Advice for hardwood flooring and stairs. Brazilian Cherry?

1395 Views 9 Replies 4 Participants Last post by ddawg16, Jan 5, 2016

km782

Discussion Starter · Dec 21, 2015

Hello, my wife and I just bought a house a few months ago. It is a split-level and is about 30 years old. The upstairs and downstairs are both carpet and the mid level is parquet. We definitely want to replace the carpet with hardwood. The parquet is in great shape with the exception of right by the stairs where it is a little worn. I want to have someone come in to see if it is possible to repair and refinish the parquet floors. If it is going to be too expensive or it won't look very good afterwards then I might just decide to put hardwood in on the mid level as well.

I'm fairly handy but this is my first home and I've never installed flooring before. I'd like to get engineered wood and install floating floors myself if possible. The flooring that we are currently looking at is a Brazilian Cherry. It clicks together so it should be easy to install, is very hard, resistant to dents and scratches and is a reasonable price. I know the wood will change colors over time and that doesn't bother me except for getting it to match the stairs (currently carpeted).

I'm not sure how difficult it will be to replace the stairs myself so I might hire someone to do that. However, I'm wondering if the best thing to do would be to use Brazilian Cherry for the stairs as well? I'm not sure where to look for that and I think I've read online it is not an easy wood to work with. If I don't use the same wood will I have trouble getting the colors to match especially if the flooring changes over time? Or, should I use a different kind of wood and just use a really dark stain so it contrasts with the floor? If the stairs are going to be a problem I might have to rethink using that species of flooring.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

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Canarywood1

· #2 · Dec 21, 2015

km782 said:
Hello, my wife and I just bought a house a few months ago. It is a split-level and is about 30 years old. The upstairs and downstairs are both carpet and the mid level is parquet. We definitely want to replace the carpet with hardwood. The parquet is in great shape with the exception of right by the stairs where it is a little worn. I want to have someone come in to see if it is possible to repair and refinish the parquet floors. If it is going to be too expensive or it won't look very good afterwards then I might just decide to put hardwood in on the mid level as well.

I'm fairly handy but this is my first home and I've never installed flooring before. I'd like to get engineered wood and install floating floors myself if possible. The flooring that we are currently looking at is a Brazilian Cherry. It clicks together so it should be easy to install, is very hard, resistant to dents and scratches and is a reasonable price. I know the wood will change colors over time and that doesn't bother me except for getting it to match the stairs (currently carpeted).

I'm not sure how difficult it will be to replace the stairs myself so I might hire someone to do that. However, I'm wondering if the best thing to do would be to use Brazilian Cherry for the stairs as well? I'm not sure where to look for that and I think I've read online it is not an easy wood to work with. If I don't use the same wood will I have trouble getting the colors to match especially if the flooring changes over time? Or, should I use a different kind of wood and just use a really dark stain so it contrasts with the floor? If the stairs are going to be a problem I might have to rethink using that species of flooring.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

" I want to have someone come in to see if it is possible to repair and refinish the parquet floors. If it is going to be too expensive or it won't look very good afterwards then I might just decide to put hardwood in on the mid level as well."

You have to find out about this part of your question first, before an answer to the rest can come about.

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km782

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 5, 2016

Some things have changed. We are no longer considering using Brazilian Cherry and will likely go with something like oak or hickory. I'm probably going to hire someone to do the stairs for me with matching wood.

The estimate to refinish the floors is about $750, so not out of the question. Now, I'm wondering if the house would look funny if a section of it is parquet and the rest is traditional hardwood. The level with parquet includes the front entrance, a living room/den, and the dining room. It also includes the kitchen but that is tile. Since it is a split level there are only about 4-5 stairs that separate the levels of the house and you can easily see it from the downstairs TV room.

Hopefully this all makes sense. I'm curious if anyone has ever seen a house set up like this or if the end result might not look so good. Thanks

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ddawg16

· #4 · Jan 5, 2016

My personal opinion....(besides parquet being dated), unless the parquet area is well defined and in it's own 'area', I think you would be ahead getting rid of it.

Wood flooring is one of those things you only want to do once.....at least for 20 or more years. The logistics alone is clearing stuff out to work on flooring is a challenge.

So...spend the money once to get what you want.

Before you get caught up in the type of wood.....figure out what color you want. Remember, the darker the floor, the more dirt it shows. Lighter floors reflect more light.

May I suggest having a look at my 2-story addition project....I just finished refinishing the solid oak floors in the existing part of my house. We will NEVER have carpet again. NEVER.

And in case it's not clear....NEVER.

But we also have a mix of flooring...solid oak downstairs...tile....
Then upstairs bamboo....I love the bamboo....it's as hard as oak...and really warm when you walk on it.

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SeniorSitizen

· #5 · Jan 5, 2016

Remove the parquet and sell it. Also remove the word match from your vocabulary and you'll have less headaches.

http://www.czarfloors.com/parquet.asp?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Yahoo%20Parquet%20Campaign&utm_term=parquet%20flooring%20prices&utm_content=Parquet

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ddawg16

· #6 · Jan 5, 2016

SeniorSitizen said:
Remove the parquet and sell it. Also remove the word match from your vocabulary and you'll have less headaches.

http://www.czarfloors.com/parquet.asp?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Yahoo%20Parquet%20Campaign&utm_term=parquet%20flooring%20prices&utm_content=Parquet

:laughing:

I was trying to be 'gentle'.....but I totally agree

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Canarywood1

· #7 · Jan 5, 2016

The difference between Oak and Parquet is like a Cadillac and a Ford especially if the parquet is in your entrance way.

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ddawg16

· #8 · Jan 5, 2016

Canarywood1 said:
The difference between Oak and Parquet is like a Cadillac and a Ford especially if the parquet is in your entrance way.

I'm wondering if the carpet was shag?

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km782

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jan 5, 2016

No need to be gentle, ha ha. I won't take offense to anything. I appreciate the advice and will look into selling the parquet.

No, the carpet is not shag. It is a little worn but otherwise doesn't look that bad. I just don't like carpet in general so replacing it with hardwood was one of the projects we had in mind when we bought the house.

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ddawg16

· #10 · Jan 5, 2016

Km....you will be glad to get rid of the carpet.....especially after you look under the bottom of it.

When you just have to have something down on top of the wood floors....area rugs

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