Hi-- my first post on this board:

I've got an existing 3/4" hardwood floor in my 1930 home. I have been planning on refinishing it... the previous homeowner tried to polyurethane over the old waxed floors without sanding (I'm guessing here) and the result is horrible. I'm not sure what type of wood it is- pine and oak were popular in my area for this time period. The strips are +/- 2-1/2" wide T&G.

I had this wild idea over the weekend: instead of refinishing the original floor, I could install a click-floating style laminate or engineered floor over it. I would save myself a lot of dust and fumes, the cost wouldn't be too much more than a quality refinishing job (this is 300 sf of living/dining room), It would bring the level of the floor up to more closely match the kitchen and bathroom ceramic tile, and I could put an electric radiant heat mat under it to warm up my not-yet-centrally heated home. It would probably hold up under my two GSD's nails a lot better than the wood, and if it's floating the next owner (or myself maybe someday) could remove it and still refinish the existing floor.

Then I read that the radiant is not recommended for true wood floors because of the drastic moisture changes from heating to non-heat season.

If I did this would I kill the refinishing potential of the original hardwood floor for that next person?

Also, would it compromise the stability of the hardwood floor as a 'subfloor' under the floating floor in any way?

Would the moisture content be not as much of an issue since the hardwood would be the 'subfloor' and exposed to the underfloor moistures? or would that make it worse? FYI the existing wood floor is NOT installed over any kind of plywood subfloor- it's the one and only layer of flooring original from 1930.

Covering up the hardwood with laminate is kind of weird since it's in decent shape, but it does have some benefits... mostly I just wanted to kick the idea around and see what the pluses and minuses would be.

Thanks for any ideas/thoughts/info-

~Carolyn

p.s. I'm in the San Antonio, Texas area- climate is alternately very hot with mild (down to 30's) winters and generally medium to high humidity.

I'd nix the electric heating mat underneath. But you certainly could install another floor over your existing. No problem.