Wood floor maintenance - contractor suggestions please.
Hi Everyone, I was wondering it anyone could off any advice on how to care and maintance for old pine wood floors? we renovated our place about a year ago and decided to keep the existing pine sub floor as our primary flooring. In some areas now we can see the wood filler cracking and falling out. Also, we were wondering how much it would be to do some maintenance work (re-filling the gaps, treating, cleaning) on appx 1500 sq feet? Also, since these are the sub floors – would it make sense for us to just lay down new floors? This just sounds like a daunting task with the moldings etc… Thanks in advance! -Jason
bk_homeslice
in Flooring 9 years and 5 months ago
13
Please log in, in order to post replies!
13 replies
janeinteriorsnyc | 9 years and 4 months ago
I love old pine sub floors and encourage my clients to leave them as their finished floor, it if works with their style. The most recent kitchen where we left them, had cracks which the floor person (Carlos, who was great) recommended, not filling as everything falls out. In my own kitchen, which has pine sub flooring that is painted, I had to do something about the larger cracks. I did a lot of research and ended up using a floor patch, in the areas that needed to be repaired and then recutting the lines in between the boards in those areas. After sanding and painting, it looks fantastic. Two other suggestions I came across: use felt strips or rope glued and wedged into the cracks, then stained the color of the floor. Both of those solutions were supposed to expand and give with the floor.
kassie319 | 9 years and 5 months ago
BK_homeslice – 646-780-9197
bk_homeslice | 9 years and 5 months ago
Thanks for the tips everyone! Chinatown – can you pass along carlos’s contact information?
NeoGrec | 9 years and 5 months ago
Jason: The floor job I had done was too long ago and also part of a much larger reno so I can’t help with a cost estimate. Ask a flooring contractor.
BobMarvin | 9 years and 5 months ago
You ask if I think it would make sense for you to try to just put in woodfill between the gaps when need be. Not the way I did it, because A hard wood filler doesn’t last long enough as the wood expands and contracts. I used Plastic Wood, not a great product, but I didn’t know any better. I now use Durham’s Water Putty as a filler, which is much better stuff, but I still do’t think it would last for this particular use. However, the flexible fillers others had suggested might work. The oakum I used (a tar-impregnated rope) might be good under a flexible filler (assuming it’s still available; I think plumber’s still use it in the joints of cast iron pipe, before soldering). In the end though, I think it’s better to just accept spaces between the planks as part of this rough flooring’s rustic look.
kassie319 | 9 years and 5 months ago
I had Carlos refinish parquet/ subfloors as finished floors on three floors of a brownstone recently. I thought his work was excellent.
pah123 | 9 years and 5 months ago
These tips you can apply to keep your woody floor maintained and sustained for long years: ? Use area rugs at entry gate to help prevent debris from being entered inside and scratching your floor. ? Do not use a wet-mop to clean wood floor. Leveled water can wash the finish, harm the wood and leave a discoloring sediment. ? Wipe up overflow instantly with a dampened cloth. I hope it is helpful.. Good Luck..
bk_homeslice | 9 years and 5 months ago
eman – installing plywood underneat the subfloor sounds like a good idea. We most likely should of done this when we renovated initially, but now we don’t have direct access to underneath the subfloor as its occupied by a tenant. How does the black silicone look? Is using woodfill the standard? I’m guessing that is what was done with our reno since its popping out and cracking. Bob – its great to hear that you used your subfloor and kept it for 41 years! I can only hope ours will uphold for that long. Do you think it would make sense for me to try to just put in woodfill between the gaps when need be? I’ll also try to use the murphy oil soap for cleaning. Thanks for the tips!!!! Neo – How much would a project like that cost? Lifting the subfloor, installing plywood and then filling in the gaps sounds like the ultimate solution. Would you recommend your contractor? -Jason
NeoGrec | 9 years and 5 months ago
FWIW, here’s what we did on our top floor when we renovated 15 years ago: After necessary repairs to several joists (which required lifting the original pine sub-flooring), we laid down plywood and then relaid the sub-floors on top. What this achieved was a very stable and much more soundproof floor with no gaps. It did require trimming baseboards and doors. But we’ve been very happy with the results. Where we didn’t lift the flooring, our contractor used a special caulk (a mix of sawdust and some kind of rubber cement) between the boards to fill gaps. This has held up remarkably well over the years.
BobMarvin | 9 years and 5 months ago
Not a direct answer, but the subfloor boards in my kitchen are only 2-1/2″ wide; the new ones I had installed over them recently are wider.
carmenf | 9 years and 5 months ago
As an aside, how wide are those boards? I’ve been trying to find a similar look to what our house will have when it’s done! Love the color.
BobMarvin | 9 years and 5 months ago
I left the subfloor in my kitchen 41 years ago. All our other rooms have original 1899 oak strips or parquet. Before the kitchen floor was sanded and finished I carefully filled in the gaps with oakum and wood filler. It looked great, but started falling out in less than a year; I think you’ll have to learn to live with gaps if you use the subfloors as finished flooring. Nevertheless the floor looked good and served us well for many years. Several years ago one board broke and I covered it with a “temporary” plywood patch until I could get around to replacing that board, something I never did. Early this year we had new pre-finished 3″ oak laid over 1/2″ plywood in the kitchen. The moldings weren’t a big problem. The installers just removed the original shoe molding and put new shoe molding in place after they were done. Since the moldings in our kitchen are painted it looks fine. The color of the new floor (gunstock oak) closely matches the original oak in the hallway. I’d suggest continuing to use the sub-flooring as long as it holds up. Although some would disagree we found that Murphy’s Oil Soap, used SPARINGLY is fine for cleaning. We bought a floor waxer and occasionally waxed all our floors (kitchen subfloor and parquet) for a number of years. Eventually we started using a product called “Rejuvenate” instead of waxing, although I don’t think we’ll use that on the new kitchen floor.
eman134 | 9 years and 5 months ago
I left my subloors in as flooring …17 years ago. 2 things that I did were: -on the garden floor , since all the basement ceilings were open, I glued and screwed 3/4 plywood up between the celler beams to provide reinforcement for the yellow pine flooring.Of course I did all the work myself and it might be prohibitibly expensive to hire someone to do this, but your GC should have given it as an option -On the third floor rental unit, I had no access to the underlying joists, so I used black silicone caulk between the joints, since woodfill is inflexible and will pop out after a year… I applied it prior to sandinding, and used oil based polyurethane since latex would provide a crappy bond. It’s still holding with a few minor touch ups over the years I have no idea who would do this kind of work in this era