First time seller, flooring dilemma

craighewer18

My partner and I have just put down a deposit on a new build, so therefore looking to either rent out or preferably sell our current home.

When we bought the house, it had bare, stained floorboards which looked quite tidy. Since then we have put various carpet/laminate down throughout, which looked OK but is now quite tired looking and in poor condition.

To achieve some continuity throughout the house we have ripped up most of the carpet/laminate to reveal the floorboards but have since found that the floorboards are not in the same condition we found them in, due to not taking much care when decorating etc but are in sound condition.

My question is, would you leave the bare floorboards as is, and try to sell the property on the basis that the new buyers will put their own flooring preference down or spend X amount laying new flooring throughout?

I dont want to waste money putting new flooring down when the new buyers may come in and rip it all up, but what do you think?

Thanks

R_P_W

Sand them?

phoebe1989seb

Sand them and lay some nice rugs......that you can take with you to your new home :D

AlexMac

Tough call this-and it may depend on your target market. Even if the house is fairly cheap, you might still be getting buyers who will be stretching themselves to afford it and will be put off by waht seems like an unfinished project, si I'd go for some kind of finish or covering. Sanding's hard work, and unless you prep the boards thoroughly by banging in every nail head and sticky-up bit, you get through a lot of very expensive sanding belts (assuming you're hiring a big belt sander). They might have better dust collection systems now, but clearing the room before, then clearing dust from every cranny after and before sealing (itself costly) strikes me as a project too far if its not your own home. I also had the unfortunate experience that the vibration of the sander brought down a ceiling (the old lath n plaster kind- imagine the mess!).

You can buy really cheap carpet, and fitting a pale, neutral colour throughout at no more than a grand (or a few hundred quid for a DIY job) would make the house look so much better that it would - in my view - sell much faster. People really do go on 1st impressions. Cheap laminate has a similar benefit, at similar cost if - esp if you can do DIY; but don't botch it or that will devalue your home.

Or, if even that cost put you off, and assuming it fits your decor (ie, you're not too chintzy) just paint them off white- even a coat of primer would transform and enlarge the space, and the act of clearing furniture would encourage you to de-clutter (like the TV sez you should).

But if you fail to sell, and have to let the house - even for a while, a cheap carpet would be the best option as it's more attractive to tenants, and cheaper to repair and maintain than sealed or painted boards - good lucK!

dgtazzman

I'd probably give the floor boards a bit of attention (sanding, ...) and buy some cheap rugs from Ikea. To me as a potential buyer, knowing there's nice floor boards underneath would appeal to me quite a bit. It would certainly make a better first impression than some cheap carpet and it's probably going to work out cheaper too as you can do it yourself with a sander and some paint brushes...

phoebe1989seb

IMHO cheap laminate would definitely be a bad idea.........although there are those that like it:p

witchy1066

leave the floorboards if they are in good condition, the new owner can decide to cover them or not ,

personally I would be very happy to be able to see the floorboards in any house I was viewing

JencParker

I've seen a few houses with painted floorboards and it's put me off. Not necessarily buying the property, but would warm to it more if it had finished flooring. I'd rather a cheap laminate went down tbh. I guess each to their own.

katejo

JencParker wrote: »

I've seen a few houses with painted floorboards and it's put me off. Not necessarily buying the property, but would warm to it more if it had finished flooring. I'd rather a cheap laminate went down tbh. I guess each to their own.

Cheap laminate is absolute no no for me ! I switch off immediately . I would get them sanded/ possibly varnished and leave the buyers to choose . Don't think I would paint them though hard to be sure without seeing it

craighewer18

Thanks for your responses

I was actually planning on sanding the boards and lightly staining them but after looking into it abit more, I was put off by how much mess it makes.

As I said, the boards arent in too bad a condition, its just where we've previously decorated, we didnt really take much care covering the floorboards (because we knew we were covering them) and so have the odd scuff but mainly paint spots all over the place. I have just tried to remove/sand out the paint marks but it does mark the boards.

I think painting them is a no go, like Jen said it would put me off also.

I dont really want to waste £1000+ on either carpet/laminate for the new buyers to rip it all up again.

What do you guys think of offering potential buyers a flooring allowance? For example say the house is valued at £120k, bump up the price to £121k and give them £1000 cash flooring allowance.

My target market are FTB and so money doing up the place maybe tight, hence offering them a flooring allowance may sway them.

What do you think? Stupid idea?

Thanks for the input

craighewer18

Saying that, I've just priced up a floor sander & edging sander for £50 for the week.

I might take the hit on the mess and get it done.

Would be interesting to hear what you think about the allowance idea though