But how does oak smell like? Wood planks on slab is definitively not a subfloor, even if it looks terrible :). Other finish options include shellac, penetrating oil, sealers and waxes. But if it's the real thing, congratulations! I also couldn't see daylight between the cracks - also a great sign that it wasn't a subfloor! You want to know what is underneath that old shag carpet, but you cant tear apart every house your realtor shows you.

Wood scents are difficult to express in words. OK, first off, thank you everyone who has taken just as much of interest as to what is under my carpets as I have. It could also have just been a patch to raise the floor. I ripped up a portion of my carpet and found wood underneath. It is light in tone and that means it could hide scratches very easily from the prying eyes of visitors. Yeah, you need to have a nose for it, and this might be difficult, but it was worth mentioning. If you can see a pattern. By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Therefore, the presence of actual staples or nails at the wood planks edges is a good indicator that the floor is genuine hardwood.

However, laminate floors tend to last 10-20 years before needing to be replaced, while real hardwood floors can be resurfaced every so often to smooth out that surface damage, and can last a century or longer when cared for properly. If the floors have imperfections or you just want to change their color you may be able to fix them without too much trouble. They knocked out the entire job in. But many hardwood floors physically adhere to the subfloor with either nails or staples. The carpet wont be tacked down around the edge of the vent opening, so youll be able to easily pull the carpet and pad up just enough to see what is underneath. Be careful when looking for wood on stairs. Most modern hardwood flooring is available pre-finished, and is specifically cut with a tongue-and-groove system that makes it easy to install. A friend of ours suggested that if theres a problem with the wood, we can use laminate flooring . I, for one, would be willing to offer more for a house if I knew it had wood floors throughout. Oak is a very sturdy flooring option. Recent decades have seen builders expanding beyond traditional choices like oak and pine and into more exotic woods and other, more sustainable options. Ours is 69you can peel away just a tiny bit. Its exposed and appears to be stained. Had it been installed at the time the house was built, it would have been flush with the rest of the hardwoods. Wood floors may impact an offer your make on a home purchase. It is either red or white, with a multitude of amber hues and specific grain patterns. I personally do not recommend laminate flooring for anything except a basement. Time between connecting flights in Norway. Wood laminate floors became available as a mainstream flooring choice in the United States in 1994. Believe it or not, there could be hardwood lurking beneath your linoleum as well. Even if there are some holes and stains, I would sand and stain versus replacing. Thanks for contributing an answer to Home Improvement Stack Exchange! The flooring under my closet carpet is like what IKEA furniture is made of. Thats what typically takes the hardest hit. Problem is: I can't tell if what I'm looking at is just subflooring or potentially the original hardwood.

Keep in mind, I know absolutely nothing about flooring myself so for all I know this could be standard procedures.

After pulling back some of the linoleum, I discovered planked wood. Yeah, this sounds rather dumb as youre already using the Internet to read this article. What may look like full wood stair treads with a runner up the center, may just be beautiful wood on the edges and plywood under the runner. So, in theory, if youre struggling to identify wood flooring with your eyes, you could try it with your nose. What's the difference between a magic wand and a spell. Maple usually has a varied and unusual collection of patterns. Even though carpet started becoming more popular in the 1950s, the trend took a while to fully catch on. White oak has 1,360 points on the Janka Hardness scale, while red oak is a bit less dense, with 1,290 points. Read about our wood stair makeover here. But by studying the flooring and looking for planks that have the same wood grain patterns and the same knots, especially, you can pretty easily determine if a floor is laminate instead of real hardwood. For example, The Wood Database is a useful resource for this purpose. Is there a PRNG that visits every number exactly once, in a non-trivial bitspace, without repetition, without large memory usage, before it cycles? Some man-made composites or plastic can imitate wood to some degree. The presence of visible watermarks is another indication the floor is likely real hardwood. How can I remove / replace this OSB floor? For more flooring options, check out my brick floors and the BEST sisal rug that you can actually clean! Also, look closely at the wood grain to try to identify it. Dont assume there are hardwood floors everywhere based on seeing them underneath one vent. You should be able to get a good glimpse by untucking it from a floor board in the corner of the room or closet. than when I tap what is pictured above (which feels sturdy). This trend was partly because the quality of carpet had improved drastically in recent years. Tannakian-type reconstruction of etale fundamental group, mv fails with "No space left on device" when the destination has 31 GB of space remaining.

