Are these floorboards restorable (Edwardian house)?

[lizziecupcakes]

Hi all, I've started my research on restoring floorboards. I am unable to date these floorboards. I've attached the pics below - they are from the main bedroom, second bedroom and kitchen.

Do they look restorable? I'm not too fussed if they're not original, although that would be a huge bonus. I don't know how one would date them? I just want to restore what I can, irrespective of the period, as I like that it's part of the property's history.

I'm at the tail-end of exchange and the vendor let me take a look at the floorboards (I could only access the main bedroom, second bedroom and kitchen though; carpet in the rest of the house was too difficult to pull up). It's a semi-detached 1906 Edwardian house.

If they're restorable, then I plan to lift them first (room by room), get a specialist in to make sure there's no issues with the joists etc (and I'll repair things if needed). Once that's done, I'll add floor insulation and a waterproof membrane on the ground floor only (but I need to figure out what order to do that in first). I'm not sure what material to use to help reduce noise - Any suggestions?

Then, I'm going to secure the floorboards back to the joists and begin the restoration - sanding, stain/dye, and in one or two rooms I might use floor painting. What's your preference?

I would love your thoughts and please feel free to share your experiences! Thank you



Kitchen: I think it's decades old lino sat on some cork sheet (???), which sits on the floorboards. The wall you see is the party wall.




Master bedroom - beneath the carpet there's nothing but the floorboard (no carpet underlay). Floorboards looks like this throughout. It looks "newer" to me, and not original.





Small double bedroom - we pulled back the carpet + underlay. I'm not sure why it's blackish like that with white bits (paint?) . Further down the bottom there is less of that and looks more like the actual wood.

 

[Stevers]

Kitchen floors look like that, it's just the way it is. In the days when squares of carpet were in vogue the floors were stained/varnished dark with all sorts of ungodly stuff where they showed round the edge. Later on strips of wood effect lino would be put round the edge to cover up the mess and reduce draughts. One of your floors has been stripped, but you can still see the shadow where this stuff was, the other floor has paint spills which is also par for the course once they were routinely covered.

Personally, I'm a fan of plain fitted carpets, with a tight pile, in muted colours, on a really high quality underlay. I have no need to worry about noise, draughts or what my floor boards look like!

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the condition of the floorboards!

I wish I liked carpet, but I just don't like it.

 

[Stevers]

That's OK, I feel the same about bare pine floorboards. Oak parquet on the other hand - if only!

 

[Lacan07]

Hi all, I've started my research on restoring floorboards. I am unable to date these floorboards. I've attached the pics below - they are from the main bedroom, second bedroom and kitchen.

Do they look restorable? I'm not too fussed if they're not original, although that would be a huge bonus. I don't know how one would date them? I just want to restore what I can, irrespective of the period, as I like that it's part of the property's history.

I'm at the tail-end of exchange and the vendor let me take a look at the floorboards (I could only access the main bedroom, second bedroom and kitchen though; carpet in the rest of the house was too difficult to pull up). It's a semi-detached 1906 Edwardian house.

If they're restorable, then I plan to lift them first (room by room), get a specialist in to make sure there's no issues with the joists etc (and I'll repair things if needed). Once that's done, I'll add floor insulation and a waterproof membrane on the ground floor only (but I need to figure out what order to do that in first). I'm not sure what material to use to help reduce noise - Any suggestions?

Then, I'm going to secure the floorboards back to the joists and begin the restoration - sanding, stain/dye, and in one or two rooms I might use floor painting. What's your preference?

I would love your thoughts and please feel free to share your experiences! Thank you



Kitchen: I think it's decades old lino sat on some cork sheet (???), which sits on the floorboards. The wall you see is the party wall.
View attachment 13628



Master bedroom - beneath the carpet there's nothing but the floorboard (no carpet underlay). Floorboards looks like this throughout. It looks "newer" to me, and not original.
View attachment 13629




Small double bedroom - we pulled back the carpet + underlay. I'm not sure why it's blackish like that with white bits (paint?) . Further down the bottom there is less of that and looks more like the actual wood.

View attachment 13630

I'm not a fan of insulating a suspended floor Lizzie, others here may disagree. My preference is perhaps dictated by the fact my sub floor does get damp when it rains for long periods, yours may be perfectly dry. But I also dislike the struggle and the damage caused by pulling up the boards, and its a lot of work.

Your floors are obviously restorable. If you have soft pine and you chose to stain or dye your boards you'll need to bring your 'A' game as mistakes / poor sanding are amplified. Toby Newell's website is good resource. Painting the boards will be a hell of a lot easier.

 

[lizziecupcakes]

hi @Lacan07 , thanks! Sorry to hear your floor does get damp from rain - how annoying! btw When you say "sub floor", what does this mean?

And yup, the property is suspended flooring. I was going to do one small room first and see how it goes. But our reno is going to be something we'll be doing over the years so I'm hoping I'll stay motivated to do the floors.

The kitchen may just get new lino lined since we are hoping we can get an extension done after a few years, depending on savings!

