1/1/2014
After reading an article on how important a business owner should have a blog, we've decided to join the revolution. This blog is designed to help our customers with everyday repairs, DIY, and energy saving information. Our goal is to help empower our customers to be the best home owners possible. We will also provide information to our first time homeowners and the importance of buying vs. renting. As we've stated multiple times, we're here to help turn your house into a home!
Today we will discuss advantages of home buying on a budget. Currently there are some amazing fixer-upper homes on the market today! Perfect houses that need just a little TLC. A house with a few problems can be a great opportunity to turn into your perfect home. We've noticed over the past few years many customers taking advantage of these great prices. Sadly they find themselves not knowing where to start in renovations. One of the most common problems among these "fixer-uppers" are the floors.
Many customers ask me, "What should I do?, Where do I start? What do you recommend?". Every situation is different, and where to start depends on your particular house. The most recent renovation we assisted a homeowner on was a wonderful historic home in Sanford, fl. This home had a great foundation, needing on a few renovations to make perfect. Of course the homeowner received an amazing deal on the house, and thus allowed plenty of wiggle room for renovations. The first and most practical start point was the floors.
The house had beautiful chestnut original floors dating back to the early 1900s. Due to the age of the floors and lack of proper care they were not in the best shape. They had rotted floor boards and joists thru out the house. Once the damage became revealed, our customer seemed very overwhelmed. We assured her that we could make this project easy and as stress free as possible. At the time I'm sure she had her uncertainty towards the project. Within a few days we were able to turn her doubt into thankfulness. She could not believe the change that was made. The steps to complete the project were very simple.
First, we needed to uncover the rotten spots. Some spots were very easy to spot, other's required poking and close visual inspections.
Once the rotten spots were uncovered, we now must cut them out. Inspecting all wood while cutting is a must, you want to make sure all kept wood is in great condition.
After everything is cutout, we now must replace the joist with new sturdy wood.
Once everything is replaced, it's now time to put the floors back together. Some of the original chestnut wood was unable to be replaced. The boards that were unable to be replaced were matched with new boards. Once everything was put together it was now time to refinish the floors. First, we sanded the floors to an even layer. Next, we buffed the floors with a buffer. Lastly, we applied a wonderful polyurethane finish.
Her floors now look absolutely amazing! With proper care, these babies should last a lifetime.
The cost of this project including labor was very minimum compared to finding the exact house that already had perfect floors. I'm sure your asking, and the answer is yes. Her investment home is now worth several thousand more just with a few days work.
At the end of the day our customer was extremely happy! She now had beautiful safe floors that we can walk on, an amazing house that she purchased at a bargain price, and the piece of mind that everything was taken care of.
Projects like these can be simple to do. However, if you're not 100% on the what to do, call us! That's what we're here for.
Please feel free to contact us regarding any questions. Hope you enjoyed our first blog, please stay tuned for many more to come!!!
