Month: July 2015

Whether you’re thinking of selling your home in the near future or ten years down the line, you’ll benefit from considering a few ways in which you can increase the value of your home. Small, well-coordinated home improvements will ultimately help you get the most for your home when, and if, you do decide to sell.

While real estate experts spend countless hours trying to determine the best ways to increase a home’s value, flooring is undoubtedly a regular consideration. Your home’s floors will be one of the first things interested buyers will notice when they arrive for an open house.

At Smith Bros, we’ve been providing quality hardwood flooring solutions for residents throughout Calgary for more than 100 years. Our continued success is based on understanding each client’s individual needs and giving them the tools to make the best flooring selection possible.

If your home’s flooring is outdated, or you can no longer stand looking at stained carpet on a daily basis, it might be time for an upgrade. Replacing carpet, tile, or linoleum with quality hardwood flooring can add significant value to your home.

Appraised Value vs. Perceived Value

While many estimates vary, some maintain that installing high quality hardwood flooring can boost your home’s value by as much as 15 percent. Even if this happens to be a slight overestimate, there is little doubt that installing new hardwood floors will increase the ‘perceived’ value of your home.

Perceived value is important because it corresponds to the value your home maintains in the eyes of the potential buyer. The little things that make your home feel more luxurious and desirable easily boost perceived value, and while they may not factor into your home’s appraised value, they will certainly help your home sell more quickly. It can also improve your ability to sell closer to your desired asking price.

Value Benefits of Hardwood Floors

Although you’ve undoubtedly seen many homes furnished with beautiful hardwood floors, you may still be wondering what all the fuss is about. For starters, hardwood floors are actually more affordable than you might think, especially when compared to granite, premium carpets, and other flooring materials.

In addition, hardwood flooring is much more durable than its’ counterparts. When properly maintained, quality hardwood flooring can last more than 100 years, and speaking of maintenance, hardwood floors actually require much less regular work than carpet. Most hardwood floors simply require regular vacuuming and a thorough polishing once every few months.

If your home struggles to keep heat in, hardwood floors can be an added benefit. Hardwood flooring is a great insulator because wood planks contain thousands of tiny air chambers that hold in heat. In fact, hardwood floors can also keep your home healthier, as they do not breed mold, mildew, or dust mites like carpet.

If you’re thinking about ways to add value to your home, installing new hardwood flooring is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to do so. Please don’t hesitate to give the team at Smith Bros a call at 1-403-917-0847 to discuss your flooring options today!

How long have you had your existing hardwood floors? Have your floors taken quite a beating over the years? If so, it may be time to start thinking about replacing or refinishing your floors, but it can often be difficult to know which solution is best for you.

Hardwood floors take a significant amount of abuse on a daily basis, and unless you’re incredibly disciplined about care and maintenance, it can be easy to let the condition of your hardwood floors deteriorate to the point of no return.

At Smith Bros, we excel in helping our clients find and install the quality hardwood flooring that will be perfect for their individual needs, but we also pride ourselves on helping clients properly care for, and maintain, their newly installed floors. If you’ve had your existing floors for some time, here are a few important points to help youdecide whether or not your floors need to be replaced:

Age

While most people think that age plays a factor in determining whether or not your hardwood floors need to be replaced, this is a myth. What really determines your need for new floors is the damage that has been done. Has the floor absorbed too much moisture? Has it been improperly cared for, for a prolonged period of time? Do they have deep gauges/ scratches/ dents? If we have accurately described the floors in your home, it’s time to learn more about what is available to you.

Cost

Price is the only area in which refinishing makes more sense than replacing the floor entirely. Replacement incurs the costs of new material and installation. On the other hand, refinishing your floors could save you a significant amount. While you can offset the costs of replacement by performing the install yourself, this is a very detailed process and, without specialized knowledge and experience, it can be easy to compromise the quality of your floors before they’re even installed.

Aesthetic Goals

If your floors are less than 30 years old, but you’re unhappy with the way they’ve worn, you must consider what your end goal is when deciding between refinishing and replacement. If you simply wish to brighten relatively new floors and renew their original shine, refinishing may be a good option. However, if you’re unhappy with your choice and you desire to change the actual style of the wood, your only option is replacing your old floors with a more suitable style. Our experts have worked with floors that are 100 years old! By the time we’ve completed the refinishing job, these floors looked brand new!

Replacement Time

Interestingly, refinishing hardwood floors can actually take much longer than replacing the entire floor. This is because the refinishing process is quite messy and meticulous, and requires nearly a weeklong period where the floor must remain completely untouched. Our installation team can sand and finish up to 800 square feet of floor per week, and our clients can resume normal activity 24 hours after the last coat has been applied. On the contrary, ripping old floors out and replacing them can be done much more quickly and easily. We are able to remove approximately 250 square feet, and install 200 square feet a day.

Quality Control

Depending on the original quality of the wood installed, your refinishing options may be limited. Some specific types of wood cannot be refinished, so replacement becomes the only choice. In addition, if certain planks have been damaged or have become warped, the entire floor will typically need to be replaced. After all, it doesn’t make much sense to simply brighten an already damaged surface.

At Smith Bros, we provide a large selection of high quality hardwood flooring options. If you would like to discuss your flooring needs with one of our experts, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 1-403-917-0847 today!