​

 

[Lacan07]

hi @Lacan07 , thanks! Sorry to hear your floor does get damp from rain - how annoying! btw When you say "sub floor", what does this mean?

And yup, the property is suspended flooring. I was going to do one small room first and see how it goes. But our reno is going to be something we'll be doing over the years so I'm hoping I'll stay motivated to do the floors.

The kitchen may just get new lino lined since we are hoping we can get an extension done after a few years, depending on savings!

​

The sub floor is the void beneath your suspended floorboards which should have suitable working air bricks. When I say damp I mean the soil can sometimes go a bit damp to touch. It may also have something to do with the stupid concrete floor in my kitchen tbh.

Original floorboards look the best imho.

 

[Toby Newell]

Hi all, I've started my research on restoring floorboards. I am unable to date these floorboards. I've attached the pics below - they are from the main bedroom, second bedroom and kitchen.

Do they look restorable? I'm not too fussed if they're not original, although that would be a huge bonus. I don't know how one would date them? I just want to restore what I can, irrespective of the period, as I like that it's part of the property's history.

I'm at the tail-end of exchange and the vendor let me take a look at the floorboards (I could only access the main bedroom, second bedroom and kitchen though; carpet in the rest of the house was too difficult to pull up). It's a semi-detached 1906 Edwardian house.

If they're restorable, then I plan to lift them first (room by room), get a specialist in to make sure there's no issues with the joists etc (and I'll repair things if needed). Once that's done, I'll add floor insulation and a waterproof membrane on the ground floor only (but I need to figure out what order to do that in first). I'm not sure what material to use to help reduce noise - Any suggestions?

Then, I'm going to secure the floorboards back to the joists and begin the restoration - sanding, stain/dye, and in one or two rooms I might use floor painting. What's your preference?

I would love your thoughts and please feel free to share your experiences! Thank you



Kitchen: I think it's decades old lino sat on some cork sheet (???), which sits on the floorboards. The wall you see is the party wall.
View attachment 13628



Master bedroom - beneath the carpet there's nothing but the floorboard (no carpet underlay). Floorboards looks like this throughout. It looks "newer" to me, and not original.
View attachment 13629




Small double bedroom - we pulled back the carpet + underlay. I'm not sure why it's blackish like that with white bits (paint?) . Further down the bottom there is less of that and looks more like the actual wood.

View attachment 13630

Stevers was correct. Lighter boards are badly sanded and left bare, darker ones probably have coal tar coating, hopefully just at the edges. Dating is not an exact science but the width, colour and patination all could be Edwardian.

Pretty much everything is restorable. Technically that would mean doing any repairs, re affixing them, repainting black around the perimeter and fitting a very large rug. But yes, also sandable. Impossible to judge from a few snippets. Quite a lot of filling.

Little bit worried about 'getting an expert in to check the joists' then doing any repairs yourself. If you do not have the ability to judge whether a joist is good enough or not you might not have the ability to do worthwhile repairs. No one is going to check your joists! At least more than a Rumplestiltskin test (my favourite) You can pay in excess of £3,000 just for a L3 survey and they rarely lift more than one board, if any.

Buy some toe capped work boots and have a good stomp. You don't want bouncy. Then go on your hands and knees and tap boards with a hammer near each nail hole (joists) you will learn the difference between a deeper "thock, thock, thock" of a 'sound' board ie no cracks and firmly fixed and a lighter "thack, thack, thack" of a split board or one that is loose. You will quickly learn which areas are bouncy (thin boards) deflect a lot (damaged joists and / or badly cut and fixed boards) or sound hollow (loose or no fixings) To check you would need to remove any bouncy or loose boards to check for issues underneath.

You can never give an accurate survey unless you remove most of the boards. On about 99% of my jobs I find unexpected (but not surprising) issues.

I don't even offer these types of survey. If you have a cellar or crawl space and can view the joists from underneath then this can be an exception.

 

[Toby Newell]

Hi all, I've started my research on restoring floorboards. I am unable to date these floorboards. I've attached the pics below - they are from the main bedroom, second bedroom and kitchen.

Do they look restorable? I'm not too fussed if they're not original, although that would be a huge bonus. I don't know how one would date them? I just want to restore what I can, irrespective of the period, as I like that it's part of the property's history.

I'm at the tail-end of exchange and the vendor let me take a look at the floorboards (I could only access the main bedroom, second bedroom and kitchen though; carpet in the rest of the house was too difficult to pull up). It's a semi-detached 1906 Edwardian house.

If they're restorable, then I plan to lift them first (room by room), get a specialist in to make sure there's no issues with the joists etc (and I'll repair things if needed). Once that's done, I'll add floor insulation and a waterproof membrane on the ground floor only (but I need to figure out what order to do that in first). I'm not sure what material to use to help reduce noise - Any suggestions?

Then, I'm going to secure the floorboards back to the joists and begin the restoration - sanding, stain/dye, and in one or two rooms I might use floor painting. What's your preference?

