What hardwood to complement old pine floors

18 years ago

I have a 1792 house with some random width pine floors, and other floors I guess stained to match them, a warm yellowish, and in some places reddish, color. I'm not sure what these are, exactly. All the floors are older--with some dating from the 1970's in an extension.

We are now remodelling our kitchen, in what is also an extension to the house, which now has vinyl and an eating area in maple. We are planning on hardwood for this area, but have budgetary concerns because we are spending so much on kitchen already! So I want to pick something that flows with the rest of the house, but I can't do pine or antiqued wood due to budgetary concerns, and my husband doesn't want anything too much like the rest of the house. Plus, it can't be the same reddish/yellowish warm color, because our cabinets are close to that color, and we don't want the cabinets and floors to be the same!

So, what should we do? I'm leaning against oak, would like wide plank, and don't want them SHINY at all. We are looking at a wild pecan, Hartco wild pecan 5 inch plank, but I'm worried it's too light. There is variation in the planks, but some of it is as light as the natural maple floors we now have that I despise. Also, it has a smoothness to it--I worry it's too modern. On the other hand, it has variation and subtle knotting, and is very wide and not too shiny (although not entirely matte). What do you think?

Any of you work on this issue--matching floors in such an old home? What did you do?

Here is a link that might be useful: Wild Pecan floor

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Comments (8)

bus_driver
18 years ago
Ash would probably blend well with pine. I have never seen ash flooring for sale and if available, it might be costly. Wider boards in any species really add to the cost. But it is an idea to explore.
michorion
18 years ago
Try this website Bellforestproducts.com he has some great deals. If you don't see anything there call him, sometimes he has extra things from other projects-he might sell cheaper :) happy hunting
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My concern is the layers of vinyl underneath the hardwood. Hardwood doesn't like sitting on vinyl and vinyl doesn't like sitting on hardwood. The two do NOT like each other. If you think this is a good idea (which it is considered on the technical side of things a horrible approach to this) then you might have to add another layer of subfloor. A nice, fat, thick 1/2" plywood to cover those two layers of vinyl. Now you can go ahead and lay the hardwood. Technically, my suggestion is hideous. It is atrocious. It is so "unprofessional" that I could weep. But if you insist on leaving the vinyl in place, then you need to think of a way to separate the vinyl from the hardwood sitting on top....and one very sure way is with plywood. Again, my suggestion is a travesty. Then again so is laying hardwood over two layers of vinyl. In the flooring world, we 'allow' ONE layer of resistant flooring (like vinyl) to sit underneath another floor. For example: the first layer of vinyl was considered "OK" to lay another layer of vinyl over top. All good. No one in the technical department batted an eye. If a THIRD vinyl floor was proposed (or a laminate, or linoleum, or cork, or hardwood, or tile, or even carpet) it would be a "NOOOOOOOO! STOOOOOP! DON'T DO IT!" type of answer. So I will officially say: No. Stop. Don't do it. There. It has been said. That being said, if you as the homeowner choose to forgo the installation instructions and the "Best Practices" as set out by the National Wood Flooring Association (as homeowners your word is "law" when it comes to things like this), you are welcome to go ahead and lay hardwood over two layers of vinyl. If you do it, I suggest a new layer of plywood to help things along - because you need FLAT. And most "old hardwoods with two layers of vinyl sitting on them" are anything but flat. Good luck. You would be better off remediating the asbestos/vinyl and getting down to bare hardwood. Now a new floor (with the help of a layer of plywood) can go down. Or you remove the original hardwood with the vinyl (this is easier to do than scrape off the vinyl...and easier = cheaper) and start with a new layer of subfloor and go after it like it should be done. But as homeowner your word is "law". If you tell a professional to "just do it", they will say "yes ma'am/sir" and do it. But they will not warranty their work. You will be left holding the bag - and all the pit vipers that lay inside. It's your call.
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If you pull the floor up you will NOT chisel it off the subfloor. You will lift the subfloor WITH the floor. It is MUCH faster!!! I know it sounds horrendous but it isn't. Once you get everything up, you will probably find you have 1" worth of flooring height to play with. That means you can EASILY add in the same strip flooring (super cheap and SUPER easy to find). Once the new floors are in the entire house gets a full sand/refinish. Your old hardwood is in dire need of a full sand/refinish. I can see wear through (the grey bits) which means the sand/refinish could have/should have happened about 5 years ago. Believe it or not, adding more of the same would be one of the CHEAPER flooring options. Imagine if you can get the same style/width/species for $4/sf. Then you add another $3-$4/sf for the labour for sand/refinish. That's a great price for 80 year floors. And the time to add more wood is when the OLD WOOD needs a full sand/refinish. It is the cheapest way to do it. The wood flooring pros will often give a snick of a discount because they are already in the house for several days...they can leave their tools there, etc.
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bulldinkie
18 years ago
Look for people in your area that do restoration of homes.The guys we worked with had supplies of just about anything we needed.
lobsterbird
18 years ago
We also had a difficult time selecting a floor for our kitchen that would look good next to old pine floors. The problem was that most new floors have a plastic-y finish and look so evenly cut, unmarred, and too perfect next to an antique floor. We were also limited by the height so we couldn't buy recycled wood either because the slabs were too thick. I think this would have been a great choice if it had been an option. We used cork, which complements wood planks but has a contrasting pattern. There were many colors to choose from. However, you might feel this look is too modern for your 1792 house. There are many types of wood floors that can be laid and finished on site that wouldn't have that plastic look, but I guess it's a matter of how large an area you have and how much you want to spend.

Tina
GaleForce
18 years ago
We hope to restore the pine floor that is hidden under about five layers of linoleum and vinyl. But we have a Plan B in case we remove the layers and find some disaster underneath. Plan B is linoleum. The floor in our dining room is so unbelievably beautiful that even the higher end real wood floors will look cheap next to what we already have, so we are going with a different material entirely.
good_gardening1
18 years ago
When we stripped away all of the layers (9) of linoleum and sheet vinyl in our kitchen, we found unfinished pine flooring which had been installed diagonally to the original floors which are underneath.

Because we have hardwood all the way through the house my wife really didn't want the same wood look in there too.

We debated on several options but neither of us really wanted to cover the floors back up.

Instead, we painted them.

I used latex glazing thinned down to the point that the grain of the wood would still show through. I then taped off the floor to form a pattern of 18" squares in a checkerboard pattern. We painted half of the squares green and left the other half glazed. The flaws, cracks, and knots show through even on the painted squares.

When it was all painted and completely dry, I distressed the finish with a sanding block. I knocked off some of the edges and created places where the natural color of the wood could show through.

I then added five coats of water based poly.

It looks like it has been there since 1880 when the house was built.

It turned out just as my wife wanted, which is what really matters.
GaleForce
18 years ago
good gardening -- that sounds fantastic. Do you have pictures by chance?

I wonder if this is your subfloor. Our subfloor is set on a diagonal as well and I think the planks are 1x8 rather than 1x6. The pine floor on top is made with 1x6 yellow pine.
bus_driver
18 years ago
Until the use of panel products such as plywood, it was customary to install subflooring on a diagonal. The boards were of lesser quality since they would not be seen. They were virtually certain to cup to some extent. Installing them on a diagonal and the flooring at a diagonal to the subfloor insured that the cupping of the subfloor boards would not cause "waves" or "washboarding" of the finish floor.

What hardwood to complement old pine floors

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bus_driver

michorion

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