I just bought a co-op 1br apartment. The apartment is pre-war building and had the light color parque hardwood floor. I always wanted to replace the floor with darker color strip because of my personal preference.

When I showed the floor to a popular contractor in the area, he told me I should better keep the original floor because

1. Parque is more popular and valuable when you sell the place. So, I am losing value by doing this.
2. It is better spending money on the wall. He suggested to do skim coating the entire wall of the wall, which I did not origianlly plan. I was going to paint 2 coat.

3. Dark color make the room smaller.

So, basically he is suggesting me to spend money on the wall for skim coating and just sand and finish the original floor instead of painting the wall and replacing the floor.

When I show the other contractor, he did not mentioned about anything. He did not mention about necessity for skim coating of the wall.

what do you think about the guy's advice? Especially, as for #1, is it true that Parque is more valuable and popular than strip?

It really depends. But if you were to try to replace it, most parquets floors would cost more to replace. Personally, I like parquet. It is too busy for some but I find it pleasing. And I like the idea of keeping to the original design and architecture of a building whenever possible, especially pre-WW11 buildings. Just my opinion. Have no comment about your walls. They are probably plaster if they are the original walls. Do they have cracks?

Thank you for your response. After talking to several people, I am considering the original floor.

I have an idea. Since I may sell the apartment in a few years and I just don't like the look of parque, how about installing laminate floor over the hardwood parque floor? And when I sell the apartment, maybe just remove and sand and finish the parque hardwood floor. does this idea work or am I crazy??