We recently bought our house, which was built in 1932. The carpets on the stairs and 2nd floor were a mess so we pulled them up. Pine boards beneath. Very rustic looking - they won't be "perfect", but we don't need them to be. We like the look. There are a lot of nails though. They are pretty big and we couldn't get many of them out so we sunk them in (maybe too far so the holes are even bigger), sanded as directed and are now ready to fill the holes then do a final sanding or NOT fill them and move right onto the polyurethane. What will happen if we don't fill the nail holes? Will the polyurethane fill in the holes? Will it look OK or be cloudy? We don't care if you can see the nails - we experimented by filling some nails holes in a section you can't see (cubby hole with door) and we can't match the putty exactly and besides we don't really like the look. Any specific concerns with not filling them? We are also thinking about not filling in some of the smaller cracks. Please give us advice on this. We are ready to move ahead, but can't find anything on-line about NOT filling in nail holes - everything says to fill them with putty, but the nail holes are so large that the putty is very noticeable. Although the nail holes are obviously noticeable as well, we like the way that looks better. Thank you!

You aren't required to fill those large nail holes. It's just that a majority of people prefer that. But your floors sound like they are more rustic looking and the unfilled holes maybe more in keeping with that appearance. 300 yrs. ago, pine floors were hand nailed to the rough hewn beams underneath them. They didn't bother filling those holes and if you would rather not fill your's, then don't. Some poly will flow into the holes and it will look like whatever it looks like. Don't worry about it. Just finish the floors and be done with it.

Thank you Gary!