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old hardwood floor - strange plank width

16 years ago

The floors on the 1893 house I just bought are in bad shape. In fact, on the first floor we've been advised not to even attempt to sand and refinish them since they are already worn down almost to the grooves. So, it's a pity, especially since they seem to be somewhat unusual. Each plank is only about 7/8" wide. Has anyone ever seen floors like this before? I think they are oak.

Featured Answer

vjrnts

16 years ago

Those floors are the norm in older homes here in Rochester NY. I've had three houses with floors like this, built in 1922, 1929 and 1945. My contractor (redoing our kitchen) was looking over my shoulder at this post and said that flooring strips came in 1", 1.3", 2" and 2.5", and are still freely available at local lumber yards. He's going to have to get some 1.3" to repair the wood strip floor in my kitchen, that we found this morning under the old layers of vinyl and linoleum.

But I've seen many many of these floors. In Rochester, they're all face-nailed.

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Comments (10)

artamnesia
Original Author
16 years ago
{{gwi:1535862}}

This isn't the best photo, but in the glare you can better see the width of the boards. Don't they seem unusually narrow?
jan9
16 years ago
I've heard such floors called match stick floors or New York strip floors. Unfortunately oak floors of that vintage were often only 5/16" or 3/8" thick. Good luck on your restoration there aren't a lot of match stick floors left.
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I'm curious to see the replies. My son almost bought an older house, 1951, the wood under the carpet is about 2"wide strips looks like solid wood, but seems to have a lot of nails. Is that how it was done back then? I wondered how it would look if he had them finished, but he backed out of the deal after the inspection. We are about to tear out decent wood because the sun has faded it and since it is not a big area it would cost a lot to refinish, and I hear the refinished floor would need to be done again much sooner than a new prefinished. I wish I could take out the old wood in a way that it could be used by someone, but I think it will get wrecked. The store I am using charges $3 sf to install it, the wood price obviously varies. They use their own employees, no subs, and did a nice job on our mbr and hall, so I will use them even though I dont know what an independent installer would charge. My maple will cost $5.54 sf, plus install.
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Rift and quartered flooring is going to be more stable because of the movement in cell structure. Vapor barrier underneath the flooring is something that is a minimal investment for an invaluable benefit. You might be fine without the vapor barrier 90% of the time, however, if you were to have a warranty claim this is a big red flag for any flooring inspector. The vapor barrier does not completely block moisture from coming through, rather it allows moisture to pass through at a safe level for your hardwood flooring. A good example is if the basement floods and you have the vapor barrier installed underneath your flooring on the main level, it might save your hardwood from cupping. Having finish on all sides of a plank is useful for slowing down the moisture changes in the wood allowing it to withstand small fluctuations in humidity. Flooring with grooves on the bottom side allow for the planks to get more surface area which is the most important for glue down installation. After analyzing your particular situation, I feel like with a 6" plank it is best to opt for an engineered product with a decent wear layer (3 mm or more). If you can get quarter sawn that would be the best, but this will be a more costly option and limit your choices because not all manufactures produce their floors in quarter sawn. The main thing to monitor is moisture, try and keep things between 35-55% RH and you should be safe.
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By the time you refinish the present floor to match the color of the new floors, you might as well just redo it all with new.
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I have vinyl plank with huge dogs in my walk out basement where they have free access to a large dog run it has been in for 11 yrs and still looks awesome. We have a laminate on our main floor that looks like slate and has also stood up to the brats for 11 yrs there is no way wood could have handled all that abuse. IMO laminate or vinyl plank in good condition is better than scratched up wood floor that would have to be refinished before sale. We now have a great pyrenees as our 2 old dogs have passed away and he really is rough on floors , no wood could possibly stand up to him.The pic is the laminate floor and the old dogs
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ron6519
16 years ago
What's wrong with the floors? What's in bad shape, the finish or the wood?
Ron
scryn
16 years ago
I live in NY state and I have actually seen alot of them (ok, maybe 2 or 3!)
I also agree, your floors look very nice!
cotehele
16 years ago
We have the same type of wood floor. Our house was built in 1892. Many houses in town have them. A neighbor had hers sanded and refinished; they are gorgeous. The floors are rather thin, and cannot be restored very many times. Good luck, and let me know how it goes. Although, I agree the floor looks beautiful in the picture. In our new kitchen, I am planning to restore our wood floor, I hope it works.
artamnesia
Original Author
16 years ago
The floors do look deceptively nice in photos - I think because of the high gloss varnish on them. In general the damage consists of of peeling varnish, stains, splintering, holes, etc. But the main problem is exactly what Cotehele mentioned, prior sandings have thinned the floor to the point that any further sanding is going to take it down to the tongue and groove and create even larger spaces between each board. Our floor guy explained that if he sanded it, he'd actually tear it up more than it already is. He said he would do it if we insisted but warned us that we wouldn't be pleased with the results.
joed
16 years ago
Floor look good in the photo. I would consider just screening it and recoating. Don't sand down to bare wood.
brickeyee
16 years ago
Before the age of wide distribution many floors were produced in a local area for use in the area.
Standardization was not big on anyones mind.
artamnesia
Original Author
16 years ago
Joed, thanks for the suggestion. I mentioned it to our floor guy but he says the floor is too uneven to do a screening and the results would be less than good. At least the second floor is salvagable. I can't wait to see them once they are done and as for the first floor, for now we'll just have lots of rugs put down!

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