Which is cheaper, having my badly damaged oak floors patched and refinished by a professional or installing a pergo type floor over the existing flooring myself? I know the level of the floor will be raised up a bit. That's ok.
call up a floor refinisher and get a quote than go to Lowes or Home Depot and get an estimate for the pergo floors
I don't know what you mean by badly damaged but I would think a repair and refinish job would be superior to a pergo floor. Have you talked with a professional floor finisher about the condition of your floor and the cost to repair and revarnish? I would.
It would be better for the resale value of your home if you re-did the natural wood floors. If you do some research you might be surprised to see how much of the repair job you can do yourself, thus decreasing labor costs a lot. Pergo is okay, but will be damaged by water if there are leaks somewhere. Ours has been pretty well ruined by the dishwasher and air conditioner backing up. We had to tear up part of the living and all the dining room to find and replace some by the back door (the seal had worn and rain leaked in under the floor so we didn't know) that was mildewing underneath (and stinking!). Big time hassle. I'm thinking of going tile next time.
Home Depot carrys a flooring called Allure. It looks like wood but its vinyl and really cheap. Installs over just about anything and unlike Pergo its moisture proof. Its super easy to install too. This would probably be cheapest but I would really look into getting the real wood floors refinished, you will be SO much happier with real wood.