Look for any floor vent you can find, and carefully pull it up to remove it. Experts from Bob Vila claim that water-based polyurethane is easy to apply, and it provides a shiny, smooth finish. Danielle Smyth is a writer and content marketer from upstate New York. Scrape a little area of your wooden floor from underneath a cabinet or something and then compare it with pictures from the Wood Database. Purveyors of exclusive surfaces, Rhodium Floors is known for quality finishes, innovative designs, and white-glove service. When I first moved into my house, my fianc and I refinished all of the hardwoods, and I vowed to never do it again. Hardwood flooring has seen many different styles in plank size and style over the years.

However, laminate is susceptible to water damage, especially in bathrooms and kitchens where standing water is a possibility. Do I need to level subfloor with a 1/8" step before installing hardwood flooring? Most quality laminates will have a variety to them. This will allow you to identify wood flooring more accurately. So, you need to strip that stain a bit and make the proper identification. All content published on Readytodiy.com are original and written by readytodiy.com. Announcing the Stacks Editor Beta release! If some planks appear to be identical, its probably laminate. She holds a Master of Science in Publishing from Pace University. Its fairly easy. Using pliers, pull straight up on the rug, as close to the corner of the closet floor as possible. Blogging is our family of fives full-time income window.fd('form', { Are you anxious to know if you have wood floors underneath that outdated carpet? The trick is to remove floor vents! Have a question? Installing plywood over 1x6 subfloor in preparation for engineered hardwood. You may see some deep scratches in the wood. formId: '613a59a67accb4c021020376', Why dont second unit directors tend to become full-fledged directors? To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. what year is the tudor? Some homes do this to create the illusion of wood stairs without the expense. But in a total HGTV-never-gonna-happen-in-real-life moment, I made a small and exciting discovery that I had original hardwood floors hiding underneath all that yellow linoleum. Maple and birch look quite similar when finished with dark paint or stain.

You dont need to stain it, as it keeps its rich and beautiful color. Again, tuck your fingers underneath to see if the wood continues underneath the runner or not.

Should I remove older low level jobs/education from my CV at this point? A lot of old houses in Austin have wide plank subfloors that look similar. And without further ado, here is the before and after! Alternative: I pulled up another side of the same room as pictured. On the other hand, laminate flooring has the wood image printed on the core layer of each plank, directly beneath the clear wear layer on top. So, the bottom line here is you cannot really mistake a solid wood flooring for a composite one. Instead, they are generally finished with some sealant. Some old hardwood floors have so much damage that restoration services professionals may be needed. Does look like nice grain. Is it unusual to have different kinds of subflooring? But I could tell it had been sanded down at one point, because I could see a small height difference in the wood that was under the transition and the rest of the board. containerEl: '#fd-form-613a59a67accb4c021020376' How to Stain Maple Wood Floors That Are Blotchy, How to Replace Carpet in a Furnished Home, A Second Coat: 3 Signs of Hidden Hardwood Floors, Natural Beauty Wood Floors: How to Tell the Difference Between Engineered Hardwood Flooring and Solid Hardwood Flooring, This Old House: How to Refinish Hardwood Floors. A little bit of careful detective work can help you determine whether the floor in your house or your prospective home is more likely real hardwood or laminate. Im hoping theres hardwood underneath, but my parents had a 1974 home and they found nothing but subfloor under theirs Do things like location, year built, style of home influence what the flooring choice was? Nevertheless, let us explain ourselves a little better. We pursue Google DMCA takedowns aggressively and it will hurt your domain ranking.

