The previous owners had installed VCT or vinyl composite tile throughout the large eat in kitchen, pantry and bathroom. VCT is inexpensive (less than $2 a square foot) and incredibly durable. It's the flooring you often see in older office buildings or even hospitals. It usually has flecks of colors and can be buffed to a glowing shine. The problem is, it's so dang ugly and looks like commercial flooring.
So I ripped it up. I could see from the stairwell that the kitchen floor was slightly raised so I knew it was covering up some other type of flooring. I said a quick prayer to the hardwood floor gods hoping that I would uncover hardwood since the home was built in 1917. (Finding hardwood on a second floor is not all that realistic.) Ripping up the VCT and the sub-floor was not as difficult as expected, and what made it slightly easier, was that we didn't have to remove all of the trim. The VCT was installed inside of the trim and not underneath it.
What we uncovered is what you see in the first picture and below. There was hard wood! However, it only runs from the stairwell straight into the hallway in front of the bedrooms. The rest of the kitchen floor is wide yellow pine boards that had been painted at least three times.
Yellow pine is okay with me and is far better than VCT but it's not as easy as sanding the floor and re-staining it. There are holes every 8 inches or so from the former sub-floor and there are nails hammered directly into the pine as they tried to secure this floor to prevent squeaks or movement before adding the sub-floor. As my carpenter says, people cover up floors for a reason! Expect problem areas!
Another issue is the two stripes of plywood flooring around the kitchen pantry. I am guessing these strips must have been walls in the apartment's former life.
Do I strip the floor and repaint it with a durable floor paint which would cover any nails? (I would need to test the paint for lead first.) Or do I install another floor over this which would be more expensive but less mess, and raise the floor once again so it is not level with the hallway? The bathroom was easy, I chose to tile it it with black and white mosaic tile.
For those of you who have uncovered gnarly floors like this, what decision did you make?
Images: Tanya Lacourse
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Your floors looked similar to what I found under carpet and linoleum. I hired someone - it was the best renovation decision I made. I spent $500 to have professionals refinish the most specatacular (fir) floors I could have ever imagined. I debated doing the refinishing on my own, but heard that amateurs often make big mistakes (ie. holes and divets) with the tools.
WHATS WITH THOSE PANTS!!!!!!!
Awesome.
If you don't go with pdx_jody's recommendation to hire someone... I think that I would replace the thinner strip with something that will look like a threshold, and line up with the floorboards on the right. And then I would strip the kitchen floor and see whether I could find something similar enough to patch into the other area and stain... and if not, I'd paint it.
(Btw, I LOVE your pants! I have similarly fabulous clothing reserved for messy home project days. :)
I painted.
Either use a liquid stripper which will encapsulate the lead, or pay to have it sanded by professionals (who are all held to fed lead safety provisions). It depends on if you have more money, or time.
A nice porch/floor paint, and be sure to do a little research and seal it with a top-coat. ESPECIALLY if you aren't done moving appliances or big furniture. The top coat is important to make it durable.
I did this in my kitchen and taped out a check pattern. Porch and floor can be tinted just like wall paint. Get exactly what you want.
Not sure if this link will work, but this album has my step-by-steps.
http://cid-c7c781d2bfd40d17.photos.live.com/self.aspx/1918%20Bungalow/kitch%20002.jpg
in the right setting VCT (not VTC as noted above) can be ideal:
http://redneckmodern.typepad.com/redneckmodern/2010/09/wax-on.html
however, i hope your tiles were 12X12... if they were 9X9 and/or over 30 years old, they were likely VAT. the "A" stands for asbestos...
I had floors that looked EXACTLY the same in my master bedroom!
I thought about painting or refinishing them. We consulted with a couple floor companies and they told me to stay far away from porch and floor paint. Apparently it scratches really easily and is difficult to clean. It also increases the cost if you ever decide to refinish them.
Refinishing our wood floor for now isn't in our budget because it needs a lot of repair work - so we covered it up with carpet. Obviously that won't work in a kitchen but you could always cover them up with tile or linoleum if you don't have the money for a full refinishing.
I think if you had the floors professionally sanded and then painted (by a pro or diy), the different woods would all merge together and it would look uniform and quite nice. If you don't have kids, you don't really have to worry about lead paint.
