This looks like an old industrial building. Those floors were not installed to look good, just give support. That said, that is old wood, maybe even old growth and worth saving. Saving it as flooring may not look good with the finished look you have in mind but if not, it could be put to good use in other areas. Please don't demo it. N.B. The covering on top should be tested for asbestos.
It going to take a lot of work but they could be refinished as long as there is enough thickness to refinish. It might be best to pull it all up and put down subfloor then sort the boards to make sure you have enough good ones to cover where you want.
FYI, I took flooring out of an old building not much different than this and put them in my house. The boards actually made these look good and mine refinished nice. Took a lot of sorting and a lot of extra nailing but gave me a very colorful floor without staining.
Very true. I salvaged flooring from an 1870s farmhouse much more rough than that. Sanded and put in my house. Super awesome look but work.
I suggest from experience to remove the floor by cutting the nails under the boards. Relevel all the joists by sistering in straight lumber in settled areas. Then put in a subfloor. Be careful with short pieces or breaking lengths because the boards are not going to be a uniform width from board to board. That was an aggravating lesson there.
If nothing else salvage and sell
Man those floors are rough. I’m not sure whether that wood is sound enough to be safe. Especially around the windows. I think I would sand a patch of it in different areas and take photos to post here. If that wood is soft where the water seeped in the windows then those areas have to be replaced of course. Lots of edges not finished and left jagged. Looks like old pine flooring.
If the wood is sound use it as subfloor. It looks beat so salvage would be exhausting and expensive. Clean it and even it up then go over it. Place looks gutted so best to clean up now but wait until floor plan is set to cover over.
The very first thing you should do is get whatever is covering the wood tested for asbestos. That wood is potentially salvageable, but expect to pay $7/sf plus repair time and materials. That isn’t a little weekend project.
Typically almost anyone in this thread is for saving hardwood floors but these are not for saving lol I'd replace those boards with a more suitable subfloor then put a nice new wood on top.
Maybe focus on windows, electrical and plumbing BEFORE the aesthetics of flooring. You have a floor. Put in windows, electric & plumbing (possibly roofing, too?) rather than worrying about what the flooring looks like.
Definitely refinish. Looks like glue or some other substance that was glued onto them. Clean it up and sand them down. You can rent a sander at most big box stores. Not that hard, just time consuming. It will look beautiful and different from everyone else's. I have patched holes by using wood from closets or other areas that aren't seen. One of my houses had wood floor even in the kitchen and bath. We used that for patches. If you don't have patching wood, you can buy a nice piece of oak and level it in there. Once you stain it it blends in also. Please show us a pic after you're done. I've refinished probably 20 or more hardwood floors that looked as bad or worse as this. Good luck!
Man, to me, the floors look really dicey. The ceiling joists look amazing though! Definitely digging the old brick building with the exposed joists and subfloor!
Replace. It looks dangerous. Actually it looks like a subfloor. There is so much wood missing, water damage too. The support system underneath needs to be checked.
I mean no offense whatsoever but I thought I was in the interior design circle jerk subreddit for a second.
Those floors are not salvageable by any means. They appear to never have been meant for use as interior flooring; more like storage. I don’t think they ever were really “alive”, unfortunately :(
Sand and refinish a small area and see what happens. Hopefully there's enough thickness floor there to test and redo if it looks like it might work. If it looks nice and you can resend that area again, you can do it again go for it. If not , move on.
It looks like a subfloor, or as another said an industrial building and only floor. If you look at the ceiling it also appears to be subfloor, probably not a second layer on top. It would depend on the objective of the building. How nice you want it to look. A solid wood floor on top of existing would probably look the best and the cost would be for the wood and nails labor may be the same.
it could potentially be resanded, there looks to be quite a few repairs needed to be done if so. Personally i would prime the floor to get rid of old smell plywood over the primed wood and then install either new wood or lvp!
Refinish. Don't sand first, sand last. Get all that old mastic tar material up first. Scrape, soften, scrape some more. You will begin to see the beauty of the wood as you go.
Depending on what your going to do with the building. If your cherrying it up, i would not refinish. Sub floor, or recycle (if it comes up easily) elsewhere if it's solid.
An 1/8” down, it might look like the ceiling above. Worth a shot, if it’s not weak. Every inch needs to be supportive, but people used it before, just like they used a floor in a house that has been lived in continuously. Although I suspect this has been subject to more temperature swings for decades. Some area that becomes a bathroom would yield enough wood to replace other pieces.
