I live in a house that was built in 1830. The downstairs has floors that are about 100 years old but the upstairs has original flooring. It is long pine boards with about 15 coats of paint on them. The boards are about 1.5×5 but they are not necessarily cut evenly. The house is 3000 sq ft and I would be re-doing all of the flooring in the whole house, top and bottom. My father is a professional carpenter and I can get all of the technical help I need. I will be doing any/all of the work myself or with the help of my father, I have or can get the tools. At first, I had it in my mind to rip up each plank, plane it, trim the sides and then put it back down. Maybe even flip it over so I wouldn't need to remove so much paint. With all of the lead and the planer dust, I am starting to like this less and less. I have a wife and newborn so this is important to my situation. I could put new flooring on top of the old flooring but I think that would add some considerable weight to the floor which I would like to avoid. Also, it would add a little complexity with the stairs. I thought of sanding- I will do this on the ground floor of white oak but again with the potential lead, I like this idea less and less. Does anyone have experience with restoring old homes? I would like to make the floors look a little nicer.
Have you tested to confirm the presence of lead? If you haven’t, get a test kit so you know what you are dealing with. If I was to do the work myself, I would go get a certification as a lead abatement contractor and remove all lead from the property. That would eliminate the risk with kids and raise the value of the property. I would think it would be best to leave the boards in place. If you remove them and plane them, they might not go back down as smoothly as you can get them by just sanding the floor from the top. You would also potentially come up short due to breakage or need to cut the puzzle pieces to get them back in. Just my non-professional opinion.
Yes, there is lead. We have testers and it was in the walls too. We have everything covered by modern latex floor or wall paint. There are a few areas that have been torn up due to repairs over the years so an exact match is pretty much out of the question, I will need to replace or refit maybe 5-10% of the planks. I really just want to rip everything up and lay new floor. This would be a pretty big job though.
Well, materials costs have been rising. So reusing what you have may be more economical. I think whatever you decide to do, barring just going over the top, is going to be a big job.
I remodel quite a bit. Some old wood floors are definitely worth refinishing. How much sag do you have in the rooms?I've worked on a floor that was 2 inches lower in the middle of the room. Just covering that up doesn't work well. Cheapest way to go would be to find a laminate floor style you like. Goes in fast, easy to maintain, thin enough it wouldn't mess up your stairs and doors. Good luck.
There isn't much sag in the floors, thank God. There is a loose board in a closet but it isn't a big deal. Thanks for the recommendation!
We are in a 1797 house with wide Pine floorboards in most of the rooms. Fortunately they did not paint the floor. I’ve been trying to do restoration rather than renovation. It is difficult. I’ve made big compromises, like vinyl windows with fake dividers to look like a 12 over 12. My guiding rationalization is ‘can it be undone to be done right?’ In the case of the windows, the original ones were long gone, and I was replacing a 1950s window with something that looked more authentic. Lead is nasty. I’ve largely tried to avoid it (mostly already covered with nonlead paint) but will need to do something. Have you considered removing the floorboards and have someone deal with the lead at their specialized shop and then reinstall? I personally would be inclined to replace with either clean, recycled pine, or new pine. Last on my list would be a laminated floor over the existing (would not even be an option in a historic old house).
Citrus based paint stripper and then traditional sanding to finish? You can get various types of paint strippers made specifically for lead paint.
That is a real good idea to swap pine for pine. I guess I never thought of that. I was thinking to rip everything out and replace with oak but in keeping with the house, pine would be the best option. Bringing the boards to an outside mill or processing center is also a good idea. I think it would depend mainly on cost. I like the boards, but not to the tune of several thousand dollars. Then again, even doing this myself may run up the tab quite a bit. I feel you on keeping the integrity of the house. I have generally been updating to modern construction materials but, for everything aesthetic, I try to keep an antiquated look or material.
Could be. I haven't looked real closely at the different strippers. I did restore the original banister with stripper and it was more of a project than I would like to admit. There was probably 10 coats of paint. The stripper never did really do the work and I ended up cutting the remaining paint residue out with a router.
Vermont... I was going to say, it sounds like you are in New England. My place is on the eastern edge of the western reserve in North East Ohio.
Some work better than others, no doubt. A floor is about the ideal place to use stripper though...stays in place real well and since its a large flat surface you can use a pretty wide scraper. I have had real good luck using this Citristrip 1/2 Gal. Safer Paint and Varnish Stripping Gel Non-NMP-HCSG803 - The Home Depot much of the paint came up in one big sheet...you could almost grab it and peel it off...
If the floor boards are square nailed down, it may be very difficult to remove without damaging them. Is there subflooring under the old pine flooring? I'm all for historic preservation, but you can remove and replace it with new pine and minimize any risk to your family. If you remove and strip or plane it, it may have lots of dings and dents that it will just not look great. Sure, the house is old, but if it is not historically significant, I see no issue. I've done a bit of restoration on the two old houses we have lived in.
Well, maybe you can tell me if stripper would work. I don't like the look of these cracks and they are fairly pervasive throughout the rooms. I suspect those would be easier to cut out, fill and sand. Maybe the stripper would work on everything else though. In the master bedroom, the planks are cut to the full length of the floor so around 15ft. I don't think I will be able to find those full length planks for sale anywhere. At least at a price I would be willing to spend.
That looks about right. I think by the sq ft, that is probably less expensive than the other flooring I was seeing. From some previous comments, I don't think there is a sub floor but maybe I should add one... that would likely help with the creaking. I did repair some planks and I only found the standard floor joists underneath them (and a safe full of early American treasure of course). We have steam heat and the floor has been cut up a few places to get access to the pipes. While I am doing this project, I will probably re-do a lot of the steam-heat plumbing so that I won't need to rip up the floor again, at least immediately. The stairs are currently carpeted but those are looking like a good candidate for stripping and restoring.
I'm sure it can be stripped...just a matter of finding the right stripper, even then its hard to day how difficult it will be in the end...or how well those gaps will clean up. Any idea if they are tongue n groove planks? I don't think you can ever completely get rid of the gaps with solid wood flooring...its gonna expand and contract with the seasons...too tight and it can buckle...and in the winter it will contract, no two ways about it. On those old original floors with large gaps, I think its common to fill the large gaps with rope.
It isn't toung and groove from the parts I have messed with. Yeah, I heard about rope. I was thinking of regular old modern poly filler but rope would probably do the same thing for less money. I am thinking that there are probably areas that would be ok to strip- one room in particular has only one coat of paint, but I will probably need to do some replacement too. I bet there are places that salvage really old flooring. It isn't good to burn with the lead. I wonder if I could sell some of it on eBay.
