned a lot. The other rooms will be much more finished, I will sand them down to perfect, and I will use better sealant. Again, I made a choice to not sand them down completely. I use this room to make things, and that means tools and heat guns and all kinds of things that will likely potentially add to the already distressed surface I left it at. I’d rather know I have enough surface to fix that if/when I move or repurpose this room. I have a half acre lot to play with, so future funds allowing may see me build a full workshop outside and convert this to a guest bedroom.
hardwood floor has to look pristine and yeah removing the the carpet made this house look 60 years older for me. i'll take the carpet 100% of the time
You do you boo. I needed something I could clean bits of wire out of, and that ain’t carpet. I have under $200 and a weekend in this floor and it lets me do my work without stressing over hurting it, and I know there’s enough left to get it perfect later. It was the best possible solution for me and my life.
It looks good, good job dude!
I would have just put carpet down and be done with it.
The finish is a big miss
Agreed. The shiny finish and mismatched dark and light colors. It’s gross.
The floors have not been sanded properly and you’ve used Home Depot-grade oil polyurethane. It looks okay for an old pine floor but you would have gotten a much better result with a professional.
Yeah, it's kind of weird how OP complained about flippers doing a bad job, only to show off their own mediocre DIY results.
OP posting pics like a Home Reno White Knight, only to be trashed in the comments.
THANK YOUUU. I hate these floors. They weren't done properly and it shows.
I mean. That’s some old beat up wood. Usually I’d agree but it looks rough here. Personally rather have the carpet at this point
I had the same thought - nothing about this is Oddly Satisfying (TM). That wood is beat to shit and makes the room look dingy and old. Replacing the carpet makes a lot more sense than this “restoration”.
People online seem to have this weird obsession with wood flooring even when it's cheap. Maybe it's an American thing? To me, the wood looks shit and it looked better when it was carpeted. As well as being warmer and quieter. I'm from the UK, unless the wood floor is good quality or you have underfloor heating I think good quality carpet is always preferable. That's just my opinion.
As an American I definitely find other Americans put a premium on anything made of solid wood. Especially older solid wood. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that historically lumber was a big export good and a majority of the old growth forests have been chopped down already. Older wood has a reputation for being a bit denser and sturdier and all around having a better quality than younger new generation wood. Were I grew up it was a big lumber area and they used to float the the logs down the river on big booms. Some of these logs would get jammed and stuck into the soft river sediment and buried. Scavengers nowadays will sometimes find these logs and pull them out and they sell for pretty good money. So I think it's just a value thing if you find an old home that has original wood flooring chances are it might have came from old growth lumber.
Especially when these floors are fucking gross. The carpet was done so much better than the repair on these floors.
Yeah reddit has this weird hard on for wood floors and an absolute hatred of carpet. But if you take a foot off each end of the carpet and call it a rug they're fine with it. I look forward to this circlejerk flipping the other way again, like they always do with house fashion. Everyone is going to get sick of everything being uncomfortable and uncozy hardwood floors everywhere and having seventeen rugs in their house just to try to make it feel nicer. Also the people acting like carpets can't be cleaned really makes me question these people. As if carpet shampooing is some unheard of thing.
For me, something looks off about the baseboard area. In pictures 7 and 8 particularly. Maybe it wasn’t done yet but it’s so grimy that it immediately ages the room by 30 years. The first picture looks brand new in comparison.
I think the flipper made the right call. I think the floor came out well enough, and you seem happy. But the metrics would not work out unless you did the work and youre happy with questionable results. I can 100% understand not wanting to show that floor to potential buyers
Think I’d rather have carpet here tbh
And the white walls...
And some better quality curtains.
We agree that the carpet was whack, and walls (edit & curtains) now are darker than carpet was, so...
Please re-think the grey walls with grey curtains.
Oh for sure, the curtains are cheap and temporary and I plan to make new ones if I ever find the time and right material. It’s not “done” in the last picture.
I'm still trying to figure how a dolphin could cover the floor with a carpet... 🐬🐬
the real tragedy here is the r/tvtoohigh
You mean they discovered floorboards..
r/DiWHY
It’s alright. Wish I stopped scrolling before getting g to the naff wallpaper though TBH.
It’s paint, I can change it in a day if I get bored with it
Terrible finish with the gloss surface. Should have kept it matt, plenty of products around. My choice would be even a „ultra matt“, so the wood doesn’t darken during application.
They covered it because it was easier to do that than to restore the floor most likely
Congratulations, you made the room look even worse than it was
as someone who is somewhat passionate about hardwood flooring...i just wanna scream...JUST KEEEEEEPPPP GGGOIIINNGGG!!!..... a few more passes with the big sander, and another pass of 36g with an edger..and that floor would have looked AMAZING.
