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Design Dilemma Flooring Home Decorating

should I refinish these red oak hardwood floors?'

last year

I just purchased a new condo and am torn about what to do with the flooring in this large open floor plan with lots of windows.

These pictures are at different times of the day so the color seems to change. There are certain times of the day when I don’t mind the color and other times where I just don’t like it at all.

The pictures with the furniture are from the original listing so my furniture will be different. In my opinion, they are a little too orange and red. I am told that this is Red Oak. I am scheduled to have the floors refinished to either natural or a different color though I am not sure what color that will be.
The ceilings are concrete, I will not be changing the color of the cabinets in the kitchen but the wall colors will change( have not decided wall color but most likely something neutral but not beige). Also, the bedrooms will have the carpet removed and flooring will match whichever floor I decide to go with.

One of my concerns Is that some of the furniture that I have may not “show up” because of the current floor color

Do you think it’s worth changing the floor color or is it livable? If I were to change it, do you think it should be left on its natural state, If not, what color do you think would be good?

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Comments (4)

millworkman
last year
Nothing wrong with those floors as is. I would not change them.
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BeverlyFLADeziner
last year
The stain on the floors seems to work well with the architectural finishes of the loft.

Can't speak to how this will work with your furnishings.

You have red oak so you're limited as to how light you can go without the wood going pink so here are three alternatives. The first one comes close to matching your cabinets.

Only you can determine if the cost to do this is worth the final outcome

This one is darker but perhaps not as red as your current floor.

This last one is totally dark.
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We recently had our WHITE oak floors refinished, as well as added more hardwood on the first floor. We chose to have them natural, although at first we were afraid it would be too pale. The floor guys applied the oil-based finish to a large area to show us how it would look and we love it! The finish definitely adds depth, warmth, and color to the floors and really brings out the grain. I love the way the natural finisih makes each board stand out, yet come together for a beautiful, cohesive look. There are a few very pale (almost white) boards, but not many---if they all had looked like that, I would not have been pleased; but mixed in with the majority much warmer boards they look fine and don't bother me at all--it looks lovely, and the variance in how each board took the stain is part of the beauty. To me, it really emphasizes the beauty of the hardwood floor.
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A Red Oak floor can be bleached so that it turns a silvery gray (very light). This is expensive. It adds another $2/sf on to sand/refinish. The average price for sand/refinish = $5/sf. That means your chosen colour (with bleaching) is going to be about $7/sf. That's it. That's all. Everything included. Compare that to a factory finished floor identical to your inspiration photo: $7-$12/sf (depending on how wide the plank is...wider is more expensive). Now you have to pay for the original wood to be ripped out ($1-$2/sf depending on if it is nailed or glued). Subfloor prep is another $1-$3/sf (depending on if it was nailed or glued). And then the installation = $3- $5/sf (depending on if it is nailed or glued). Whew. Makes the $7/sf refinishing price pretty attractive doesn't it? The REALLY pricey bit: the stairs. That is going to run MUCH more than dealing with hardwood. It takes a VERY special wood worker to get the railing and the treads to match the colour. It is long, tedious work. The floor isn't the part I would worry about. I would be VERY nervous about the stairs. That is going to cost and arm and a leg to refinish.
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I'm not sure what LVT is. :) I have an appointment with the flooring person for Saturday to test out samples. Cherie, we hate forced hot air because it bothers my and the kids' asthma and allergies so I am actually very happy about these baseboard radiators as radiant heat is much easier on the lungs since it's not blowing hot air all over the place. There is central air for the summer months. We live in Northern NH... it gets cold here for sure. I am going to keep the tile in the kitchen for now and the rest will be new flooring *all going in the same direction* ! We are ripping out the red carpeting, which is in all four bedrooms as well as on the stairs. We want to replace that with flooring and we don't want yet another type of flooring in the house so it makes sense to do the living and dining room as well. When we reconfigure the kitchen, we'll have to match it up and remove the tile at that time.
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ci_lantro
last year
I would get rid of all the dreary gray before deciding on the floors.

Beyond that, the finish appears to be in reasonably good condition. Personally, I would be loathe to change the finish before it really needs it...which reduces the usable life of the floors. Maybe large area rug/s instead?

Which leads to the question: Is this engineered flooring or solid 3/4" tongue and groove? If engineered, the wear layer thickness may limit you to either no chance of refinishing or either 1 or 2 refinishes at most. If anything goes wrong with the stain color on a refinish, you may have to either live with it or tear out and replace.
chispa
last year
You can definitely have them refinished to a medium brown with less orange. Just confirm first if they are solid wood site finished or engineered.

I have medium brown wood flooring and several furniture pieces that are also brown wood. It isn't an issue at all, specially when there are rugs in several rooms that have a light overall color.

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