I have a 100 year old building that has wall to wall carpeting now but hard wood floors are supposed to be under the carpet.
What type of wood floor was in stalled 100 years ago? Oak? Red Oak?
How would I know what to refinish it with if I am unsure of the type of wood?
Any ideas on what products needed would be appreciated since I really would like the look of hardwood floors in the rooms.
Thank you for any help.
Replies
Greetings, Bigma, and welcome to BT. If you'll fill in your profile so we know where you're located, it'll help answer your questions.
As to what's under those carpets, it varies by region. Around here, pretty much all the hardwood flooring a hundred years back was maple or wild cherry. Black birch crept in in later years. In the NE US where I grew up, oak was the rule, usually white oak.
As to refinishing the floors, you don't need to know what kind of wood it is; you only need to test stains and topcoats in a hidden spot (say, the back corner of a closet) until you get the colour you like, and then go with that.
Be aware that if the floor is truly a hundred years old, it is likely to have been sanded and refinished more than once. This reduces the thickness roughly 1/16" per sanding. For a ¾" milled T&G strip, you've got an absolute max of ¼" above the tongue which can be sanded away before you start uncovering nailheads. That means if your floors have been refinished three times over 100 years (not an unreasonable guesstimate), you might have enough wood left...or you might not. It wouldn't be a bad idea to check the thickness left above the tongue before you commit to sanding again. There may be a reason beyond æsthetic choices that the former owner laid down wall-to-wall carpet.
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not brought
low by this? For thine evil pales before that which
foolish men call Justice....
We just had 1920 floor refinshed. Several surprises! We were told the flooring was red oak. So we looked hard for 3.25" red oak to replace about 30 feet of severely damaged boards. When the crew came to refinsh the floor and started sanding it, they found out the floor was pine and not oak and it would take stain diffrently. The refinisher told us that only reliable way is to sand a small section. I hope this helps.
Every type of floor was installed 100 years ago. You need to scrape a sample down and see what it is. If you don't know woods, bring someone in who does. The most common ones in the American house from 100 years ago (depending where you are) is red or white oak, maple, white pine, and southern yellow pine.
Like I said though, It could be anything.
Call a reputable floor refinisher to answer you questions. Pay them a consultants fee, and who knows, maybe you'll want to hire them to do the job.
What type of sanders are available if I want to do it myself?
Greetings BIG,
If you'd really like to get some detailed assistance with your project, if possible posting some closeup pictures of the floor in question would be a big help towards analyzing what might be needed.
Beware. RFID is coming.
Post a pic. You may not even need to sand.
There have been a couple of discussions recently about floor sanders. Use the advanced search option and try "floor sander".But tear up the carpet and post some low resolution pictures. Be aware that you may have black spots on the wood, typically from pets peeing. Just about no way to get these out, particularly after they have set for a while.