My wife and I have a 1 year-old son, she is due with baby #2 in 5 days, we close on a house next week, and have to be out of our current home by end of April. No shortage of stress at the moment, and to top it off, just found out the hardwood floors we planned on sanding, need to be replaced. So now I'm scrambling to learn about, order, and have installed wood floors in 5 weeks. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I have searched this forum and many others, and am still unclear on a few things:

1) My installed suggested we lay the new wood flooring over the old, and he'd use a saw to cut baseboards to slide in new wood...this sounds like a shoddy way of doing things, but curious to see if this is a proper installation? I've also read new wood would have to lay perpendicular to the old floors, is this true?

2) As far as wood type, engineered vs natural seems to be a constant debate, they seem to be roughly the same price, yet natural is reusable while engineered seems to last longer but minimal chance for refinishing?

3) What is the typical wait time when ordering, I keep reading people say 7-10 days, then it turns into weeks or months. I simply don't have that much time...

4) Kitchen - cabinets (which we're replacing) currently rest on the wood, I've always seen flooring go in after the cabinets. I guess the answer to question 1 may determine this, so all the floors are level?

5) Cost/Install - should I look at a "floating" floor or doing a firm install? The cost seems to be near the same, since floating floors require a pad to be bought, while the labor of nailing down is a bit more. What is the preferable method (this kind of ties into question 1 as well).

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help out, my family and I are in a tight spot, and would greatly appreciate some hand holding as we get this project done.

Matt

The reason for running wood flooring perpendicular to the joists in conventional construction is that it provides a stronger, stiffer floor system. If you have a wooden subfloor you will need to lay a plywood base over the existing floorboards before installation, this will then give you a smooth and level surface for you to install you hardwood flooring onto.

Why couldn't you sand and refinish your old hardwood floors?

The typical waiting time of ordering is 7-10 days, it is ture.so if you want to have the order you should do it as soon as possi ble.