I will say that when I had my painted wood floors sanded and then stained, the sanding process left a fine dust all over EVERYTHING in the house -- I thought they would be blocking off the rooms that were not part of the sanding process, but they did not -- so if you have it sanded, you might want to cover up everything else in your house with plastic sheeting and be prepared to wash your walls.
Just last week we ripped up our second floor carpet and found hardwoods on 2/3 of the floor and what looks like a massive plywood patch on the remaining 1/3. We'd initially intended to put down bamboo but now we're considering refinishing the hardwood and "patching" the remaining section. But a professional consult (or three) is definitely our first step.
Those pants are just too funny !
:P
redneckmodern: thank you that was an oversight! i fixed it.
dahliacactus: i can not access your photos from the link but it sounds beautiful!
I think if it were my house, I'd probably put down new flooring on top - linoleum or cork or something nice. Stripping and sanding just so you can then repaint a floor with plywood borders that need to be redone sounds like too much effort for not much gain.
I remember seeing an episode of Trading Spaces (yeah, I went there) where the couple had gorgeous hardwood floors with pee stains from a previous tenant's pet. They painted the floors with a glossy floor paint in a chocolate brown and it looked amazing.
With all the nice wood you have going in this apartment, painting the floors a titch darker would be a good way to preserve the character and ground the room.
I also had to comment on the fantastic pants. Good luck with the floor.
thanks for all the pant comments! they are men's pajamas from H&M! ;)
we had a similar dilemma in our kitchen. we ripped up the linoleum and found old wood floors with paint specks and large areas that had been painted in the past. we did a light sanding and then polyurethaned ourselves with a clear coat. it is different than the rest of the house but we love the imperfections of it.
I'd paint those floors. I've had good results with porch/floor paint. Nice woodwork in your place!
my 1923 douglas fir floors looked just like the photo. in a 600 sq/ft space i had about 40 sq/ft of flooring that needed to be replaced. i hired a great guy who ordered matching wood, sanded the existing flooring, stained everything to match pretty darned flawlessly, then put a semigloss urethane over it. cost approx $1300 including materials and took 2.5 days. it was about $100 cheaper than replacing with the cheapest Home Depot bamboo and maintained the warmth and character of the original flooring.
but i have to add that not all VCT is heinous. i installed it in the kitchens of two rental units i renovated and, because of the colors i chose (party white is linked below, kiwi in the other), everyone thinks it's much more luxe than $.69 sq/ft!
http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/howto-install-a-composite-tile-floor-126303
I have the same flooring in my kitchen (in Australia!) I hate it so much, it always looks dirty even when it's clean, but conversely hides so much dirt that sometimes I mop and them am completely grossed out by the filth I'd been living with. I am too afraid to rip it up yet, though. Not until I can afford to hire someone if I need to - I am definitely not up for buffing it myself, etc, especially if it turns out to be a tricky job.
I am PRETTY sure there is some sort of wood under there, and that would be my ideal. But if it's not or it's too hard, I think I will just get some more lino - I've seen some that is the same pattern and your tiles and I think it would look great in my white and yellow kitchen! Although now I think about it, white painted wood floors would also be awesome.
Also, can't wait to see what you choose! Don't forget to update us, please.
I had a similar floor in my bedroom after ripping up shag carpeting and tile. Since it was pine, I was nervous about trying to sand it myself - I've heard it's so soft it's easy to gouge. I hired Dan at http://colonialhardwood.net/ for about $500 to sand it with this big dustless (and it really was) system. There were also sections where a wall had been that were stuffed with cardboard and shims. I got a piece of old flooring from my neighbor's house and Dan cut it down to fit perfectly in that space. Then we stained it a very very dark brown/black and put a bajillion coats of poly on it. It was a small job for him, so he left the supplies and let me put on coats myself. It looks great.
There were some really wide cracks between the boards in places. I used a tip from This Old House and got different sizes of rope, stained them and stuffed them in the cracks. It looks really good.
I did paint the floor inside the closet with white porch paint. That also looks great, but wears less well.
Hummm @mchin says VCT is not too bad looking, but then why did they choose to put it in a rental unit and not their own place, instead opting in their own home to redo the wood floors?