follow the installation, preparation, and subfloor requirements of the wood flooring and adhesives (if gluing down) manufacturer(s) to the letter. If they guaranttee that type installation and the floor is in suitable condition, then yes. if not, then no. Ideally, it is to be removed.

idrive65, Adorable model, what is your Dogs name and breed? Do you have to keep the toenails trimmed, how do you keep them short? We have two miniature poodles and a Collie and are concerned about adding a hardwood floor to the Kitchen. Even though we think that it will look great with the white cabinets and be much more comfortable than our hard tile floor! Is this White Oak barn wood a hard or soft wood? Your floors are beautiful, where did you find these and are they expensive? We live in the Mid-west, are these rare? Thank you for sharing! roseofblue Aw thanks. The pup is supposedly pure Labrador retriever, but we got him third hand and he's a mighty skinny specimen for a lab. I don't trim his nails as often as I should because he hates it, I do it badly, and twice I've cut him (ouch!) so he runs and hides when those clippers come out. I may try the dremel route mentioned upthread. White oak is a hardwood but not as hard as many imported species, of which there are quite a few between Hickory and the one imported that I listed, Jatoba. (Ipe, used for decking, is 3684 and considered fireproof!) Upstairs we mixed white with red oak and antique chestnut. In one area where dh wheeled on office chair back and forth (!) you can see wear on the chestnut, a little on the red oak, and none on the white oak boards. According the janka scale: White pine: 420 So. yellow pine: 690-870 Cherry: 950 Red Oak: 1290 White Oak: 1360 Hard Maple: 1450 Hickory: 1820 Jatoba (aka "Braz. Cherry") 2350 I agree with all who say the finish matters. The aluminum oxide finishes on pre-finished floors is very durable. Others have site finished with waterlox which is easily touched up as needed, you can search for photos of ccoombs floors for photos of beautiful waterloxed oak floors. My dh owns an flooring company that sells only antique remilled products so he made the floors for us. We actually kept a lot of boards that might be culled for a customer because I wanted a "busy" floor. Thankfully it matches the dog hair and hides the scratches very well!

The goal for my home is to look like an upscale worker class Vancouver home. The working class folks back in the day used 2" narrow red oak board with basic walnut inlay details. The upscale homes saw white oak with double and triple inlay details. The mansions saw white oak quarter sawn wood. I have installed some of the flooring in the powder room only and it is bomb proof. Two cats. Three kids. Me. These old floors take a beating and hold up well. Not like the cheaper ready made products availble today. Flooring costs are insane and we all get the same stuff. I like a floor that gets sanded and finished in place. Much more durable than any click and nail or click and glue floor hands down.

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.