The types of wood flooring used in older homes depended on what was locally available and affordable at the time the house was built. Never cut into or sand floors that may contain lead paint, which is toxic and known to cause nerve damage. Alternatively, use a mirror to see between the wall and floor, if there is an open space. According to the writers from A Second Coat, many homeowners put linoleum over original hardwood in the 1970s. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The look and feel is completely different than what is pictured and when I tap it, it feels different (more hallow?) Some older linoleum flooring contains asbestos. So before bringing in an expert, is there another way I can tell? See the end of this post for even more flooring resources! They say beauty is in the eye. We recently bought a new home and are trying to make sure its safe and of good quality. I also did a ton of research on types and styles of linoleum, and based on the pattern it was clearly from the 1970s (so definitely not original as my house was built in 1950). Not every plank will look the same. It only takes a minute to sign up. Its been so helpful to us in all of our house hunting over the years. By the 1990s and early 2000s, wood floors were in high demand again.

Quoting is allowed as long as you properly provide credit by linking to the page you are quoting. Moisture-based urethane is even more durable, but the downside is that it contains higher concentrations of VOCs. Remember that just because a home may have wood floors, doesnt mean they are in pristine condition. She owns her own content marketing agency, Wordsmyth Creative Content Marketing, and she enjoys writing home and DIY articles and blogs for clients in a variety of related industries. But the carpet was new and our kids are still toddlers so it makes sense to just keep the carpet. Many prefer the look and feel of hardwood, though, and real hardwood is generally considered a more sustainable flooring option. Here are the signs that led me to the discovery: The height difference gave me a clue that the linoleum was likely not the original floor. When I get home, I'll lift more of it to get further back. To do this, soften up a small section of the linoleum with a heat gun until you can pull a tiny bit of the floor out of place. Youll likely see subflooring, but you maybe able to catch glimpse of hardwood flooring around cutout areas like pipes and vents. Here is a breakdown of the total cost of the floor: Stain (We used 350ml of the color Natural with a touch of the color Chocolate): $89. You have quite a few choices for finishing your hardwood floor once it's buffed. Professionals can also repair broken or missing floorboards, and stain the new areas to match the old. Dont worry; you can always re-stain it afterwards. The timber has a high density that makes it more resistant to dents and scratches. Now, lets look at the most popular types of hardwood and how you can identify them. If the floor was installed more than 20 years ago and is still going strong, its most likely actual hardwood. Peel back the carpet to expose an area at least 3'x3'. What to Consider Before purchasing New Wood Flooring? It will make a dusty mess, but it could save you a lot of money. You should definitely still use this simple trick to find out for sure! Nails or no nails, maybe it will be "rustic". Again, look on the plank sides for continuous grain or layers. It is crazy dense, and its unique graining makes it stand out from the other types of hardwood. My linoleum floors sat about a half inch higher than the floors in the rest of the house. Im Julie, author of JulieBlanner.com! And after comparing a couple of closets, the base of the carpet sits about 1/4" higher than the room flooring. Our home didnt have wood floors underneath the carpet. Then decide if you like the way it looks. However most people put cabin grade planks in the same boat with plywood subflooring. But not all hardwood floors are what they seem. I have the perfect trick for you. The design of the home didnt matterVictorian, Colonial, Cape Cod, Tudor, Craftsman, and even early Ranchesthey all featured wood floors throughout. To confirm that these planks were for sure not the subfloor, I ventured under my house and into the crawl space. Real wood is more likely to have seemingly random grains and patterns, but some engineered wood and veneers also have this feature. A house may have wood floors in one or two rooms but not throughout. But just in case I can't, thank you both for all your help! There are certain online databases where you will find all the known wood species and how to identify wood flooring. Additionally, hardwood floors are prone to water staining in a way that laminate is not. A flooring free of such physical defects, especially older flooring, is more likely to be laminate. Some of these have less of a sheen, but this can be a desirable look in an older home. The rest of this article will examine some of the differences between genuine wood floors and laminate flooring designed to resemble wood. I write out about what Ive learned while researching DIY projects and I enjoy sharing about my experiences while working on different projects. (We also upgraded our stove. The finishes most commonly used in residential homes are designed to provide water resistance and some level of protection from scratches and other types of wear and tear. So, the portion in the attached photo is in a doorway, so it's not quite as simple as a corner of the room. This is why, traditionally, it has even been used in sports halls and gyms. Then starting in the 1950s, homeowners started to favor wall-to-wall carpet instead. Homeowners Guide: Carpet, Vinyl Wood Flooring, Ceramic Tiles Or Hardwood Wood Flooring? Experts from Natural Beauty Flooring explains how to tell the difference. The grain lines will be random, and some planks might have knots, with the overall result being a unique floor plank by plank. She also runs her own lifestyle blog, Sweet Frivolity. Remove the excess tile mastic and glue with sandpaper. How to prepare my floor to install engineered hardwood?

