CompleteNewb wrote:
So a guy from Empire came out to do an estimate on either carpeting or
hardwooding our floor. He pulled up some of our existing carpet, saw
that it's a hardwood floor underneath (it's in pretty crappy looking
shape; before you suggest just finishing it, I do plan to try
sanding, staining, and polyurethaning a 2' square section, but I have
no hope of it looking like something we'd want to be our floor), and
he said it's impossible to put a hardwood floor down because there's
already one there. He said if we do a hardwood floor, we HAVE to
tear up all the existing hardwood, and that in doing that we would
probably destroy the joists.

Are you talking about a bona-fide hardwood floor or a laminate covering?

If the latter, since the laminate is not attached directly to whatever's
under it, who cares whether it's crappy hardwood, concrete, bricks, steel,
or whatever.