I would love your thoughts and please feel free to share your experiences! Thank you



Kitchen: I think it's decades old lino sat on some cork sheet (???), which sits on the floorboards. The wall you see is the party wall.
View attachment 13628



Master bedroom - beneath the carpet there's nothing but the floorboard (no carpet underlay). Floorboards looks like this throughout. It looks "newer" to me, and not original.
View attachment 13629




Small double bedroom - we pulled back the carpet + underlay. I'm not sure why it's blackish like that with white bits (paint?) . Further down the bottom there is less of that and looks more like the actual wood.

View attachment 13630

I have fitted, but do not advise or recommend to my clients, insulation on ground floors, unless we are fitting to a new sub floor / UFH etc. No idea why you would want a waterproof membrane, that will simply condense water on the warm side.

If on ground floor why do you want sound proofing? A rug and slippers are best here. If on an upper floor then fitting snug insulation should help a little, but to soundproof properly will cost thousands and take ages and besides, you couldn't re fix the floor with nails or screws, you would need to glue it direct, or plane it, joint it and biscuit it.

 

[Toby Newell]

The sub floor is the void beneath your suspended floorboards which should have suitable working air bricks. When I say damp I mean the soil can sometimes go a bit damp to touch. It may also have something to do with the stupid concrete floor in my kitchen tbh.

Original floorboards look the best imho.

The 'sub floor' is the structure supporting the top floor, ie joist / beam for suspended floors, or plywood, osb, concrete etc for solid floors. It includes everything, ie joist sitting on dwarf walls, covered with plywood, covered with parquet, everything below the parquet is part of the sub floor. The void, three tons of dirt, wood chippings, old woodbine packets and skeletonised animals are part of the 'sub floor space'.

 

[Toby Newell]

That's OK, I feel the same about bare pine floorboards. Oak parquet on the other hand - if only!

You've obviously not seen any nicely done ones! Many of them are much more characterful than oak parquet, depending on the age!

 

[Toby Newell]

That's OK, I feel the same about bare pine floorboards. Oak parquet on the other hand - if only!

Are you persuadable? Rather lovely thick pitch pine treads next to slightly less lovely same age, boring crown cut oak parquet. Unfortunately the pitch pine was only in the hallway pew seating and first two flights of stairs. Depends on the quality and cut, quarter and rift sawn oak parquet with a nice colour then I agree, that's harder to beat, but there are some nice tight grained pine out there that has more reflectivity than oak.

 

[Stevers]

Very nice! It's true that my boards are good quality and in reasonable nick, but they are sensibly covered with practical, hard wearing, noise deadening carpet, ready for whoever comes next. I'm going to use the excuse that no one who has lived here before me would have had bare boards unless they were destitute!

 

[lizziecupcakes]

@Toby Newell beautiful wood there!

What’s the dark colour of wood in the last pic. That’s my ideal wood flooring!

 

[Toby Newell]

Very nice! It's true that my boards are good quality and in reasonable nick, but they are sensibly covered with practical, hard wearing, noise deadening carpet, ready for whoever comes next. I'm going to use the excuse that no one who has lived here before me would have had bare boards unless they were destitute!

Quite true, 99% of pine board floors are not designed to be show wood. Carpet is disgusting, gives me asthma, carpets are probably the biggest health hazard in the home. I vacuum between 500 and 1,000kg of wood dust per year, zero asthma, lift one carpet, cannot breathe for a week. I like the feel and different textures but health wise carpet is a constantly recycling allergen and pathogen reservoir. My mum painted our boards blue and made furniture out of planks and bricks until we could afford carpet.

 

[Toby Newell]

@Toby Newell beautiful wood there!

What’s the dark colour of wood in the last pic. That’s my ideal wood flooring!

Unfortunately I don't have all of my brain left so have none to spare, sorry.

I make all my own colours. Iirc that was a water stain followed by two or three coats of tinted shellac, with 2 coats water based lacquer on the floors, 4 coats on the stairs. I used water stains, spirit stains and universal pigment tinters. You don't stain pine that even wiping or brushing on a shop bought stain, I wish!

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Stunning!! Absolutely stunning. I love dark wood

 

[Toby Newell]

@Toby Newell beautiful wood there!

What’s the dark colour of wood in the last pic. That’s my ideal wood flooring!

Ask @Lacan07 I have been pretending to be his Mr Miyagi. Staining is much harder than clear finishing, especially on old pine, another thing to possibly react and your sanding needs to be perfect or every mistake or sanding mark will show up. Staining a floor doubles the finishing time and also extends the sanding time. If you want to stain you will need to experiment. I sand to P60 or P80 with hand machine (after machine sanding) water wash, then cut back with P100 or P120. Your sanding needs to be perfect. Lacan did a really good job looking at his photos he sent me, so it just takes dilligence and patience. Maybe Lacan is better to ask how he found it, as a novice.

 

[Toby Newell]

Stunning!! Absolutely stunning. I love dark wood

meh, not a terrible fan of darker pine, looks better on oak imho, even crappy finger parquet, oak is probably the best wood to stain.

 

[Toby Newell]

You need a bit of warmth with pine and satin works better with dark colours than matt.