I would cut the original flooring straight across to create a smooth edge and then install similar wood/ bamboo flooring into the rest of the space. Sand and finish. Ta-ha!

But I'm sentimental. I think it would make for a great story: "see how the flooring is different from one area to the other. Well, that over there is the original church flooring and this over here is sustainable bamboo."

I would definitely leave it, as LovelyFrugalHermit said, and make an obvious edge and "new portion." It's just so pretty!

More information would be very helpful here -- a wider shot of the room, a floor plan for where everything will be in it once it's completed, any input on your style and current furnishings...

Pending that, my first thought is to play up the repurposed charm of the space. Keep the wood and install more hardwood flooring where the carpet currently is. Highlight the discrepancy in the flooring by laying wood with a different tone running perpendicular or diagonal to the current boards.

Or something like that.

I agree with akay, Highlighting the difference between old and new as a feature is key to successfully saving the old. However it could look bad depending on your new layout of the kitchen. I would have a few plans ready and then talk to the flooring people when you get bids and get the price for a couple of plans. I didn't have historical or sentimental flooring but I did have one room carpeted in my new house. When I had my flooring guys refinish my wood floors and add wood to the one room without, they matched the wood perfectly and even laddered in the new wood so there is no seam from room to room to highlight the new. I was very impressed as it was not what I expected. I thought the new room would have a very obvious seam.

Can you change the layout of the kitchen to highlight the original floor, and then have the cabinets/island on top of the new floor to minimize the differences?

Agreed, I would keep the old flooring and install something obviously new. I would leave the unusual shape of the old flooring's edge, and lay the new flooring in a way that accentuates the difference between the two.

That hardwood is just too awesome to get rid of!

Please please please don't get rid of it!

I think instead of something "obviously new", you could check out the ReStore for some more old, reclaimed wood flooring. Even if it's a different width or color--THEN you could lay it perpendicular to highlight the difference. It would be like an old patchwork quilt. I just wouldn't juxtapose the original wood with something "new new" like laminate or bamboo. Consult a flooring expert who works with reclaimed wood!

I absolutely vote for: "leave the wood and find a filler for the end". It's rare to find hardwood floors that are so well installed in the kitchen. Find some re-cycled wood flooring (of COURSE) and it won't match, but it will be beautiful!

Although it is rare to find floors this cool, we are looking to install restaurant grade appliances and have our kitchen certified for catering. City law states that I have to change the floor, which is why we're thinking about removing it.

We don't want to get rid of the wood and think it could be cool to use it somewhere else in the house (and I should note that our entire giant living room is all decked out in the wood, so removing it will help things feel a little less.... basketball-courty).

I think cutting out some of the existing slats at different lengths and installing a contrasting shade/grain of wood where the carpet is now. It wouldn't be easy but I think the look would be pretty nifty.

Please leave the floor in! You can always change your mind later if you don't rip it out now. It's harder the other way around... I don't think it matters if the width of the boards in a new hardwood floor and the old floor differs - if they are the same color / shade it won't show that much. Also - I think not cutting it straight across will give a more seamless transition to the new floor. Good luck! :)

considered tile?

Any decent hardwood flooring installation company can weave in hardwood with the existing. Then sand, stain, and seal the entire area together. A great key is to install prefinished flooring so it takes the stain similar to the existing flooring. If done right with the same type of wood and width the difference is hardly noticable. I've done this myself in my last two homes.

Oh We have this problem... we have lovely old wood floors and then added onto our kitchen and used cool ceramic tiles - love them both... but the join is awful... I am thinking of putting a kitchen island on top of the join.

I think I would at least inquire as to whether there are steps possible to circumvent those city laws for the sake of historical value and interest.

That said, if you do have to take up the existing floor, why not cut it up in 3ft wide sections and use it as a chair rail... or maybe in smaller widths to be used as a backsplash, or larger widths to be used as facing on your worktop/island? Maybe incorporate it into the cabinetry somehow... IDK. Just a few ideas because I think it might be lost somehow as a kitchen table.

Like others, I have a similar problem (kitchen vs. rest of house in hardwood). Do yourself a favor and keep the original wood. Use the clever ideas that others have suggested here.

I would also say you should definitely keep the floor and fill up the rest with something new- however, not wood or bamboo but something contrasting like polished concrete, stone or heavy duty rubber (in a bright colour maybe, depends on your decorating style of course?)
Thus there will be no sense of trying (and failing) to match the original wood and the difference in texture/colour should make the old wood "pop" even more!

