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gosuzygo

Restore older hardwood floors or not?

gosuzygo
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago

We are in the process of renovating the kitchen and dining room in our 1930s lake-house-style cabin.

After ripping out some cabinets and removing a wall, we found what looks to be the original hardwood floors underneath the mass produced red oak that was installed at some point in the 70s or 80s. Our dilemma now is whether to try to restore the old wider plank floors or patch the gaps with more of the red oak.

If we choose to restore, it would affect the whole 3BR house, which is only one floor of living space. The bathroom and one large sun room that was added to the house later wouldn't be included since they likely have different flooring underneath. Obviously, removing the existing flooring and refinishing everything is a TON of extra work, but there is a lot of appeal in trying to restore an original feature of the house, and this seems like the moment to decide, since we are exposing some of the old floor anyhow. We had refinished the red oak ourselves with Rubio Monocoat about 4 years ago and could manage it again if necessary.

What would you do? Picture attached of the old vs newer floors. Any advice appreciated!



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