Hi, new guy to the site, been reading for a couple days though.

I have many questions but have to go buy some paint right now, I'll get a better diagram up later, but this will do for now.

We just purchased a split-entry house (walk in, small landing, 6 steps up, 6 down) with a typical layout of this style of house if you've been in them before (The 5 I've been in all have this layout).

The previous owners have wall-to-wall in every room upstairs (except the kitchen) and it's disgusting piss-filled carpet, we have most of it out. We were going to put down some wall-to-wall in the bedrooms temporarily until we do a future project. However, the cost of wall-to-wall rivals the cost of some hardwoods, so we might just want to go hardwood now.

Here's the deal. See my Master Bedroom and Spare Bedroom 2. The Master bedroom is TINY as is the master bathroom. We would like to in the future combine the two rooms, since we have another bedroom in the basement, and no kids (yet). Aside from the logistics of taking down the middle wall with closets, keeping the attic pull-down in place, and working out a system for the doors...how hard would it be to run the hardwood floors throughout the hallway and bedrooms now; then later when we remodel, insert a few feet wide worth of hardwood between the 2 existing floors?

I'm thinking difficult/impossible; plus we would be doing all kinds of construction on top of the new floor. Have you seen this style of house where they have joined those two rooms?

Would I be better just running the floor down the hallway up to the doorways, put carpet in for now, and then finish up the hardwood later?

Or, Just hardwood one room, carpet the other, then when we remodel, just continue the hardwood from where we left off?

Hope this all makes sense, thanks for any advice you can offer!

Can't afford a pro to install it at $3+/sqft, so this will be a DIY job with PLENTY of research done before-hand.

Thanks!


Forgive my artwork!

Better yet...

Run hardwood down the hallway, MB, and Office. Wall-to-wall BR2 for the time being. Later down the line (couple years) when we decide to go through and take down the wall (with the direction of an architect/builder of course to plan everything correctly, load bearing walls etc), can we somehow star where we left off? That way there will be no gap to fill to deal with? Would we leave every other board loose to slide out and slide in longer ones?

Would we be better off just doing the hallway and leaving the bedrooms carpet for now?

Just not sure about all this. Thanks! I just hate to have to buy wall-to-wall as a temporary solution and then have to chuck it in a couple years; but we're not ready to do this remodel part yet.

As a DIY this is a tough call. I understand not wanting to do the major remodel but it might be the best bet. It will save you headaches later when trying to match up the flooring to make it look like you put it all in at one time. Unless your house is a prefab there should be no load bearing wall in the middle if they used good truses. Honestly, I would rip out the wall (if it's ok to do) and put your hardwood down. You have to decide if it makes any sense to spend money on carpet when you could be buying hardwood. I have had my house ripped apart and put back together more then I cared to do but at least I'm happy when it's done.

If you don't want to to the major overhaul now I would hardwood the MBR and put carpet the rest of the way. At least that way you are not throwing some of your money away on carpet.




Sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen. Unless you are a pro, trying to get all your hardwoods on the same centerline would be very hard plus adding in wood and hoping it meets in the middle might be better suited for Fantasy Island.

Good luck!!!

Again I'm a DIY but a pro here might have a better answer.

Much easier to do IF the wood floors are finished in place. With factory finished, you also have the color match up issue and the availability issue. They don't keep making the same stuff forever. Your floors could be here today and gone tomorrow, making a match up impossible. But with a sand and finish in place floor, there is a lot more that can be done. I'm asked to do this quite often but with factory finished, we sometimes need to replace the entire floor because it's not made anymore.

Sounds like a pain in the rear then huh. There is a lot to combining the rooms to take into account, like where the new bathroom will lay out with the extra room (current one is ~7'x 4'6"), and moving the ladder access hole to the attic in the hallway and repairing the part that was removed. Too much else to do with the rest of the house to really start knocking things down for now.

What do you think about running it down the hallway and up to the bedroom doorways, and going carpet in those for now. When the time comes to do the demoltion and rebuilding, if we can't get the same wood, we could just do the MB in a different wood; that's not a big deal is it? To have two different woods?

Could you explain how it works with extending out the current wood? Can individual planks be ripped up and new (longer) ones be put in their place to continue out the rest of the room once it's combined? (If it's possible)

Appreciate it guys!