My girlfriend and I just bought a 1926 Spanish house in Los Angeles. Three bedrooms and the back hall were covered in carpet and we were told there was hardwood under the carpet, so first thing we did when we got the keys was to lift some carpet and see what we have. Turns out it's in pretty good shape most places, but there are other places hit pretty hard by water damage, animal urine damage, or just broken/gouged planks.

It looks like wide American Colonial plugged plank (did I get the terminology right?), except each wide plank is actually three separate narrow planks. The separate planks is what's throwing me for a loop. Was this common in flooring, or is this a cheap way to get the wide plank look? Any thoughts on what available products could be used here for plank replacement?

It is Oak(white or red)

Very unique floor.

Nice Floor!

I have seen and repaired just about everything out there but this one is a first for me. I've seen 5/16" thick planks built out of 1" strips, which I thought looked strange. It appears to me, looking at the picture, that the floor was made of three individual 2&1/4" strips which are 3/4" thick. It's possible that they side beveled the outside strips after the flooring was laid, along with the butt ends where the plugs are. The reason I say this is because on the end butts, I can see where the grain of one "end" continues into the next plank, leading me to believe the butt end bevels were added after the floor was laid. It's also possible that this cosmetic work was done quite abit later after the floor had been laid originally. Originally a standard 3/4" x 2&1/4" strip floor. Then someone wanted to change the appearence to a plank floor. Or this could have been the plan all along. Either way, I think this was the way it was done. The plugs are probably real but I've seen them faked in with stain, ink or a branding iron. As far as repairing the floor, the way I'd tackle it it to do it EXACTLY the same way as it was done originally. A close examination by a very experienced craftsman (such as myself ) would reveal the way the floor was constructed. Don't allow some BOZO in there who doesn't know how to restore historic floors. Find the BEST hardwood flooring guy in your area and have him take a look. You have a real nice floor! With a little work, it can be made into a showpeice.

I've seen a lot of floors that look like that, in fact I have one in my living room. There was a lot of it used in homes built in the forties and fifties in the Bay area. Several of my friends have them too.

I needed mine repaired once and the fellow that did the work, good work, talked a bit about the floor. It's an early version of an engineered floor with the strips glued together edgewise to make planks of various widths. The plugs and side bevels are standard. According to my repairman the flooring was manufactured in California by a company that's long gone. Repair boards come from the closet or salvage.

All the ones I've seen have been white oak and entirely face nailed. They can be refinished very nicely though a bit of the bevel will disappear.
It appears from the picture that the bevels are still deep meaning little sanding has been done to the floor.

I suspect that floor post dates a house built in 1926. Glue of the necessary guality wasn't available until the thirties. But it's still old so do like Gary said and find a guy who knows old floors to refinish it.

Jan

Thanks for the replies! Gary, the beveling post-installation (or post-assembly of the planks) makes sense. Interesting.

Jan, if it is a similar floor to what you've seen, that's unfortunate. It probably means it's not original. I guess the only way to know is by having someone look at it. On the plus side, it's still old (if not 1926) and it's 3/4" so hopefully there should be a lot of life left.

The previous owner told us there was wide plank in the living room and dining room (she seemed to imply it was different than what is in the back of the house). Apparently at one point she had an laundry accident and the washer flooded the house - the insurance company, instead of refinishing the wide plank in the living room and dining room paid for all new engineered floors (that were finished with a white stain, ack!). She gave us pictures of the house in various states and one of the pictures shows the wide plank in the living room with a very large (8'x10') section cut out of it. Perhaps they had to do repairs to the floor, but unfortunately we know the state under the engineered wood won't be pretty so we likely won't pull them until we decide to replace the engineered wood (10+ years).

Any of you have recommendations for hardwood people in Los Angeles (Miracle Mile area) that are good with historic floors? We don't plan on doing any repairs to the floor for the next year or two, there are simply too many other things to work on in the house.

Our plan was to poly the floors to protect what's there for the next couple years, and then go back and do a detail repair/refinish. One issue is the previous owner had dogs that piddled everywhere (based on the stains on the back of the carpet) and they had one area in a hallway they used a lot - the wood is stained black and still smells of urine. We have a cat, and our fear is the urine smells will make him want to spray those areas, so the poly thought was to seal in any urine odors, including the ones that's aren't obvious by staining.

Any thoughts about this plan?

Jan - you were right about the engineered part, we found a place where a chunk is missing and we can see to the subfloor. It's defintely 3/8". The odd thing is that in one small closet and in two other closets under shoe shelves (low to the floor, spanning the width of the closet at one end of the closet), there are no bevels. That makes me believe the bevels were put in post-installation.