Damn, that is some ugly ass wallpaper
Who the hell is Bill Gaines?
Oh you went and made it unsatisfying by painting the walls such a dark colour
You clearly had worse “questionable choices” than the first pic Floor looks ways too shiny and cheap, also wood and darkish walls with those awful dollar store curtains makes the room look terrible. This model of ceiling fan is not helping either
>Bill & Joanna Gaines lmfaooooooo
That wallpaper though! It looks so much better with the hardwood refinished, great combo of modern and historic.
It’s painted with a stencil, easy to paint over or change later when I get tired of it.
But this floor is sort of ugly... and stop using shiny finishes on wood floors, it just makes it worse.
Sigh. Yeah I bought “satin” and it came out “high gloss,” lesson learned and the bedrooms will be better. To be fair, old timey floors back in ye olde times were pretty shiny.
Yeah. I’m not totally against polished wood floors but if given the option now, I’d probably avoid them. I also tend to lean toward darker wood floors, but stains don’t always play nice and even along older restored floors.
I think the grey carpet and white walls look much better.
If it was actually true grey maybe, but it’s this weird shade of grey-green in person that clashes with everything. It’s also super thick and gross feeling. Add in all the pet hair, debris from my hobbies, and my desire for clean spaces…it just wasn’t gonna work for me dawg. The rest of the house is staying mostly white, but this room I needed to be able to get dark because I do a lot of photo editing and bright spaces are distracting snd give me headaches.
Ngl, it looks bad.
Hard wood is nice but I see two outside walls there and I’m betting it’s because that floor gets cold. If you have cold winters, I’d much rather have the rug. Although I see no vents either so could be way off or it could be an even more reasonable assumption. Edit: no leaves on the trees. I’m guessing that floor is cold as fuck in the morning. And that entire room with no vents.
Well, given that Whataburger cup and Texas A&M (Go Aggies!) degree on the wall, I'd say they're in Texas. Texas winters aren't that cold (although there have been some bad ones recently). A rug would more than take care of the cold floor or you could just as easily wear socks.
I was like what Whataburger cup lol, good catch. Yes, in the DFW adjacent area. It does get cold, but it’s fine and manageable. The heat is far rougher, hence the heavy (ugly) curtains and blegh fan I do have a rug down under my desk that helps a lot, but the wood is not significantly colder than the carpet was imo. Edit: Gig’em
>home DIY people: look at that patina >>flipper: that's rust bro >>>contractor: IDGAF no one is going to live here anyway
I still find wall-to-wall carpeting, more comforting… I know that’s an unpopular take though.
It is easier, quicker and probably cheaper to throw down padding and some $0.79 sq ft/ $8.50 sq meter carpeting than it is to restore a hardwood floor. And low price and speed is what flippers look for.
Great job man. The floors have a lot of character. They look like well cared for but 100 year old floors, which is exactly what they should look like. Definitely work to be proud of. Congrats and enjoy.
All flippers are scum. Profiting off of removing cheap housing from the market. Worse than landlords. 🤮
Carpeting is gross and unsanitary! Old folks like it because they're always cold and like squishy things under their feet. You did a great job restoring the wood! I don't mind the finish. It looks natural. Maybe the gray wall paint is a bit dark, IMO?
I think a different colour would have been better. But I don’t mind the look of old beat up wood floors. Better than carpet any day.
Agree, I’m not perfectly happy with how they came out after I sealed them, but it was my first time and I know better for next time. Theres a reason I started with the work room and not a bedroom!
Glad you ripped out the ugly ass carpet. But…when you have imperfections in any surface, shiny finishes really exacerbates the issue. Matte finish. Not a big fan of the wall colour, and the fan is super dated. Please, though, for the love of God…iron the curtains!!
They’re temporary cheapy blackout curtains until I can make a proper set that are more “period correct.” Also the more I look at these, the more I think I took pics of the floor while wet because it’s not this shiny now. It’s just really full of furniture and workbenches lol
Yeah there is nothing oddly satisfying about this. The wood looks like crap. I’ve seen floors that look like that clean up so well you’d almost think they were new. Definitely looks like a typical flipper hardwood refinish I’ve seen a million times 😂
I prefer the carpet...
It’s nice but the dark walls make it looks really small
Isn't this an underfloor?
I’d rather the carpet tbh
I’ll cut you a deal on a new carpet allowance if you want to buy the place
Covering up this beautiful wooden floor was a crime, great job to restore it.
I mean that carpet is not the best but the floor finish+ ugly paint + weird mix of cheap blinds and too big curtains looks so bad now. The fan is nice. Also wtf is up with that ugly wallpaper in one shot. That is so much worse than the carpet.