Trade clients welcome to use our facilities employee free. For whatever reason, homeowners started to install carpet right over the top of perfectly good wood floors. If you like the looks of it, can play around a bit with it, sanding, staining. It looked to me like hardwood, but I still couldn't be 100% sure. This is very common in older homes. That was a pretty good indication that these were hardwoods. Submit your question or comment below. I'll see what I can do after work. Make the right decision based on your budget, design and preferences. How can I tell if I'm looking at original hardwood or subfloor? Well touch very briefly on the history of both and their benefits, and examine how you can determine if a particular floor is a real hardwood or laminate. Moreover, youll only be able to catch a specific odor only if theres no stain on the wood. We are considering a 1974 home. It is generally a hardwood that boasts fine grains, and it is mostly used for furniture rather than flooring. If you own your home and the above methods dont work, you can always find a discreet area and pull up a few inches of carpet in a corner from underneath baseboard. Hardwood floors were the norm in most homes before WWII. When no loose planks are visible, try to pry one loose (it can be repaired later). Some rooms may have hardwood, while others may not, so be sure to check different parts of the house. Youll need to have quite a good nose for that.

Instead of lifting more of that area, I went into the closet and ripped the carpet. Wood flooring can be costly to install, however, so homes are like diamonds in the rough when they already have wood floors hidden under carpet. (and actually in some parts of the country way back when cabin grade planks were used as subfloor, albeit probably not referred to as cabin grade planks). Once the hardwood is exposed, it will most likely need to be refinished, however. On the other hand, hardwood flooring lasts longer and raises your homes overall value, plus it has a charm that cant be completely replicated. You can sand a section of the floor with a palm sander. Or you may see layers of linoleum.

If your linoleum floor is higher than other floors in your house, you might want to have a look. Usually, its fairly simple to identify wood flooring. Otherwise if it's planks, and if the gaps are not unacceptably wide, sand the exposed area. We develop the flooring and now, we are loving the floor of our house. Consult your local building department to determine regulations on asbestos removal.

Nevertheless, maple is very resistant to any sort of scratches or light dents. How did this note help previous owner of this old film camera? Its amazing!

In time, hardwood flooring will show its might. This post may contain affiliate links. If youve just bought a new house and wondering What kind of wood is my floor? then youre in the right place. Birch usually features less pronounced grains and larger spacing between curls. Thank you! Home Improvement Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for contractors and serious DIYers. Each plank is completely unique. Proper subfloor for hardwood in a renovation, How to support walls and subfloor in this bathroom. If a creature's best food source was 4,000 feet above it, and only rarely fell from that height, how would it evolve to eat that food? Stack Exchange network consists of 180 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. On the other hand, hardwood floors can be glued directly to the subfloor, and some modern varieties do exist that are floating floors, like laminate. Blamed in front of coworkers for "skipping hierarchy". Thats a thorough example of identifying wood flooring. Slab? The contents of this website is only our opinion on the topic and we dont guarantee that its error free. }); window.fd('form', { Dishwasher Stuck on Wash Cycle or Clean Cycle. You can tell if a hardwood floor is genuine by assessing the floors age, what the wood grain pattern looks like, and whether the flooring has any surface-level damage, as real wood is more likely to show that kind of wear. Now, the sanded area will give you a more accurate representation of the wood.

