I am remodeling an older home. The floor layout is changing dramatically. There are hardwood floors existing but it will be almost impossible to use them with the new floor layout. Adding and refinishing won ' t produce a n acceptable look , at least that ' s what I ' m thinking. The house was built in the 70 ' s. I want to leave the existing floors and hardwood over them. Is it okay to do this? Should I sand the existing floor first? Should I lay craft paper or tar paper between the two, new and old? Should I lay the new flooring 90 degrees to the old? Can you please suggest what I should do?


Thanks for any information you may suggest!

Install 90º or at an angle like 45º. The other option is to overlay with ½" plywood and then you can go the same direction the existing floor is now.

Yea, like FloorGuy said 90 degrees usually works best, and try to get the staple in the middle of the old board (not at the endes where you might get the tongue and grove and it might not hold as well).

In old (60 years+) houses you have to do this because on 2nd story floors there are no subfloors-they just use to use 3/4 inch tongue and grove as both the subfloor and floor.