LESLIE: Jason in Indiana is calling in about his old house; a 1940s house, to be exact. Jason, how can we help you?
JASON: Well, I have a tile that was broken when I purchased the house. And I pulled up the tile and I found out that the wood underneath the tile – it used to be – I guess it used to be a hardwood floor.
TOM: OK.
JASON: And the wood underneath the tile is warped. And there’s several other tiles that are cracked, so I don’t know if it’s a good idea to just kind of sand that tile down and replace it or just pull up all the tiles and start from scratch.
TOM: Well, I’ve got to tell you, Jason, a 1940s house is pretty well built and it was a great era for hardwood flooring. So if that is, in fact, what you have, well, getting the tile up might be a difficult job. When you do so, if you can get through that glue coat and do a real good belt sanding job on that floor – and I’m talking about the real wide, 12-inch belt sanders that you rent; or, better yet, have somebody do it for you that works with that equipment everyday because if you cough while you’re using it you could put a big dent in your floor that you can’t get out.
LESLIE: (chuckling) Your floor is going to be two inches shorter.
TOM: Right. But I mean if that floor is in decent shape underneath all of that glue and broken tile, you’re going to have a really beautiful floor. Because, structurally, even though you might see a little bit of a warpage, you can probably sand that right out and have a nice, clean, flat surface.
JASON: Alright, thank you.
TOM: Hey, you’re very welcome. Yeah, give it a shot. Is that something that you’ve considered?
JASON: Yeah, I actually didn’t consider just redoing it that floor, though; so I just figured just patching up the tile. But yeah, that sounds like it would probably be a better deal anyway.
TOM: Well, there’s another option for you. Jason, thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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