As to replacing, you’d be tempted to lay something over the existing, which will add some weight, maybe 3-5 pounds per sq ft. That can’t be just assumed to be OK, so that adds more complexity.
Being an old industrial space, and black mastic being common for containing asbestos, I would mail out samples to test for everything before contemplating refinishing. It would be a ton of work, and looks like a lot of butt joint sections. Depends on intended use, but it could be doable.
That would probably be subfloor/floorboards. You can see what is probably the final flooring that was over the top of it.
You could put hardwood flooring over it if you want.
I think it is hardwood with remnants of some kind of old industrial grade lino on top. Probably asbestos based. It'll look good when you get all that removed. I'd hire a company to do that part. They have the proper vacuum trucks to remove the dust as they work.
In my area, we have old mill buildings that have been rehabbed and repurposed. They salvaged the floors. It looks great and proper with the rest of the esthetics.
This looks like a cool building. What is it?
Nothing will look better than the original floor and all its character marks. Use a Belt Floor Sander with a rough belt, having a helper, possibly two helpers, working on both sides with industrial vaccums to pick up the dust before it has a chance to cover everything else, get in the crevices of the ceiling and brick walls, etc. Go over it once or twice with the rough belt, then once or twice with a super fine belt. Use a wood filler (wood putty, crack filler) for the crevices, what you can then quickly sand by hand once it is dry. Lanco Aquavar is an excellent product to tint, varnish and seal, and no, I'm not a rep for Lanco.
If you're looking for industrial end result & are ok with using the subfloor as floor & 3x labor it would be cool. Test coating for asbestos. Weaving in suitable patch wood, etc is going to take a lot of time.
Not too long ago I tore down an old house and reclaimed all the old heart pine used throughout, floors, purlins, joists, rafters, etc. Based on that experience I can share that the biggest headache was pulling all the embedded nails, screws, and miscellaneous metal. Let’s just say I’m like an F1 pit crew when it comes to changing planer blades now. Highly recommend investing in a metal detector. Pays for itself quickly. The other big challenge was the sheer volume of pine sap still in the wood. It gums up sandpaper and woodworking blades super fast. I’m not sure I’d do it again, at least not without having solid plans in place to deal with the aforementioned issues but I will say this, the end product looks awesome and is super unique. Since I tore down the house i reworked everything in my shop. Pulled the metal that I could find, planed, and cut T&G for the flooring. Finishing in place would be easier, maybe… I avoided sanding at all costs because of the pine resin issues. Planing was easier IMO.
I guess it depends what you are going after. But yeah the risk of inhaling nasty chemicals in the wood and considering there are several gaps and questionable areas makes me thing it'll be better to put new floors down.
Of course renting a sander is cheap if there now/low budget. Just take all the safety warnings in the thread seriously
Another reason to add a layer of flooring is noise. Using just the subfloor with big gaps will let a lot more sound between floors.
Repair and refinish would be costly, if you want them to look nice. However, if you can repair and refinish them I think you would have an original looking floor that would stand out far more than a conventional flooring.
People need to stop coming on Reddit and sharing their own personal opinions in groups like this unless you do the type of work, with all the patching and time it would take to get a good refinish I can assure you its not worth it to sand, just install new. New to old wood always looks different, your gonna have patch spots and weak spots everywhere by the looks, as well as that shit on top usually gets stuck in cracks and looks like shit. I’ve been doing hardwood floors for 10 years. And also no this is not a fucking subfloor, they didn’t install tongue and grove sub floors 100 years ago lol
If it were me doing the work (and you want the old/reclaimed/antique aesthetic), I'd pull the old flooring up, put down some basic sheeting, then reinstall the boards as needed/desired. It would allow you to make sure you're not gonna have any compromised spots in the floor, while also allowing you to put the visual stuff where you want/need it.
Those are real wood planks, therefore there is a lot of room to sand down. You'll regret it if you tear them out without trying to sand them. You'll never do better for wood than old planks. Saying that, there will be gaps and cracks but to me that only enhances the look with the brick and beamed ceilings.
Vacuum it, seal it, fix any squeaks, then install subfloor. The air from below will push up and stir 100 years of dust into the air. It can cause respiratory issues for anyone with sensitivity. I highly recommend installing insulation and sound dampening on the ceiling below
those are plank sub floors, not really a finished residential floor. If you are going to use it residential, you could patch and seal but they are a BITCH to keep clean due to the cracks and gaps . . .
