Thank you, Gregmills84 ... Have read many positive reports on engineered hardwood versus real hardwood and the most important issue would be the cost ... I started to get information from Lowes just to get " my feet wet" in this type of floor... I consider this my "stepping stone" before I go to the "big boys" in the hardwood floor industry, which I am planning to do shortly ... I am in my preliminary steps in this project ... After I put together all the information I need, then I will analyze what I have at hand and will make a decision which hopefully will turn out to be a wise decision, based on all the information gathered ... Again, thank you for your input and look forward to hearing from other members... ( By the way, I received my first quote from Brazilian Direct).. Canelita-2

How badly do you want to sell your home to please your wife? If her piece of mind is your primary concern then do what will get you the fastest sale regardless of the flooring you choose or resale value. My own personal preference is hardwood for the public areas of a home, (living and dining rooms). Bedrooms are all right for carpeting, never in a bathroom thou. Sanding and refinishing the stairs is a great idea. I would think that the RA you choose would point out to potential buyers that your town home is larger then the huge development and much more neighborly and intimate with just 8 of them. NancyLouise

Lots of negative waves here! :) We did a lot of thinking and measuring before we jumped in on the project. The above you issues you have all mentioned were big concerns of mine as well, but a lot of details fell in to place. I ended up ordering oak stair treads that were made to order. 1/2 thick on the main tread, return on front and both sides at 1.5" tall (to wrap existing tread), with a 1.5" return extending past the tread. They look very nice and appear to be constructed well. Prior to install, they will get stained and sealed when we get our hardwood floors refinished in a couple of weeks. Regarding liability and code, all of that has been taken in to account and they will actually be better than the original build. On the staircase, the first step from the top, just happened to have a higher rise by 1/2" than all of the other stairs, and the bottom step happened to have 1/2" less than all of the other treads, so after the retrofit they be more in code and consistent throughout the staircase than they were before the retrofit. After removing and numbering all of the spindles, we were able to take out the threaded shaft in the bottoms, cut 1/2" shorter and reinstall a wooden dowel back in its place which will fit in to the drilled holes on the tread. We made up a plumb bob with a dowel rod that fits in to the hole on the underside of the railing. When plugged in, it will give us area to drill the hole for the spindle. There is enough play on the top end of the spindle in to the railing that we will be able to raise them enough to install the tread, lower the spindle base dowel in to the hole, and then secure with a brad nailer. So far so good. Our floor refinishing got put off for a couple of weeks as prior to doing the floors, we had a contractor remove all of our popcorn ceilings in our vaulted living room, kitchen, dining room, mud room, and hallway. That should be removed and painted by within the next two weeks, and the floors are scheduled for Oct 18th. In the interim, I have dry fit all of the treads and numbered them for the steps. Many of them needed some light sanding on the inside of the side returns to properly fit over the exterior trim piece we installed on the sides of the staircase. We will be now be dry fitting, plumb bob, and drill the holes for the spindles so that once the steps are stained, we can do the final install.

We had the narrow oak strips in our kitchen and family room and refished them once. It was messy and the finish was not that durable and scratched easily. When we decided to replace all the carpet in our house we decided to go with factory finished hardwood and ripped out what we had. Yes it was a bit wasteful but that is the reality of renovating. We had a houseful of furniture when we ripped them out and we were able to just move the furniture from room to room and put it back immediately. With refinishing we had to wait a week for the floors to be done and dry and even then they were still a bit tacky. Replacement was completely done in 2 days and we didn’t have to move our furniture out into storage. Plus the factory applied finish on hardwood is much stronger in our experience. There are wider plank hardwoods available with a wide selection of finishes. In our case replacement was the better option while living in the house.