We recently installed 3/4" BR111 Amendoim in our Living and family rooms. We love this floor, our problem lies with making it match an existing Hall/Foyer wood floor.

The flooring in the Hall/Foyer is approx 20yr old 3/4" Bruce prefinished oak. Its stained very dark, has enormous bevels(I should call them canyons) and its laid so that one row is wide, the next is narrow, etc.
In Summary, this Hall/Foyer floor looks very 1970's and dark and does not match well with the brownish tones of the new Amendoim we installed.

If we have this old floor refinished, because of the enormous bevels, I'm afraid we will have dark lines outlining each board where the sander was unable to remove the stain in the bevels. As this Foyer/Hallway runs directly into the rooms we installed the Amendoim, I'm afraid this will not blend in well at all. Also, can the floor be stained to match more closely the Amendoim.

One other problem with the old floor is that there is a huge hump in the middle. It appears at some point, the joist directly below it was higher than the others, so the joist was cut and sistered to a new joist. Anyway the old floor has bent itself over this hump (maybe 3/4" over a 1ft area)
This can't be good.

If we don't have the floor refinished, than a possible option is to rip it out and lay Amendoim thru out. Your thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Hi DT,

One of the good things about real wood floors is they can be refinished when we grow tired of their appearence or color. I know about those Bruce plank floors you have. Very popular in their day. As far as refinishing them, first, you need to make sure they are all solid wood and not engineered, like plywood. If they're solid, you can really grind on them to get dents, scratches and stain out; plus it will make the bevels smaller (shallower). Sanding the bevels is a chore. Typically in the past, I'd use a V-shaped scraper and kept it sharp with a file. You might not get every bit of stain out of those grooves but it will be better than doing nothing. And because the woods are different species, they are not going to match exactly. If you play around with some different stain colors, it could be an improvement. Now, IMO, the refinished floor will never match as well as replacing that floor with the same Amendoim floor. Another advantage for replacement is being able to fix that hump/bump you're refering to. Good luck.

Thank you for your input Gary!

We are torn about this, I think ultimately, we would like to rip out the old floor and replace with Amendoim, but it would be alot cheaper just to have them refinished.

But I would be having to hire someone to do the refinishing, and I'm afraid they may not take the time to scrape each groove as you suggested. Also, that hump in the floor has got to be putting alot of stress on that section of the floor.

I think your suggestion of replacing it with the Amendoim is the way we will need to go. I can then repair hump in the floor as well. Its just the stuff is so darn expensive!

Thanks!

If you can do your own demolition and installation of the new floor, it will not cost you all that much more than paying someone else to refinish those old floors. I would think a finisher would charge extra to scrape those bevels. I know I would. BTW, I just looked at what those floors cost and wow, your right, they are beautiful but pricey.
http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwo ... -solid.htm

So, I guess it would be cheaper to have those old floors refinished but are you really going to like the way it looks? Personaly, I think I'd save up for the new flooring instead and try to install it yourselves if possible.

We love the BR111 floors. With the help of the professionals on this message board, I was able to do the install myself of the new floors so I'm not afraid of taking on the Foyer/Hallway. It would be another 400sq ft. (Approx $3k in material).

If I chose to rip out the old floor, do you think there will be any issues as far as to many nail holes in the 3/4" OSB subfloor? I know it sounds stupid, but with the current floor being stapled in, and me ripping it out and then installing/stapling new wood down, will I potentially have problems with to many staple holes in the subfloor? Especially OSB

Thanks again for your advice, its much appreciated!

Well, none of us LOVE OSB as a subfloor and we wouldn't be having this conversation if you had plywood subfloors but I think you should be OK, especially if the OSB is newer. The older stuff that came out in the 80's and early 90's wasn't as good as the OSB is today. Keep in mind, although OSB manufacturer's disagree, fasteners do not hold as well in OSB as they do in plywood or solid board subfloors. I feel staples work best in OSB, better than cleats IMO. Just try not to tear up the subfloors removing that old Bruce floor.