Even without knowing the kind of wood or condition, I can't imagine replacing wood flooring in an 1890 home. In my opinion, the value is in the original material. If the floor is in good condition, it may not need sanding at all; a screening and recoat might be all that's necessary and the patina would be retained. There are many threads on this topic, try searching the Old House forum. I live in a converted schoolhouse built in 1890. The fir floors had been covered with layers of linoleum, glue, paint ... they were a mess.. but looked awesome after refinishing. That was years ago and I'm planning to have them screened soon (aka buff and recoat.) What kind of wood is it? Do you have photos?

Preparation... This is the first I have done so I probably went over board a bit, but I am OK with it and will be able to eliminate a step or two on the remaining floors and stairway. A good set of knee pads was key to some comfort. :-) I wouldn't do this without them. 1. Used a palm sander to knock off built up carpet pad stain/remnants. 2. Used denatured alcohol and steel wool to remove old finish. Actually made 3 passes over the floor this way. Will only make two at most on the next floor, lesson learned. 3. Hand sanded entire floor to open up the wood. 4. Wiped on stain over the entire floor. Waited 24 hours, possibly should have waited longer but it worked. 5. Applied Waterlox sealer/finish Waited 24 hours - had fan set in window to remove fumes and was really required for the drying/curing process for next coat. Had fan running for all coats pointing out and creating cross draft over floor. 6. Applied another coat of sealer/finish Waited 24 hours. 7. Applied what I thought was going to be final coat of a Waterlox Satin finish. This didn't turn out exactly as I hoped as my old uneven floors posed a bit of challenge. I also made the mistake of overworking the finish in a couple of areas - lesson learned and Waterlox company warned of doing this. 8. Applied final coat. I spoke with Waterlox rep on this, I had two options, 1 was to sit it out and see if my streaks would go away with time(they said they probably would), second option was to re-coat. I chose to recoat and did so using a 50/50 mix of the sealer/finish and the satin finish. We love it. It has been about 36 hours now and it has a slight amber tint to it and is more better in appearance than we expected. We will do the 4 coats on the remaining floors as we did on this Living Room Floor.

I used three coats of oil based poly on our maple floors and we have dogs. After 8 years, I am not happy with the finish. While I never expected the gloss sheen to last on traffic areas, I did expect the finish to last. I find now, I will need to refinish several areas---and poly finishes do not feather and blend well. "Natural' oil finishes generally have other chemicals(not necessarily natural). There are two kinds of oil finishes, curing(non drying) and drying. The curing variety is not considered a finish, but a treatment that provides some protection to wood. Edible oils(peanut/olive/mineral) are examples. Soap and water can remove these oils. Drying oils are a finish that dries and is not easily removed. Nut oils are generally considered drying oil finishes. Most drying oil finishes for flooring has added chemicals. Those varieties used in Europe have a long history of use and reliability.

Wood comes from trees. Different parts of the trees. Entirely different trees. Different forests for different trees. Different states for different trees. And wood behaves like wood. You can have all the uniformity you want if you choose plastic. Maybe laminate would have been a better choice for you, rather than real wood. Thst looks like real wood, and has behaved like real wood. And it’s great looking. You just need rugs and furniture.