In today’s world of online auctions and desire for eco-friendly options, reclaimed wood flooring is a highly popular interior solution. Prices for reclaimed wood flooring vary dramatically but it’s safe to say, before you think of discarding your old wood flooring, you should seriously look into the possibilities of selling it.
For people seeking to install a new floor with a zero forest footprint, reclaimed wood floor is the ultimate eco-friendly solution, and people are often prepared to pay dearly for the pleasure of owning it. The attraction of a reclaimed wood floor is that it boasts unique characteristics and is naturally “aged”. In order to have value on the market, your old wood flooring doesn’t have to be perfect, but you will need to:
a. find a buyer for it and,
b. either you or the buyer, will need to remove it in such a way that it can be re-fitted in its new home.
When it comes to finding a buyer for your old wood floor, there are a whole host of options. The most obvious are local “personal items for sale” newspapers or websites. The benefit of promoting your old wood floor locally is that you won’t need to worry too much about the cost of delivering such a big item over a long-distance. That said, for the right item, people are prepared to pay a surprising amount of money for delivery or indeed to come and collect the floor from quite a distance. Either way, it’s worth checking out delivery options before you limit yourself to a local audience for your floor because if your floor is special, broadening it’s geographical reach is almost certain to secure you a higher price.
If you do decide to take your floor to a wider audience, the likes of ebay is a great way to find the right buyer. With ebay you can either set a fixed price for your floor or you can open it up to bids. While a fixed price can be reassuring, taking the risk of opening the deal up to bidders means you might get a pleasant surprise regarding how much people are prepared to pay (and you can always add a reserve price so you don’t get a nasty shock!). If your floor is of specific historical importance or has a special story to tell, architectural salvage auctions or auction houses are also worth a try. Another place you can test the water for a market is through one of the handful of online companies who will offer you a price for your old floor if you fill in their enquiry form. That said, these companies tend to be re-sellers and as such are likely to pay less for your floor than someone who will buy direct.
When it comes to lifting your floor, if the buyer is doing the job, your only worries are that they don’t damage anything in your home while removing the floor. However, if you’re responsible for lifting the floor, it’s really important that you do the job with care, making sure you inflict the minimum amount of damage humanly possible in the process. In order to lift the floor, getting started is probably the most difficult part of the process. In order to loosen the first board, you can either use a floor vibrator or a good old hammer and chisel. Either way, you’re likely to cause damage to the first board, but once you’ve started, you should be able to remove the floor board by board, taking care not to damage neither the tongue nor the groove.
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