Hardwood
Refinish or Replace? A Field Guide to Old LA Hardwood Floors
How to read the wear layer, spot water damage, and decide whether that 1948 oak floor has one more sanding in it.
Most LA homes built before 1970 have real hardwood floors hiding under carpet, laminate, or fifty years of finish. The question is almost never whether they are worth saving — they usually are. It is whether they can take one more sanding.
How much wood is left
Standard 3/4-inch solid oak has about 5/16 of an inch of wood above the tongue. Each professional sanding removes roughly 1/32 to 1/16 of an inch. That means a floor has, at most, four to six full sandings in its lifetime.
Pull an HVAC register or a threshold and look at the edge of a board. If you can see the tongue peeking out of the side, the floor is at or near its last refinish.
What actually kills a floor
Water damage below the finish, not the finish itself. Cupping and crowning that will not sand flat. Deep pet stains that have penetrated past the wear layer. Structural sag that makes a level sand impossible.
Everything else — scratches, dents, a tired finish, dogs' worth of scuffs — is cosmetic and comes off with a proper sand.
When replacement makes sense
If you are opening walls, changing the footprint, or adding an addition, matching new hardwood to a sanded existing floor is almost impossible. In that case, a full replacement with engineered or new solid hardwood — one species, one stain, one plane — usually looks better than a patched restoration.