Most homeowners call us expecting to hear they need new floors. Most of the time, they don't. Solid hardwood is designed to be sanded several times over its life, and a floor that looks gray, scratched, and worn usually has plenty of good wood left under the damaged finish.
The first thing we check is thickness. Pull a floor vent or look at a threshold, and you can see how much wood sits above the tongue. If there's still a healthy layer, the floor can be sanded to fresh wood. Floors that have been sanded many times, or engineered floors with a thin veneer, need a gentler approach or replacement.
Next is damage that goes deeper than the surface. Black pet stains, water-swollen boards, and soft spots don't sand out. Those boards get cut out and replaced with matching wood woven into the existing pattern, then the whole floor is refinished so the repair disappears.
Replacement makes sense when the subfloor has failed, when the floor has been sanded through, or when you want a completely different look, like going from narrow red oak to wide white oak. Even then, we often keep and refinish the floors in other rooms and match the new boards to them.
If you're not sure which one your floor needs, that's what our free in-home estimate is for. We'll look, measure, and tell you honestly, even when the answer is the less expensive one.