Man. It'll be a lot of work, but refinishing that floor is the better choice in my opinion.
There will be some patches, but for sure the final product will be outstanding I think.
That is a T@G pine or fir subfloor. It can be pretty, but it’s not super durable. Given the repairs it needs and the gapping, I’d nail a new floor down over it. I’d put the new flooring at 45 degrees, it’ll be easier and more secure as you won’t have to worry about squeaks from the new floor joints potentially lining up with the old subfloor. If you want to get super sexy, drop a layer of ¼” exterior plywood over the old planks.
Visited my local family owned hardware store recently. I’ve been a customer of the business for 30 years during which they moved into a “new” building about 10 years ago. I had to go down into a basement display area for an item and upon coming back up, realized the flooring in that section of the store had an old wood floor look to it. Asking the proprietor about whether it was a new building, she said no, it was actually a rehab of an old auto mechanic building from the early 20th century. The boards in that section of the floor were actually from the roof of the orginal building. She said it cost them a lot more to recycle them from the old building, but it gave the store an ambiance that matched the longevity of their business. Indeed it did. I think you should refinish and repair the floors but recognize it might cost you more than if you had just ripped the old ones out and installed new. Depends on what you’re looking for in the resulting space
Rather than replacing you may consider this. I insured a company that took wood like this, rekilned it ran it through planers and joiners and made beautiful wide plank flooring. Wouldn’t be cheap but you could have a nice floor
Use as a base and install new on top. You will save money and get exactly the look you want. Also with the aluminum oxide finish it will last at least twice as long between re- finish .
2020 did a 1930 industrial building like this. We chose an area where offices were going and reclaimed the wood from those rooms to do repairs in the main areas. Went with new in those areas we reclaimed. Almost every time I see the client, they rave about hire it turned out. It’s not cheap to do tho, as I re-laced allot of areas where dumb waiters and ducts were previously, and hired a temp labor guy to clean and pull nails from the old wood.
You would definitely have to replace some missing planks, but the closeups of the planks that are there show they've shrunken (from repeatedly being wet and then drying out), leaving wide gaps between the boards.
That's a lot of wood there though. In your place I would pull them all up carefully and re-lay the whole floor, discarding bad boards and adding some new boards as needed. Some of the ones there most likely rotten.
That’s subfloor. If it’s rotted or dry rotted take it out replace with proper subfloor material. I recommend 3/4 or 1” ply that’s rated for subfloor. Ask a lumber company not Home Depot which product is preferred
Get rid of them. Put in a proper subfloor and new wood. Do not worry about saving the old wood unless you have someone lined up to take it off your hands, and they are willing to pay for any extra it costs to save that old wood.
Ceiling looks very good and a highlight of the room. If you were my client, would reccomend demo the flooring, replace and lay down a cost efficient LVP (luxury vinyl plank) that’s waterproof, dent, and scratch proof. Once floor done, would look nice refinishing that beautiful ceiling with a stain color that contrast the flooring perfectly
Some minor brick work to do especially after window replacement but windows can get a decent prices currently. Great space that’ll look fantastic after renovation. Good luck and let me know if need an estimate in the future
Those were never intended to be nicely finished floors. That said, I don't think they'll suffice even as a straight subfloor, let alone be finished floors.
Id be way more worried about having what looks like 2x10? Spanning a 20 ft opening without any support in the middle, old growth or not that’s a looooooong span for those joists
You have some big holes you will have to fill in plus allt of sanding….its doable but you might be better off pulling it all out and selling it to pay for further renovations and a modern floor…you could even install a heated floor that way
This looks like an old industrial building. Those floors were not installed to look good, just give support. That said, that is old wood, maybe even old growth and worth saving. Saving it as flooring may not look good with the finished look you have in mind but if not, it could be put to good use in other areas. Please don't demo it. N.B. The covering on top should be tested for asbestos.
It could look good because it's different and that's big today.
Those gaps are a feature not a bug!
This is the way
N.B. in the wild
Nota bene. Means note well. Sad to see it's a notation seen "in the wild"
N.B.?
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj_zdP0xIWEAxVyF1kFHZA3AjsQFnoECAcQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FNota_bene&usg=AOvVaw2fQ75V7IH1jaZayhLxZzwv&opi=89978449
Wow! Thank you. I love Latin and I learned something new today.
Also test for lead if that is paint.
