My husband and I are considering making an offer on a home that has hardwood maple floors. After pulling up the corners of the large area rugs the current owner has in place, we noticed that the maple is significantly darker underneath. A few people have told me that if we uncovered them that after about a year those sections would fade to match. Is this true or would we likely have to replace them? I have also heard that refinishing them may not eliminate the outline either. The home is six years old and I'm assuming the area rugs have been down for about that long. Any thoughts?

The floor is darker(?) under the rugs?

Yes, often the flooring that has been exposed to the light will be bleached out due to direct or even indirect sunlight coming in from the windows. Therefore, the flooring under the rugs will often look the same as they did when they were first done and the exposed floors can look much lighter. Typical of finished on site floors. AK, while it is possible that after a period of time, a year perhaps, that the colors will blend better than now, I wouldn't count on them ever being completely the same for a very long time. A quality refinish (not recoat) should remedy the problem.

By "darker", do you mean darker in amber color?

Charlie