I don't really see what the problem is. Any flooring specialist deals with this all the time. When we had a couple of walls removed, there were some large areas without flooring. The flooring contractor patched and refinished the entire area so that it looks seamless.

I wouldn't dream of getting rid of such a beautiful wood floor. You might even be able to patch with reused flooring from somewhere else.

I wouldn't get rid of the wood - but I'd definitely get rid of the carpet.

You don't want weird lines between flooring, nor do you want a change of materials.

Do it the right way by calling in a professional flooring installer who has experience in this type of thing: Have them bring in more wood and weave in the new flooring with the old, then sand, refinish and stain the entire floor to become a cohesive whole - When done properly, nobody will be able to discern where the old floor ended and the new floor begins.

Keep the hardwood and put something quirky, like fun tiles, where the carpet is now. Boatloads of character.

We recently had a similar situation in the house we're moving into at the end of the week. Half the floor was amazing old, wide pine board. The other half was plywood subflooring. After thinking about our options for a long time, we ended up tearing out the old wood. The boards were splitting and not in great shape anyway -- and they were unable to be saved while tearing them out. Underneath the old pine were really old, rustic subfloor boards. So, we salvaged those, in addition to some old matching floorboards stolen from the attic, and we have ourselves a new/old floor! It's a nice compromise because all the materials we used are original to the house.

You could also check a wood salvage place -- we thought about trying to match our existing old floor. While it's difficult in some cases, it can be done. And, even if it's not perfect, it seems such a shame to rip out such old, beautiful flooring.

Here's a plan - measure and match what you've got... you've clearly got to strip and re-finish it anyway, so remove all the damaged sections, and "feather in" new hardwood to match what you've got... then sand and reseal the whole sh-bang!

Good luck!
Nicole

Call around and find a flooring company that specializes in refurbishing older buildings. You might need to really search, but when you find this company, they'll be able to either repair/replace with similar flooring from another building or suggest a few different ideas. Good luck!

>City law states that I have to change the floor, which is why we're thinking about removing it.

I apologize; I am confused. If you are required to change it, what options do you have other than removing it -- tiling over it?

This is YOUR home. I say pull it and repurpose. I love the table idea. Being a former church I'm sure it's already super quirky, so I wouldn't worry about losing charm. And if you lay bamboo I will hunt you down.

I've dreamed of living in a church! I love your old (wood) floors. What about putting down a reducer at the edge of the old wood floor? It looks like there's another wood underlayment. I can't see much of it in the picture, but maybe sanding the underlayment and letting its flaws show would look cool. Or you could paint it, too.

"we are looking to install restaurant grade appliances and have our kitchen certified for catering. City law states that I have to change the floor, which is why we're thinking about removing it."

I missed that too...
...but if that's your goal, then it seems you have no choice but to remove the wooden floor. (It's annoying when important details like this are left out of folks' questions)

So It sounds like the question really wasn't isn't "What do I do with the floor" but "What kind of floor do I want for a commercial kitchen?" (Tho I suspect City Code has some unknown-to-us restrictions on that as well...)

I too am unclear about the question - the comment makes it sound like the owner has no choice but to remove it?

Why would you ever remove the floor? It looks awesome! Use reclaimed wood in a similar shade to fill in the other portion.

get a professional to look. I think u can pull out a few and weave in new peices so that nobody would know. To pull out all that wood would be way lame and dumb

bepsf - We do have a basement that could be used for catering as well (though it would take significantly more work to do so), which is why we asked.

Although we had originally had our heart set on using this kitchen as everything, we do love the floors and would consider keeping them and changing up our original plans if needs be.

Thank you all for the suggestions, I love the idea of turning the wood into a backsplash!

I had the same problem in the downstairs apartment I'm redesigning in my 1923 home. We "sistered-in" same width Douglas Fir to large areas that had been damaged or completely cut out. I would say we had about 60 sq/ft of missing wood and the rest of the floors (roughly another 500 sq/ft) badly needed sanding. To refinish, stain the new wood to match and seal it all with a semi-gloss finish I paid around $1300. The results are divine AND I didn't create a bunch of landfill by tearing out the original flooring.

It is NOT EASY to match old flooring. Even if you are stripping and re-staining. It probably won't look seamless, or even near seamless. I think it will be quite obvious.

That said, it wouldn't bother me, but you might have different design tastes from me. If that is the case, I love, love, love the idea of getting the flooring up in larger pieces and making a table out of it. Maybe you could get several tables out of it and sell them to make money for the remodel. Not so cost-effective unless you are doing it for yourself.