Re-flooring with the Pine 12" subfloor
My flooring guy is telling me to pull of the beat up oak and use the 12″ pine subfloor as the top. Is this a good idea? Isn’t the Pine too soft?
My flooring guy is telling me to pull of the beat up oak and use the 12″ pine subfloor as the top. Is this a good idea? Isn’t the Pine too soft?
The surface of the wood is probably dessicated by age, soot and general exposure. Sanding it would remove most of that and get you down to clean wood but there are no guarantees. Urethane or a two-part clear epoxy finish will stiffen up the fibers to a certain extent but don’t count on that either. I’ve got aluminum oxide, which is twice as hard as any job site-applied finish, on my engineered flooring upstairs and it’s gouging like crazy thanks to my large dogs and the pine plywood substrate.
I had 115 year-old yellow pine floors in my loft. With my general carelessness, I wouldn’t do pine floors again.
I’d heard the old Pine is as hard as oak. I know this is the original sub-floor from 1864. The growth rings are extremely tight (16-25 to the inch on the sample I tested). Despite this, I can put my fingernail right into the sample. The wood is extraordinary quality, no knots. I am eager to find a way to use it if possible. Is there a hard urethane or polyester that can “toughen up” the surface?
Hundred year-old heart or yellow pine is as tough as oak. Besides, plywood subflooring is made from pine too.
My house has pine subfloors which the previous owners refinished to use as the main flooring. We’re going to re-lay oak or parquet for a number of reasons: the pine’s knots and its golden tone are too ‘country’ looking for our style; two floor guys have told us it is difficult to stain pine as it does not like to take stain evenly; and it IS soft. We put in a deep gouge by moving our sofa, and guests in heels do leave light dents on the wood.
If you like the rustic look and don’t mind the dents, I think pine is gorgeous.