Cypress Wood Flooring brings more than 20 years of work to wood-flooring in South El Monte, and a growing share of what we are asked about here comes from a kind of house the city has rarely had: the new three-story home. We install, replace and refinish hardwood and engineered floors, convert carpeted stairs to wood, and rebuild floors after leaks, in brand-new rooms and in houses from the middle of the last century.
A newer home raises questions an older one does not. Owners want to know whether a finish floor can replace what they moved in with, how the floor should change from one level to the next, and what a staircase serving three floors really costs. We answer those with measurements taken in the house, not with a square-foot figure quoted over the phone.
The older houses still fill most of our calendar, and they bring their own checks: what sits under the carpet, how old the tile is, and whether lead-safe practices apply. Both kinds of work are covered below, starting with the neighborhood taking shape where a drive-in theater once stood.
From Drive-In Screen to New Neighborhood
What the City Approved in 2022
The former Starlite Drive-In site on Rosemead Boulevard is being built out as homes. In April 2022 the City of South El Monte approved the Starlite Residential Development and rezoned about 12.3 acres from commercial-manufacturing to multifamily residential. The approval covers attached and detached two-, three- and four-bedroom dwelling units, a recreation center and common open space.
The City’s January 2022 notice described the project as 207 dwelling units, 169 single-family and 38 multifamily, with a pool and a recreation building. That is a large number for a city of 2.8 square miles, and it means a cluster of households will be making their first flooring decisions at roughly the same time.
The Groundbreaking and the Old Sign
At the September 2023 groundbreaking, KB Home said it planned to build over 200 three-story single-family homes and townhomes, along with a clubhouse and pool. The visuals that day included the drive-in’s 72-year-old sign, kept as the neighborhood’s link to what the land used to be.
Reports in 2026 described model homes and a sales office open while grading and foundation work continued. We are an independent flooring company with no connection to the builder, so we do not know which floor products go into these homes, and we would not guess. What we do know is how three-story houses behave once people move in.
A Rare Kind of House Here
New construction at this scale is unusual in South El Monte. Census estimates count 107 housing units built in 2020 or later, about 2.0 percent of the city’s stock, while the 1950s remain the peak decade. A neighborhood of more than 200 new homes changes that picture, and the flooring questions it raises are different ones.
Looking for wood-flooring closer to Lomita? See Wood-Flooring in Lomita.
Floors in a Three-Story New Home
Levels, Footfall and Underlayment
A three-story plan puts wood floors on framed upper levels, where footsteps carry to the rooms below. On those levels we look at the subfloor, the fastening and whether an acoustic underlayment belongs under a floating or glue-down floor. We also read the association’s rules before recommending one, since some governing documents address floor changes in townhomes and others say nothing.
The ground level is a separate question, and we do not assume what it sits on. Where the substrate is concrete, we run an ASTM F2170 in-situ relative humidity test or a calcium chloride test and write the readings down before engineered wood is chosen. On any level, boards acclimate first and we check their moisture content with a wood moisture meter.
Stairs Between Three Floors
Stairs are where a three-story home differs most from a ranch house. Two flights of treads, risers, landings and stair nosing can take more labor than the rooms they connect, so we price stairs per tread and per riser and list them apart from the floor area. That way an owner sees what the staircase costs on its own.
Converting carpeted stairs means pulling carpet, pad and tack strip, checking what lies underneath, and fitting solid treads and risers that match the floors above and below. We plan the nosing where each flight meets a landing so it lines up with the floor it joins, and we sequence the work so the household keeps a way up and down.
Replacing or Upgrading Builder Flooring
Many new-home owners want to change the floor they moved in with. We start by identifying what is there, since a floating floor, a glued floor and carpet each come out differently, and we look at what removal will reveal before quoting the replacement. A tear-out that exposes adhesive or an uneven subfloor changes the price, and we would rather find that first.
From there the choices are practical. White oak and hickory rank higher on the Janka hardness rating than many softer species, which matters on a busy main level. A wide plank engineered floor with a thicker wear layer can be sanded again years later, while one with a thin veneer cannot. Transitions between levels finish with reducer strip, T-molding and shoe molding.
The City’s 1950s Houses
What the Older Stock Looks Like
Away from the new neighborhood, South El Monte is mostly an older place. Of 5,292 housing units, 1,815 were built in the 1950s, which is 34.3 percent, and 52.6 percent predate 1960. About 65.9 percent are one-unit detached houses. The city itself was incorporated in 1958, near the end of that building peak.
In houses of that era we lift a corner of carpet before quoting anything, because what lies underneath varies from house to house: oak strip flooring, a plywood subfloor or a concrete slab, sometimes with old tile in between. The answer decides whether we refinish, repair or install new, and it keeps a quote from changing once the room is open.
Tile, Mastic and Lead
Old floor tile, including 9x9 asbestos floor tile, and the black mastic beneath it are treated as an asbestos question in pre-1980 houses. An asbestos survey comes before we sand, scrape or cover anything, and removal follows SCAQMD Rule 1403. With 77.4 percent of the city’s units built before 1980, this check is routine rather than rare.
Houses built before 1978 fall under the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule, so our crews use lead-safe work practices when sanding near or removing painted trim and baseboard. For finishes, we use only products legal to apply in the South Coast air basin under the 275 g/L wood-coating limit in SCAQMD Rule 1113.
Refinishing and Repair
Many older oak floors can be sanded and refinished rather than replaced. We work through a grit sequence with a drum sander, edger and orbital sander tied to a dustless sanding system, then choose waterborne polyurethane, oil-modified polyurethane or a hardwax oil finish based on how the room is used. Board replacement and weave-in repair fix damaged areas without redoing a whole room.
Soft spots near toilets, tubs and sliding doors are traced to the subfloor before we price a finish floor. After a leak from a dishwasher supply line, refrigerator water line, water heater or AC condensate line, we rebuild the floor once it has dried, keeping photos and readings an insurance adjuster can use.
Planning the Job Around the Household
Owners, Renters and Repair Duties
Owner and renter households in the city are nearly evenly split, 2,570 to 2,517. For rentals, California Civil Code 1941.1 lists floors, stairways and railings maintained in good repair among the standards of a tenantable dwelling. We work with owners and managers on repairs that keep a unit to that standard, and we document the condition before and after.
Owner-occupied homes within city limits may qualify for the City’s Owner-Occupied Rehabilitation Program, a 0% deferred-payment loan of up to $57,000 for eligible households. Flooring is not named among its listed repairs, so we suggest owners ask the City directly before counting on it for a floor.
A Room-by-Room Schedule
In a three-story home, work usually moves one level at a time so the household keeps a bedroom and the kitchen in use. In an older single-story house, we divide the job by rooms instead. Either way the plan is written down before we start, with the order of rooms and the date each one comes back.
Finish coats need time. We hand over a written cure schedule showing when each room can take socks, then shoes, then furniture and rugs, so no one has to guess. Waterborne and oil-modified finishes cure at different rates, and we say which one is going down before the first coat.
What to Have Ready
Before a visit, it helps to know the year the house was built, whether an association reviews changes, and any history of leaks. For a new home, the move-in date and any paperwork about the floor tell us what we are looking at. For an older house, a note on past remodels saves time when we lift the carpet.
We then measure, test moisture where needed, and return a written quote that separates floor area, stairs, removal and trim. If what we find under the existing floor changes the plan, we explain the change and the reason before any work goes further.
- 20+ Years in Wood Flooring
- Moisture Readings in Writing
- Room-by-Room Cure Schedule
