Wood floor or subfloor?

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trini73diva

in General Discussion 6 years and 4 months ago

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NeoGrec | 6 years and 4 months ago

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Another option is to lift the subfloor entirely and lay a new plywood subfloor over the floor joists, then relay the old boards on top. The plywood will create a very stable, very flat surface — hence no squeaks and it should wear better. It does involve trimming the baseboards of course. We did this on our top floor landing where the pine floor had been destroyed by years of skylight leaks before we bought the house. We moved floorboards from a room that subsequently became a bathroom. The landing looks original to the house because, effectively, it is. It’s also super solid.

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 6 years and 4 months ago

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To add to my earlier comment–after 20+ years our sanded, stained, and polyurethaned kitchen floor started to look kind of shabby. It couldn’t be sanded again because that would expose the tongue and grooves. Also, since it was just one layer of boards we got drafts from the cellar below, We continued to live with it for quite a while until a few years ago when we had pre-finished 3″ oak put down over 1/2″ plywood on top of the old sub floor. No more creaking or flexing of floor boards. Still, I see nothing wrong with having the subfloor finished. It may last for a long time.

slopefarm | 6 years and 4 months ago

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b-golden, we know all about fancy materials on the main floor and cheap substitutes above. We have a mahogany (or what passes for it) bannister from the parlor floor up the first flight, only to have the bannister switch to something unidentifiable but quite cheap-looking above. We did not replace. I just smeared on extra coats of tung oil to dress the upper level up a bit.

slopefarm | 6 years and 4 months ago

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Our floors are pine throughout the house. We ended up using a clear finish, which brought out a deep amber color (I think we have what some people call pumpkin pine). It is soft, and the main issue our GC raised was whether it was thick enough to sand and still have enough thickness left over for a functional floor. With old soft woods, you don’t really know what color lurks within them until you try to finish them.
My suggestion is to sand and then do a few samples — clear and a few choice stains, and see what looks good.

greenworks | 6 years and 4 months ago

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Our second floor was done in Doug Fir as a flooring (as opposed to subfloor). It looked a lot like that before we sanded heavily and refinished with Bona Nordic then poly. If Doug Fir or pine, be prepared for a yellow cast in the wood. I hated it and that’s why we used the Bona Nordic tone to counteract.

At least in our house they used the fancier materials on first floor then less expensive second.

daveinbedstuy | 6 years and 4 months ago

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Ive had softwood floors stained. The only thing I saw that ever damaged them were high heels. I suppose any furniture would dent too.

decoart | 6 years and 4 months ago

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I believe you can do it as long as the wood is a hardwood and not a softwood. Softwood’s will get damaged easily. Talk to a flooring contractor.

trini73diva | 6 years and 4 months ago

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It’s in the middle floor bedrooms of a brownstone built in 1899 in Brooklyn. I’d like to just get them sanded and stained

decoart | 6 years and 4 months ago

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Couple questions: where are you located? Is there anything below that floor? Back in the early 1900’s pine planks was used in the NYC metro area as the subfloor / floor. Wealthy people would cover them up with more finished type wood or expensive rugs. Not so wealthy people would cover them up with cheaper rugs or not at all.

I encountered such a floor in BK. 7/8″ pine. There were too many water damaged areas to keep the floor as a finished floor, so I kept it as my subfloor.

Interested in hearing how you’re going to deal with it.

daveinbedstuy | 6 years and 4 months ago

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If it’s structurally sound and can be finished to look nice, I’d use it. We have some like that in Philadelphia and they are fine and we like them.

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 6 years and 4 months ago

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This looks like a subfloor to me. FWIW we sanded and polyurethaned such a floor in our kitchen and it served us well for tears, although it eventually had to be replaced.