Hello,

We purchased a home built in 1895 and the previous owner had no interest in preserving the house and installed a thin laminate wood floor over the original pine floors on the second floor. We decided to remove this but the original floor incurred considerable damage from having that floor nailed into it. We like the idea of a more “Rustic” floor, it’s gappy worn appearance has a kind of charm. What would be the best way to go about restoring it but still keeping the rustic appearance ? It feels rough and is not the most comfortable to walk on bare foot, it’s been under carpet, and laminate for at least 50 years. It’s in need of staining and sealing to protect it.

My second question is if there is no way to really save this floor and it would need to be replaced, the entire house slants down from the center at a gradual decline. Could a new wide plank be layed on the uneven joists? To level the whole second floor would require a lot of changes as the walls, baseboards stairs and doors have all settled into the sloping angle. The entire second floor is about 1,500 sqft.

Thanks for the opinions/ ideas!

Justin.

Old floors can be time consuming. Are you willing to do the work? Sanding one more time may be out of the question if the top part of the T&G is thin. It may have never been sanded with a big machine, just scraped and hand sanded. If it has been sealed with shellac and varnish you may just need two more coats of finish after a good cleaning. Then again the finish may be wax. Putty the nail holes after cleaning and then decide. I have cleaned, hand sanded and applied two coats of water-based poly-urethane and the floors have been looking good for the last 15 years. The flooring was vertical grain fir. Plain sawn will be more problematic
because of the soft grain becoming embossed and more chance of splinters. You don't want splinters or shakes. Start by making sure the flooring is fastened down well.
Waxed floors can be re-finished with wax, too, after a good cleaning. It is not usually done professionally, and is expensive.