You may not copy the material in whole or in part on this site without permission. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. Consequently, if you know when the floor was installed in a house, that can potentially help you determine whether its genuine hardwood or laminate, especially when you also consider the floors specific age. If you think there is hardwood underneath your carpet, begin your investigation in a less-used part of the home, like an upstairs carpeted hallway. We used this trick and discovered poorly installed parquet in the office instead. No two planks will look the same. Clean all the glue away and compare it with images from the Wood Database. It could be cabin grade planks with nails which would be technically considered hardwood. There are comprehensive lists of woods categorized by grain direction, grain closeness, colour, hardness and other useful facts. If you want to be really thorough in your examination, scrape some of that finish off. And there is another problem. This veneer is usually shaved from wood and glued to man-made material. We dont think it will ever go out of fashion. Each plank has a completely different wood grain pattern. Please, check your inbox to confirm your subscription. Carpet everywhere. If you like it, voila, it's not a subfloor. We just have one room of parquetbut surprises are sure nice! (Updated 2018). I decided to hire this job out, including demo, sanding, staining. It is quite traditional but timeless.

formId: '613a82b97accb4c0210203d8', There are pros and cons to both genuine hardwood flooring and laminate flooring, and those will add up differently for different consumers. Please read our disclosure policy. Hardwood floors of different tree species were popular in older homes, but they currently are enjoying a renaissance. @jay613 Haha, sorry had to mention that because before I came here I did tons of Googling trying to figure it out and most articles are always instruct to either "lift up a floor vent" or "go down to your basement and" and I don't have either so I wanted to cut those suggestion off at the pass :P I have a slab foundation, but just not like an additional room below my house. But it costs more and requires more maintenance, including resealing and sometimes completely resurfacing. Yes, rosewood smell somewhat similar to roses. Total: $2,199 - That brings my kitchen renovation total to $9,205 to date (which includes new appliances)!

Call for trade pricing. I wish had beautiful floors like that, but underneath my carpet there is just concrete. Cherry wood has a reddish-brown hue and straight grains. So we decided to stick on the woods. If you're in the Austin are, definitely check out J&J Painting and Remodeling. It didn't give me any clues as to what would be underneath it, but I had a pretty strong suspicion it wasn't original. Visit us 906 N La Cienega Blvd Los Angeles, CA.

Laminate flooring is cheaper in the short term, usually more durable and much easier to care for. When we started the renovation, we discovered that the original floor is wooden. Oak is probably the most common wood flooring solution in North America. This wear layer makes the laminate resistant to scratches, dings, and other surface-level damage. Can You and Should You Fix Gaps in Engineered Hardwood Floors? If the plank is loose, look at the side. Remember that houses built in the 1950s or earlier are more likely to have wood floors under carpet, but that doesnt mean a house built in the 1960s wont have it. So your floor looks like wood, but is it actually hardwood? Historically, walnut has been used in big mansions and castles; it evokes a sense of class and luxury reminiscent of the old eras. This isn't a very used part of the house so the pet hair gets ignored for long periods of time). Some may have scratches, stains, or water damage. All Rights Reserved, 906 N La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90069, How to Identify Wood Flooring | 5 Types of Hardwood. When I first moved into my house, my fianc and I refinished all of the hardwoods, and I vowed to never do it again. I was scared, but it actually wasn't as spooky as I expected!