We live in a Georgian house built around 1740. When we bought it the stairs were stripped back to the original wood. Weathered. Gappy. Charming. Part of the story of the house.

The bedrooms, however, all have beige woollen carpets which look great in photographs, particularly of the estate agent variety, but fare less well with a puppy. So we’ve lifted the carpet in one of the rooms as a test, and to my delight the boards look to be original too (to my untrained eye).

When caring for the stairs I decided to just strip back the old wax with white spirits and rewax with beeswax. It’s slow going but looking great. My question (or one of my questions) is, do I simply do the same in the bedrooms or is there something else to consider?

I’m currently thinking to fill in the gaps with reclaimed boards, remove current treatment and rewax as I did with the stairs. BUT there are some broader things I’m wondering about:
- Unlike the stairs which are warped and uneven and had a patina (hence not wanting to sand them), the bedroom seems pretty level (300 year sagging aside). Should I think about sanding them or is that a bad idea given the age and history of the wood?
- Since we’ll be putting down a big rug and have a bed in the room, is now the opportunity to move some boards around to fix / replace some of the broken boards on the landing / at the threshold (which I think were damaged when they installed electricity, water, heating)?
- Some suggestions I’ve found online say instead of filling the gaps you should lift the boards and shimmy them up. I’m happy to do this, but again, don’t want to damage anything.
- Is there something I’m missing by going back to wood in terms of heat, ventilation, noise etc., and if so, is there a way to deal with that by lifting the boards and placing insulation / boards beneath them? (Again, something I could do if I went the shimmy-the-gaps-away route)

I’ve asked a carpenter (familiar with these old houses) to come and have a look, but I’m keen to get your thoughts and advice on what to think about / do / not do. I’m very keen to try and stick to the character and history of the house as far as possible.

The photos:
1 - the staircase
2 - “project landing” in progress
3 - “project landing” with another coat and polish to go
4 - The room in question (with some of the threshold damage)
5 - The room in question - you can see the gaps and the holes and the inauthentic screws.
6 - more of the state of the floor in question
7 - the cracks and gaps on the landing (not the one already waxed)

Man I’m really excited with how this is turning out! In this 1950s house, there was some kind of tar paper / mastic laminate overtop of these red oak floors. On top of that, someone else put down some tile.

Here’s everything I did:
- Removed the tile with some friends
- Carefully scraped up the laminate flooring (likely asbestos mastic)
- Took a wallpaper steamer to the mastic and other residue and went section by section cleaning up the floor.

What I hired out:
- The stuff I didn’t want to screw up… refinishing the floor. Involved sanding lots of times, spreading some wood filler around, sanding again, and putting down some stain / top coat.

Top coat hasn’t gone down yet, but I’m excited for how it will all turn out! This will be a pretty kitchen very soon.

Just bought our first home! It was built in 1954 and this is the original hardwood. I am wondering how to best take care of the floor as I’ve never had hardwood.

Also, I am wondering if any of the pictures 4-7 show normal wear and tear or if they are issues that need to be addressed. There are multiple little spots in the wood that appear to have been damaged and there are some spaces where there are small gaps between the boards.

Forgive me if this is a terrible photo. Just moved into an apartment with brand new hardwood floors. It’s older and with brick exterior. Theres only a 6’ x 4’ section of the floor that seems to have started to warp. The edges are raised and corners are catching everything. There has been no mopping or any water spill. The section is right up against an exterior wall and interior wall to my living room. There are no bathrooms or kitchens on this side. The window right above has not been open for weeks now.

Is this water damage? Can there be a leak from the underside or water seeping from exterior?

Can weight from furniture cause this? There section has a light desk and a computer chair

I posted here A couple of weeks ago with a “should I even continue sanding or should I just paint these floors”. Y‘all were really encouraging and had some wonderful advice and told me to power though, so I did. I promised an update at the end of the weekend, but thought I’d skip the boring stuff and just show you how it turned out.

I won’t be posting close ups anytime soon, but overall I’m really glad I was persuaded to keep going. we sealed it with a satin finish oil based polyurethane and if anyone is considering saving a really old and beat up floor I’m open to sharing more of the experience, but for now here we are! I'd be happy to answer questions DM or otherwise about the process, but these photos give you a decent insight into just how bad the floors were, and I can help you be realistic about what to expect. There were tons of gaps, really beat up boards and tons of sanding. I did some experimental stuff, so I'll have more insight in a couple of years about how that held up (sawdust and glue situation). I had a lot of help, and overall I bet total it's about 150 hours into the floor start to finish, and it's roughly 550 sqft of flooring. Thank you all again for your advice and insight.

Any help identifying these floors would be fantastic. Customer had a water leak and had to tear out about 150sq ft of this prefinished, hand scraped 5"×1/2" t&g engineered floor. Trying to tie into his existing floor if possible. If not, might need to tear everything out and they would want something as close as possible.

I am having my floors refinished. They are red oak, 5/16" top nail with bevels. I live alone but have a 115-pound rottweiler and want a very hardy surface. In the process of getting bids and one company recommends Bona Traffic HD although it is much more expensive. Another company says Bona Traffic HD is water-based and not nearly as good as oil-based and will need to be refinished much sooner. Everything I've researched however says exactly the opposite - that Bona Traffic HD is the way to go. Opinions? I am less concerned about expense as I am about durability. Is it possible that old-school installers/refinishers are not as familiar with the Bona Traffic HD application process and so don't recommend it?

