Home DIYers: Removed old(and i mean old) carpet, found beautiful hardwood, but...

[M0RPH]

Good hardwood floors don't have spaces between the pieces of wood. Just my 2c.

 

[Fritzo]

1. Who the hell uses adhesive on a wood floor?
2. Sometimes a heat gun will melt the adhesive and you can scrape it off.

 

[UnklSnappy]

Good hardwood floors don't have spaces between the pieces of wood. Just my 2c.

If you're talking new, 10 -20 year old floors then I'd agree.
But it is perfectly normal, to be expected on floors that are 50 - 100 years old.

 

[soydios]

Mineral Oil spirits. Or any oil solvent.

 

[murphy55d]

I got some WD40, going to give it a shot. Heat gun was my last resort...I have one and I know it gets paint off really well, we'll see how this works first. Will also try mineral oil spirits next, heard that from another friend too.
Thank you all for your help.

And the floors look great, original wood. It's really nice. Spaces or not.

 

[murphy55d]

Well if any of you care, I got the room done. Ended up using the heatgun and it came up really nice, actually.

Finished for today, don't know if we'll refinish or just get an area rug or what. Still surprised this was even under there. Plus two more rooms and the hallway, I imagine the entire upstairs is this same wood.

http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f224/mbarry55/?action=view&current=IMAG0021.jpg

 

[herm0016]

the wood looks great. that should be a pretty tough floor being older timber, tight grain pattern. you may find that the first floor has oak or some other hardwood, as what i have seen in some old homes is the first floor is hardwood like oak or maple and the second floor is pine.

 

[sandorski]

If that is REAL Southern Yellow Pine, those are worth some $$ on the re-furb market.
Just try matching and replacing some.... :rolleyes;

grabs crow bar and loads Google Maps

 

[*kjm]

Well if any of you care, I got the room done. Ended up using the heatgun and it came up really nice, actually.

Finished for today, don't know if we'll refinish or just get an area rug or what. Still surprised this was even under there. Plus two more rooms and the hallway, I imagine the entire upstairs is this same wood.

http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f224/mbarry55/?action=view&current=IMAG0021.jpg

Our house was built in 1908 and had crapy 1960's green carpet over Maple hardwood floors! You just need to look at the kitchens and wood paneling (over plaster lath) from the 70's to know were there heads were

 

[waggy]

I got a nice old farmhouse about 10 years ago. we tore up the carpet and found really nice hardwood under it. i hired someone to come out and sand/finish it. it looked really nice. I never understood why people cover up a nice hardwood floor.

 

[sandorski]

I got a nice old farmhouse about 10 years ago. we tore up the carpet and found really nice hardwood under it. i hired someone to come out and sand/finish it. it looked really nice. I never understood why people cover up a nice hardwood floor.

hehe, styles change. 20-30 years from now ATOTers will be the opposite, covering Hardwood floors with Fake Fur or some other thing.

Future thread

Home DIYers: Old(and I mean old) Wood floor, found beautiful Furturf, but what glue should I use?

 

[ElFenix]

I got a nice old farmhouse about 10 years ago. we tore up the carpet and found really nice hardwood under it. i hired someone to come out and sand/finish it. it looked really nice. I never understood why people cover up a nice hardwood floor.

just wait until everyone hates stainless steel appliances and granite countertops in 10 years. the avocado and chocolate kitchen will be back in style.

 

[murphy55d]

Our house was built in 1908 and had crapy 1960's green carpet over Maple hardwood floors! You just need to look at the kitchens and wood paneling (over plaster lath) from the 70's to know were there heads were

We have beat-up hardwood in the dining room, and guess what? crappy green carpet in the living room. That will be a future project as well, but I think those will need refinished, so not til we can afford that. Not sure what it costs but I imagine a lot.

 

[iGas]

This is what it looks like:

http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f224/mbarry55/?action=view&current=IMAG0019.jpg

That is pine.

It is very soft and will be damage in no time. Another thing to look into is there any creaking or crawling that may need to be address before deciding on the surface refinishing.

 

[*kjm]

We have beat-up hardwood in the dining room, and guess what? crappy green carpet in the living room. That will be a future project as well, but I think those will need refinished, so not til we can afford that. Not sure what it costs but I imagine a lot.

If you are handy you can rent a floor sander from HomeDepot and find a local place (not a box store) to get stain and the floor covering. That or start asking friends you would be amazed how many people have family who do this work for a living

I think we had the change in the 70's to carpet because of heating costs..... may be comming up on that again

 

[JohnCU]

that looks really nice

 

[SirStev0]

My parents had a somewhat similar find when they ripped up our carpets. Turns out the hallway and living room had this crazy intricate linoleum design under the carpet. The guy's son who we bought the house from told us he never remember carpet not being in the house and he was born back in the late 30's.

They ended up just scrubbing everything clean.

 

[waggy]

just wait until everyone hates stainless steel appliances and granite countertops in 10 years. the avocado and chocolate kitchen will be back in style.

im not impressed with stainless steel myself but the wife wants it so guess what we got?

 

[murphy55d]

That is pine.

It is very soft and will be damage in no time. Another thing to look into is there any creaking or crawling that may need to be address before deciding on the surface refinishing.

I noticed one or two of the boards do have a bit of a creak to them, a little movement. Can I just put another finishing nail in the boards that need it, or do I need to do something else?

 

[murphy55d]

also what do you guys recommend doing to the wood itself, since it is soft? We probably will put an area rug over it but is there a good protectant or something I can put on it to help keep it nice?

 

[nerp]

People warning you about damage, etc, are nuts. Don't worry about it. THe wood will wear over time and that is a desired effect. Just don't drag furniture around. And finishing the floors in a decade sure isn't a big deal and beats having dirty-ass carpet in 2 years.

I'm currently in the process of removing layers of linoleum and carpet in a house I just bought, exposing the original floors from 1915. It's going to look amazing.

 

[lxskllr]

People warning you about damage, etc, are nuts. Don't worry about it. THe wood will wear over time and that is a desired effect. Just don't drag furniture around. And finishing the floors in a decade sure isn't a big deal and beats having dirty-ass carpet in 2 years.

I'm currently in the process of removing layers of linoleum and carpet in a house I just bought, exposing the original floors from 1915. It's going to look amazing.

This is exactly what I'd do. As was said, you want to protect it from deep gouges, but routine wear will give it character. It'll start to have a life of it's own, and it'll record the history of you living there :^)

 

[iGas]

I noticed one or two of the boards do have a bit of a creak to them, a little movement. Can I just put another finishing nail in the boards that need it, or do I need to do something else?

You can nail or screw from top down on the loose board, but try crew from bottom up if you can access the area. Bottom up screwing method doesn't mark the surface and doesn't require fill/s.

 

[Red Squirrel]

If it's just the perimeter and it's within an inch or so of the wall (ex: nail marks) look into getting corner rounds for the baseboards. That's what I did for my house as there were lot of nail markings and it really did a nice finish.

Also got the floors sanded and refinished, totally worth it. If there's glue that might be the easiest way to get rid of it.

 

[lxskllr]

Putting talc in the cracks can get rid of squeaks also.