Different hardwood throughout house?

[ICan'tWait]

Our house currently has hardwood in the main hallway. We're considering installing hardwood in the kitchen and maybe dining room. The hardwood we've picked out woulde be a different color than what's in the hallway. Hallway is a standard red oak, we've picked out a handscraped oak for the kitchen. I have a friend who insists the two different hardwoods that come together will ruin the value of the home and that I need to redo the hallway. I can't image paying money to replace perfectly good flooring just to match....

Question: when buying a home would it bother you if the first floor had different hardwoods?

 

[gobledygook]

I hope your friend is misinformed, because we also have different kinds of wood flooring in our home. We have a lighter laminate in the kitchen, and a darker hardwood in the living room and hall. I think it makes a nice contrast, but I can also see the advantage of it all being the same. We're just getting ready to lay down a lighter color laminate in the bedroom as well. I'll be interested to see what others have to say, because we want to sell the house in the next year or so and move out of state.

 

[lowie]

i know when i was a full time realtor that buyers balked at mismatched flooring. and when hurricane wilma flooded my house and ruined the wood floor we chose to use porcelain tile instead, and in order to have one continuous floor throughout we had to rip up ceramic tile in the kitchen, laundry and bathroom.

IMO wood butting up to tile (like where a kitchen meets living area) or carpet butting up against wood or tile is fine.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

I sell real estate, so hopefully I can offer some insight.

I do think if the different woods are close enough that both can be seen from the same room that it could cause problems. Not so much with the home losing appraised value, but more that it will make your buyer pool smaller when you go to sell, which in turn could possibly cause you to lower your price.

I've shown houses like this, and they tend to look choppy because each area has a defined space, instead of it flowing from one room to the next. It also makes rooms seem smaller.

I have hardwood floors throughout my whole house, with the exception of the bedrooms and dining area, which have neutral carpet, and my bathrooms and fireplace surround, which are travertine.

 

[pbharris4]

All buyers are going to have different opinions just as most people respond to your question will. Some people will be turned off and others won't care.

We're about to redo some of the floors where carpet is and don't want to spend a lot. I have hardwood foyer and family (not attached) room. The other rooms are carpeted but I want to do away with most of the carpet. DH and I will do the hardwood and it will match pretty closely to what we already have. We're putting a neutral ceramic tile in the kitchen as well.

IMO, I'd try to match the hardwoods. I am one of those buyers who like everything to "flow." Kind of like having all the same color carpet as well.

 

[stitchlovestink]

I have to agree w/ some of the previous posters. If you were planning on staying, I would do what appeals to you. However, since you state that you will be selling in the not too distant future, I would consider what will be best for the sale of your house. Who knows how the market will be when you are ready to sell, but if it's still a buyer's market, all the little stuff will/can make a difference.
Now for my opinion, if I were a buyer, I would not want multiple woods butting up to each other. I wouldn't mind carpet or ceramic or even laminate butting up to hardwood. But I would not want dark oak butting up to light oak or red oak or pine or you get my drift. Now this is just my opinion, but it would make a difference on how much I would be willing to pay for the house. I think it would look like a hodge podge job or a handy man's job where the man wasn't so handy. Sorry if this sounds harsh. I'm just sharing my opinion of what I would want if I was a buyer considering purchasing the house. HTH!!

 

[problemchild718]

I'm with the keep it the same school of thought-looks bigger, appeals to a broader selection of buyers and looks like it was planned rather than an after thought.

 

[PatMcDuck]

We also have hardwood in foyer and in powder room. At first I thought I wanted to just match it up (very common floor, Bruce in gunstock color). My neighbors ripped up all the original hardwood, when they went to install additional hardwood, and I was very surprised. But, now I realize the wisdom of that, and I want to rip all of ours out, too, and use one floor on the entire downstairs, eventually on the whole house. Just better for resale, IMHO. Our carpet is the original builders (almost 12 years old) and ranges from horrid condition (in family room) to not bad, in the bedrooms. The stairs look horrible, too. Before we sell, I want to hardwood the whole thing, I think we will sell faster and get the $$ back.

The bonus is now I do not worry about the carpeting, or the hardwood much. Great piece of mind while the puppy was learning the rules!

What COLOR is best when thinking resale? I have no real preference.

 

[mrszrw]

Here's what we are doing right now! The guys should be back to work here in just 2 hrs. We have hardwood in our kit. foyer, powderroom and laundry rooms. We just had a new morning room built off the kit. and wanted hardwood and it is imposiible to match it up.

We are doing a "job site hardwood" They installed plain unfinished wood floors and now we are going to refinisng the kitchen along with it so the floor will match. It is a week long process so I was unable to give up my foyer and laundry for that long with 3 small kids. So when we go on vac. next month I will finish off the rest so we were able to keep the existing floor yet match things up. I hated the thought of throwing away hardwood floors that were only 5 years old.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

What COLOR is best when thinking resale? I have no real preference.

The only thing I've seen people balk at, is lighter woods, since they think their furniture needs to match it - which I totally don't believe.

I have several pieces of black furniture sitting on dark oak floors, and I think the contrast is nice.

If you're going to be selling soon, go with the masses. Check out model homes, homes for sale on the MLS and see what the majority of those have. Hardwoods can help sell a house - I know I bought mine because of them.

 

[mickeyfan2]

If the two woods touch or are visible at the same time they need to match.

 

[UMTerp]

We will be dealing with this same issue in a few years as we have hardwood in the foyer, hallway and powder room. I would want it all to match. I guess if we have to pull-up the existing hardwood, that is what we will do.

UMTerp

 

[HM]

When we did the same thing, we had the old hardwood floors sanded and restained the color of the new hardwood. This worked really well, and I think is the best option for you in appearance and cost.