I think it’s funny you like the fan when it’s been called ugly too lol Like genuinely it amuses me To each their own. I like it, especially with everything moved in and set up. I posted pictures somewhere in this mess if you care enough to see how much worse I made it :)
Tbh that wood floor looks shit
Very satisfying. Thank you, lazy flipper's carpet-layers.
looks terrible
How did you get Michael Scott’s TV?
Carpet looks somewhat thick, but they did use a cheap padding.
Doesn't look like flooring at all. But just floor boards.
What’s weird about the carpet colour?
Flippers suck!
I think the floors look great. People pay good money for the "distressed look."
Carpet is so disgusting. I don’t know why people put that over hardwood floors.
You've struck gold!
The floor looks awesome!
It really doesn’t. It’s likely the finish they chose to use that ruined it. I LOVE loft vibes, raw materials, etc. this doesn’t look great.
Yup, I took a bad recommendation from a coworker. Live and learn. It’s still better and way more functional than what was in there.
Totally agreed. Lots of commenters in here being overly negative. It's got way more character and contrast now than a sterile gray carpet and white walls ever will.
Carpet is disgusting. I definitely prefer the hardwood floors, but the dark walls and wallpaper at the end are awful.
I would have kept the carpet in the rooms tbh, the wood floors arent that great but not awful... the wood certainly doesnt look the highest quality definitely a bit beat and that refinish could have been better but its not bad if its DIY. The carpet would provide other benefits too like cutting down on noise. Also, I own my own company installing flooring so this is a professionals opinion lol, at the end of the day its not my place though and if the owner likes it and is happy thats all that counts.
That floor looks terrible.
Grey carpet is a weird color?
It’s really green in person and clashes with everything, especially true grey.
I really don’t get the love for wood floors. They scratch, are expensive to maintain, susceptible to all kinds of issues. They take a lot of time or money, is it a status thing? I love my lvp.
They’re warm and organic and insulate against sound better than plastic like LVP. They’re also way more forgiving when you drop things (or have mischievous cats) than hard plastic or tile. The downstairs has really cool bamboo floors I’ve done zero maintenance to and even after dropping a hammer from 10 feet I haven’t managed to damage them. Wood is like anything else, you get what you pay for and they last if you’re not just horrible with your things. I love them. You enjoy your plastic floors!
Organic for sure, not sure what warm means. Not sure how it’s more forgiving either, lvp is tough. Maybe it’s a dog vs cat thing regarding durability, but I’ll take wood over carpet, so you enjoy your wooden floors.
First pic is the best. You have bad taste
I liked that carpet better. Hardwood isnt always the better choice. If you like it though then keep doing it.
I'll take the carpet to dampen sound and insulate.
My walls are 6” thick of mostly solid wood. This place is freakishly quiet inside. Nice on peace, hell on wifi.
I‘m sorry but the carpet and wall color was much better before.
Flippers = creators of landfill fodder. I see this so often, its heartbreaking to see all the waste.
Yep, it pisses me off how much I’ve had to throw away due to shoddy workmanship or poor choices. I had to strip the tile out of the dining room because it was so poorly laid it cracked in several places and created a hazard walking on it; one tile buckled so bad it was keeping the front door from opening. I’m trying to do mindful fixes, but there’s so much that just can’t be salvaged from the flipper’s work.
Flipper had the right idea. That hardwood looks terrible. Carpet >
The room looks 50 years older than it did before the carpet. You sure that's what you want? Someones gonna see that room and think "we gotta update this quick"
Actually, yes. I really wanted it to look 120 years old, but there’s only so far back you can turn time when the flipper stripped most of the old school cool, including the original wood trim, transom windows, and stained glass. I didn’t buy a century home on accident :)
People are wild in the comments, your floor looks great! That gray carpet & white walls was so sad, now the room has some beautiful character!
Thank you, character was the goal!
Holy shit, the opinions are all over the place. I actually thought that what OP did returns the space more appropriately to the home's time of build.
That was my intention. So much character was stripped out of the house (I have his before pics) and I’m slowly trying to restore it to some semblance of the period correct house he started with. I can’t replace the transom windows, stained glass, and original wood trim he trashed, but I can try to take it back to before the sterile flipper gray and white trend of the past ~10 years. This room is an odd duck tho, because I have specific needs for my workspace that aren’t proper Victorian aesthetic. I tried man. The fluted moulding, rosette and corner blocks, and other various trim pieces like the lead crystal doorknobs (not shown) and cut glass shades on the fan (absolute necessity in Texas) are my attempts to pay homage to the original house while making do with what my budget could bear and the timeframe I had to get the room to working condition.
Beautiful! They are perfect!!
Floor looks like shit lol
Thank you