Is This Wood Worth Re-Finishing?
I have pulled up the various layers of carpet, tile, cement, etc. on our basement floor and arrived at the pictured wood. It is tounge and groove, 4.5 inches wide and rests directly on the floor joists. I have a few questions about what to do next. BTW, to give you an idea of the…
I have pulled up the various layers of carpet, tile, cement, etc. on our basement floor and arrived at the pictured wood. It is tounge and groove, 4.5 inches wide and rests directly on the floor joists. I have a few questions about what to do next.
BTW, to give you an idea of the style I like – I want hardwood floors and I was thinking of going with re-claimed wood.
Is this a wood worth saving (old growth pine)? If not I assume my best option is to have plywood (1/2 or 3/4 inch?) nailed on top of it and have hardwood put on top of the plywood.
If this is worth saving, should I:
1) Have it re-finished as it lays (directly on floor joist). If so, would I need to add insulation between the floor joists to protect from the cellar below? The cellar is fairly dry with a de-humidifier running.
2) Pull up the wood, put a layer of plywood on the floor joists and then have the wood re-installed on top of the plywood.
Would love any comments or suggestions as I barely know what I am doing. Thanks!
[IMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff183/jbrettrose/Pine.jpg[/IMG]
An update on my post, above, recommending Pellegrini flooring – they just screwed up the second job in a row for me. Not only did they promise that we could walk on the floors today and then lay a coat of oil just this morning (causing us to have to cancel our cleaning service at the last minute), but they also failed to clean the floor before putting down the finish so there are visible foot prints under the finish. And they left out some of the floors that they were supposed to do. Last week not only did they use the wrong finish but they were very sloppy getting the poly on our baseboards and leaving some dirt on the floor, now embedded in the finish. So they did two great jobs for us and two jobs that are awful. I can no longer recommend them and in fact I will never use them again (also the customer service today has been awful – they even laughed when I told them that my husband had taken the day off to supervise cleaning people, that we had to pay the cleaning people because they showed up but couldn’t get into the area to clean…) Do NOT CALL this company.
An update on my post, above, recommending Pellegrini flooring – they just screwed up the second job in a row for me. Not only did they promise that we could walk on the floors today and then lay a coat of oil just this morning (causing us to have to cancel our cleaning service at the last minute), but they also failed to clean the floor before putting down the finish so there are visible foot prints under the finish. And they left out some of the floors that they were supposed to do. Last week not only did they use the wrong finish but they were very sloppy getting the poly on our baseboards and leaving some dirt on the floor, now embedded in the finish. So they did two great jobs for us and two jobs that are awful. I can no longer recommend them and in fact I will never use them again (also the customer service today has been awful – they even laughed when I told them that my husband had taken the day off to supervise cleaning people, that we had to pay the cleaning people because they showed up but couldn’t get into the area to clean…) Do NOT CALL this company.
I would hire a company to sand and refinish with oil poly and go satin finish on it. Gloss will not look “right†on plain pine – but the satin looks great. Oil will stand up better over time so it’s worth the extra drying time (days) when you first put it down.
I’ve had Pellegrini (718) 961-3300 do all my floors. The first time I did water based poly and it stood up well in most areas but not in the kitchen or near the back door. Following renovations this year they screened the finish and redid it in oil and I can tell it will stand up for a lot longer. They did my upstairs last week, and by accident used gloss finish and it don’t look great with the pine. It was their mistake and they said they would fix the error (very pleased with their responses) They are doing another ½ floor for me this week (since I can’t walk on the floor while it’s being done I’m not staying at home this week so I don’t know how it looks yet).
I definetly recommend that you test a small area of floor before you commit to any finish coat. From my experience with our house’s original pine sub-floor, oil based poly will make the floors a very dark red/brown while a water based poly will keep the honey/yellow color of the wood. The results are very very different so you should sample first to see what you like. I think the water based poly/lighter finish looks better on these floors but it doesn’t wear as well as an oil coat. If you go with the water based finish demand that your floor contractor puts down 5 coats even though 2 or 3 coats is typical. He’ll charge more for the extra work but your floors will be better off if you do.
you mean poly? just the water-based stuff they had at home depot. i’m actually leaning towards satin or even flat finish in the future, this super shiny gloss is a little disconcerting!
the stain was also water-based minwax, which apparently isn’t recommended for floors. the color is a little uneven, but we had very little time to do the floors and didn’t want to wait for oil-based stain to dry. someday we want to put hardwood floors on top, but this’ll do for a while.
Jimmy Legs….
What type of finish did you use on your floors? They look great.
those floors look ripe for refinishing. if you think those are bad, lookit my floors, they were chewed up and had paint and all manner of crap on them. we did it ourselves over the course of a weekend and it came out pretty nice for something that was intended to be a temporary solution.
http://tinyurl.com/32djzn
I see some of the posts talk about taking up the floor to make a level floor. Depending on how much your floor slants to the staircase, this could be a very big job. Leveling a floor effects the whole apartment & your doors and door frames. So think twice about this before you dive in.
I’m with everyone else; old pine looks great in an old house. Look through the archives; there are some posts on different finishes. Consider a natural oil finish, as it is easier to cover up scratches. Poly finishes scratch in white lines.
You will need to sand, not just screen. Try sanding a small test area, then apply a clear finish, just to give you an idea of what it will look like.
Ripping up to put in a level subfloor will add a lot to your cost and you may lose som ewood. On the other hand, it will increase sound insulation, as well as get you a level floor.