Hardwood Flooring for Older Bellingham Homes

Many of the older houses in the Lettered Streets, Columbia, Sehome and Fairhaven were built with wood floors that are still there, sometimes under carpet or several layers of sheet vinyl. If you are planning hardwood flooring in a Bellingham house of that age, start by finding out what you already have. Sometimes the best new floor is the old one refinished, and sometimes the right move is a new engineered floor that meets the old one cleanly.

Here is how to think it through.

Find out what is under your feet

Pull up a floor register or lift a corner of carpet in a closet and look. In older Bellingham houses you will commonly find one of these:

• Old-growth fir. Common in early twentieth century Pacific Northwest houses. Tight grain, warm color, softer than oak.
• Oak strip flooring. Narrow boards, often in living and dining rooms.
• Plank subfloor with nothing finished on top. Boards meant to be covered, not seen.

Also check thickness at a register opening or a threshold. A solid floor with plenty of wood above the tongue has room for another sanding. One that has been sanded many times may not.

If you find more than one layer, take a photo of each and note the total thickness. That number matters later when you plan how new floors meet old ones in a Bellingham, WA house where some rooms have been redone more than once.

Refinish before you replace

If the existing floor is solid wood with enough thickness left, refinishing it is often the most economical and best-looking route. A professional refinisher can tell you whether the floor will take another sanding and what to do about pet stains, gaps and old patches. We sell flooring, not refinishing, so that is a job for a local refinisher.

Refinishing makes sense when:

• The floor is continuous through the rooms you care about.
• Damage is surface level: scratches, worn finish, some stains.
• You like the species and are happy to work with its color.

Refinishing also avoids the question of matching entirely, which is often the hardest part of working in an older house. The trade-off is the mess and the time the rooms are out of use while the floor is sanded and the finish cures.

Adding new hardwood flooring in a Bellingham older house

Often the old floor covers some rooms but not others. Kitchens were frequently redone with sheet goods, and additions have their own subfloor. The goal is to make new and old sit together without looking like a mistake.

Option one: a deliberate change. Stop the old floor at a doorway and choose a new engineered board that complements it rather than trying to match it. A different width, or a clearly different tone, reads as intentional. A near match reads as a failed match.

Option two: continue a similar look. If you want the new floor to flow from the old, bring a loose board or a clear photo in good light when you choose. Fir in particular is hard to match with new product, because old-growth fir has a color and grain that new material rarely reproduces. Oak is easier.

Our engineered hardwood comes mostly from CALI. You can look through the options in our flooring category.

Mind the crawlspace

Most older Bellingham homes sit over a crawlspace, and it affects any wood floor above it. Before new wood goes down, look underneath:

• Is there a ground cover over the soil? Bare dirt releases moisture into the air under the floor.
• Are vents clear and working, or is the space sealed and conditioned?
• Are there signs of standing water after heavy rain?

A damp crawlspace can cup a brand new floor within its first year or two. Fixing that first is cheaper than replacing boards later.

Heights, thresholds and trim

Older houses rarely have level floors from room to room. When new flooring meets old:

• Measure the finished height of the existing floor and compare it with the new board plus any underlayment.
• Plan transition pieces or reducers where heights differ, and decide whether to remove old layers of sheet flooring to bring heights back in line.
• Check door clearances, especially on older doors that were cut for thinner floors.
• Consider whether original baseboard and shoe molding can be removed and reused. They are often worth saving.
• Think about stairs. If new wood meets an existing staircase, the nosing at the top step has to line up with the new floor height.

Before you call

Take photos of the existing floor in daylight, measure the rooms that need new wood, and note what you found under the carpet or sheet vinyl. Then call us at (360) 255-8377 or browse the flooring category. If you have not already, our Bellingham service area page has our location and contact details.