This is a purely personal post. No politics, no media, no criticism.
We’re considering refinishing an old, 1940-era wood floor. Well, to be more precise, finding someone to refinish it. We’re told it’s vertical grain fir. It looks its age right now, with some areas of damage.
One flooring installer advised just getting rid of it and laying new flooring on top of it, but we’re worried that this was just for the sake of the installer’s convenience.
Looking online, it appears that if we lived in Seattle, there would be multiple contractors ready to work with the old fir floor and restore it.
If the floor can be saved, we would prefer to take that path. But we don’t know the pros and cons of restoring and refinishing this kind of relatively soft wood floor.
So we’re looking for a recommendation of someone locally we can rely on to give us an opinion on whether it’s worth restoring this particular old floor.
Any and all suggestions would be appreciated!
You can leave a comment here, or email me.
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We’ve used Nishimura flooring they are very expensive but experienced. Have to admit I’m now going with the refloor on top option
Our house has a similar wood floor laid down in 1947. My parents raised three kids in the house so the floor got its fair share of use. After the kids left they put down carpet with varying degrees of success. Then when my wife and I moved in we tore up the old carpet and put down new. But, with the damp Manoa weather and as many as seven cats in residence we finally decided carpet was not a good idea and tore it out. Then when I retired I took on the task of refirbing the floor.
The 40’s era varnish was so gooey that you could not sand it off so I had to use paint remover and scrape it off, all 1200 sqft. Then sand the whole thing and refinish, all the while still living in the house. In the end it looked really good and I got lots of compliments – for a while.
You put your finger on the problem. Fir is very soft and it will always be soft. Ten years after my refinish job it needs to be done again. I agree with your floor installer’s recommendation. I would abandon the fir floor and put in one of more modern more durable material. We are now doing some major remodeling and will probably do just that. Just my two cents.
You could try a polymerized tung oil like Waterlox that will soak into the wood rather than form a film; that way if part of the floor needs touching up in a few years you can just add more finish at the worn spots rather than having to sand anything. The problem will be finding someone locally who is willing to do the job.
Your mid-century fir floor is almost certainly high quality old growth wood. I would go to very great lengths to avoid pulling it out.
Wood floors are almost always worth saving and restoring, unless you have termites or dry rot.
The advice you received of “getting rid of it and laying new flooring on top of it” sounds self-contradictory.
I suggest, whatever you do, don’t get rid of it. If you feel the need to punt, install something over it. Preserve the option to restore it later, for you, or future owners of the house.
What about contacting the woodworkers’ association, now known as the Hawaii Wood Guild? Granted, these folks are more about furniture and lathe-work, but there’s no doubt they know and love wood.
(abbreviated version of a comment the filter wouldn’t let me post several days ago)
By all means save the wood floor. They probably don’t have the quality of wood nowadays. We restore them even with stains, cracks and chips: it adds to the ambiance.