How to cover ugly hardwood floors cheaply
Covering damaged or worn hardwood floors with cheap materials often requires heavy-handed solutions like self-leveler and laminate that destroy the original wood underneath. This forces people into a moral and practical dilemma between doing a quick budget fix and preserving the historical or underlying structure for the future.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1putting a vinyl vapor barrier down before pouring self-levelerDid this help you?
- 2leaving a written note for the next owner explaining what was doneDid this help you?
- 3refusing the job and walking awayDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Lord you commanded Man to provide for his family so please don’t send me to hell after I pour self leveler over these hardwood floors to install cheap laminate for a customer.”source ↗
“I’m going to attempt to put a vinyl vapor barrier over before I pour, hopefully that way the next owners will be able to remove the leveler and redo the floors if they want”source ↗
“So I rented an industrial wherehouse and we are turning it slowly into a parkour and acrobatics gym. But the floor in the reception is awful, full of painted spots and well old. Is there a cheap solution to make it look new or that I cover it or even a paint I could use?”source ↗
“It's absolutely been a trip making a gym but sometimes just feels that I'm in so much over my head.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 13How to know if old hardwood floors can actually be refinished
- 2How much should I charge for a small hardwood floor repair?
- 5Do I need to take engineered hardwood out of the box to acclimate?
- 4Should I glue down engineered herringbone flooring or float it?
- 5How to match vinyl flooring to existing wood
- 3How to replace thin wood flooring in old, uneven houses