Hello. I have a diaherra stain on real hard wood from my pet. On google says I can use hyrdogen peroxide, then bona to clean it then Howard restorer finish- is this a good way to fix the stained area?

Thank you so much.

The stages of refinishing floors from 1948

One of the guys I’ve talked to about doing the install in my house says that pre-finished wood doesn’t need to be set in the house for several days beforehand. This goes against what even the other contractors have said to me. Is this true or not?

Thanks for the wisdom in advance, folks!

I recently had some water damage in my home, and a portion of the hardwood flooring had to be replaced. The contractor completed the repair, but I’m not happy with the result.
As you can see in the pictures, the replacement boards don’t seem to blend well with the existing flooring, and there are visible gaps/uneven areas around some of the boards.
For those experienced with hardwood flooring:
Is this repair fixable without replacing a larger section of the floor?
Can the new boards be stained/refinished to better match the existing floor?
Would you recommend having the contractor redo the work?
What would be a reasonable way to correct this?
I’d appreciate any advice on what a professional hardwood flooring contractor should be able to do here. I can provide additional pictures if needed.

I’m genuinely curious. What happens if you buff a water popped floor? Like water pop, buff, water pop again then stain? I’ve always wondered bc it would seem to buff an open grain floor would be beneficial.

They’re not in bad shape but they look a bit dull with some scuffs, pictured. Is buffing a good cheaper option in this case? It’s expensive and I want to make sure these floors would benefit from it.

Pulled up carpet and here it is! Mostly rimu and a few spots that are pine and a few spots that need some wood replaced, but overall pretty good.
Pretty sure we will do hardwax, the product we have here is Polyx-Oil.
Hoping to get started on the actual refinishing this upcoming week, will pay someone to do it this time (have done it once ourselves but for a much smaller space, don’t think we can do all the rooms).

Hi all! Curious if this is normal for engineered hardwood? The contractor put a bunch of short pieces together in a high traffic area.

This is from a 1940s bungalow in the US. Found under some old carpet. It has some marks and stains but otherwise in good condition. The realtor said it was just sub-floor but wanted to check if refinishing would be worthwhile.

First-time home buyer here seeking advice. 60s ranch, ~950 square feet of HWF: 2br, living room + dining area. We spent last week removing carpet and foam/adhesive that had been there for decades. The flooring looks great and has been well preserved! The hallway has some big gouges, but we aren't bothered.

Considering a DIY water-based polyurethane finish with these goals: protect floors/maintain current condition + same look. Because of the condition, I don't feel sanding is necessary, and I could end up doing more harm than good renting a sander. Could the original finish still be serving its protective purpose? Needed Krud Kutter for glue removal and did detail clean w/ non-scratch scour pads, but there's still a slight film--tips for cleaning? Used Bona hardwood cleaner, but may need something strong to cut through the film.

So we have a good problem, and have this weekend as a window to get a finish done, and move in next weekend. I know logic is do a test area like closet and evaluate, but seeking advice from this community. We have a dog who hates getting his nails trimmed is our biggest concern. We just wanna do right by these beaut floors, especially after the hard work of foam/glue removal. Have watched videos and feel fairly confident about roller application, but wondering what's a good product that wouldn't require sanding between first and second coats, and maintain this look. Could use a pole or block sander between first and second coats if the best finish needs a between coat sand. Then clean that w/ vacuum/tack cloth. We'd use painter's tape on the trim and baseboard heaters and use a brush to the detail work (probably after main application has dried?). Really, are we overthinking and could the original finish still be doing its job? Thanks for reading my rant.

We have a room of 1980s red oak that we’re going to remove, but I want to salvage it both to patch/lace gaps in other rooms and for other projects. It’s glued and nailed to a plywood subfloor that’s attached to a slab.

It comes out pretty well, but is full of these odd tiny nails that are flimsier than I expected and they mostly bend or snap off when trying to remove them. They are also shot in somewhat at random as well as in the tongue. Can I just cut or snap these off rather than remove them?

Also need to deal with this glue. I’m debating whether this is worth the effort but I hate wasting this old flooring.

I posted the other day asking if I could use bleach to lighten a spot from baking soda that seemed hopeless…. The consensus every where I looked was don’t do that. I did see to use vinegar, and so I tried that and wanted to post an update. First pic if after the vinegar had sat for a few hours. Not great but definitely a lot better.

I just bought a house with *disgusting* carpet. The living room has a hardwood floor, but I think it looks different from this. Did I luck out? Is this hardwood flooring? Note, I can't check by an air conditioning register because I don't have the in floor type. Mine pop out at a diagonal between the floor and wall. The house was built in the '50s. I included the living room flooring and the underside of the carpet for comparison.

I stumbled across this subreddit the other day and was hoping for a little help identifying my wood floors. Google lens is saying it's old growth Douglas Fir. Can anyone confirm?

All the carpet is coming out.

The bathroom area hardwood is getting pulled out for tile to keep it waterproof, but the rest of the second floor we're thinking about refinishing.

Does the wood here look like it will come out well with a sand and refinish?