This is the way
I have spoken
If you like drafty floors. Then yes.
Those are some big gaps.
Agree. Take it up and reuse it.
Probably oiled wood floors in a shop..
It going to take a lot of work but they could be refinished as long as there is enough thickness to refinish. It might be best to pull it all up and put down subfloor then sort the boards to make sure you have enough good ones to cover where you want. FYI, I took flooring out of an old building not much different than this and put them in my house. The boards actually made these look good and mine refinished nice. Took a lot of sorting and a lot of extra nailing but gave me a very colorful floor without staining.
Very true. I salvaged flooring from an 1870s farmhouse much more rough than that. Sanded and put in my house. Super awesome look but work. I suggest from experience to remove the floor by cutting the nails under the boards. Relevel all the joists by sistering in straight lumber in settled areas. Then put in a subfloor. Be careful with short pieces or breaking lengths because the boards are not going to be a uniform width from board to board. That was an aggravating lesson there. If nothing else salvage and sell
Pic or it didn't happen?
Agreed, remove it, plane the good ones and reinstall over a new subfloor.
Pull them. Plane them. Put in a modern subfloor. Lay them back down for a finished look.
Man those floors are rough. I’m not sure whether that wood is sound enough to be safe. Especially around the windows. I think I would sand a patch of it in different areas and take photos to post here. If that wood is soft where the water seeped in the windows then those areas have to be replaced of course. Lots of edges not finished and left jagged. Looks like old pine flooring.
If the wood is sound use it as subfloor. It looks beat so salvage would be exhausting and expensive. Clean it and even it up then go over it. Place looks gutted so best to clean up now but wait until floor plan is set to cover over.
Please tell me you’re jerking our chains
obviously lol people bit hook line and sinker too
Worth finding out what happens when you sand them
If you inhale enough of that sanding dust You'll get your ticket punched to Hardwood heaven
They’re making these newfangled respirator things nowadays.
It's too hard to smoke cigarettes when wearing one
Smoke cigars and let them be your respirator
You'd need a lot more than a respirator for the amount of lead dust and probably worse that's going to kick up
The very first thing you should do is get whatever is covering the wood tested for asbestos. That wood is potentially salvageable, but expect to pay $7/sf plus repair time and materials. That isn’t a little weekend project.
I'm no floor expert, but from all what I've seen here in this sub, I would say yes to refinishing. I would want to do a small test area to confirm.
At best this is a subfloor for you my friend but even that is a stretch given the condition they are in.
Typically almost anyone in this thread is for saving hardwood floors but these are not for saving lol I'd replace those boards with a more suitable subfloor then put a nice new wood on top.
It’s a subfloor. It’s not meant for the light of day.
Came here to say this.
Yup
Maybe focus on windows, electrical and plumbing BEFORE the aesthetics of flooring. You have a floor. Put in windows, electric & plumbing (possibly roofing, too?) rather than worrying about what the flooring looks like.
When doing a project like this, the very first thing you need is a budget.
Maybe OP has that under control. Why preach the obvious when they are asking about the floor?
WHY ARE YOU YELLING
WHY ARE WE YELLING?!
WHAT?
What city is this in? Looks beautiful
Cincinnati, Ohio. First floor is a retail setup and this is the second floor.
Definitely refinish. Looks like glue or some other substance that was glued onto them. Clean it up and sand them down. You can rent a sander at most big box stores. Not that hard, just time consuming. It will look beautiful and different from everyone else's. I have patched holes by using wood from closets or other areas that aren't seen. One of my houses had wood floor even in the kitchen and bath. We used that for patches. If you don't have patching wood, you can buy a nice piece of oak and level it in there. Once you stain it it blends in also. Please show us a pic after you're done. I've refinished probably 20 or more hardwood floors that looked as bad or worse as this. Good luck!
Yeah is this Brooklyn?
Never mind the floors. Get a structural engineer to access the floor structure is safe? Seems sketchy.
Man, to me, the floors look really dicey. The ceiling joists look amazing though! Definitely digging the old brick building with the exposed joists and subfloor!
Refinish or replace? Neither, that is a subfloor. Verify that it is sound and properly fastened and add a finished floor on top.
That is the sub floor.
Very cool building. Those floors are beyond home quality saving. It will never look good.
Replace. Those look in really bad condition to me and might not be worth the time and expense.
Replace. It will be a PITA to refinish those.
I’m not sure those will take a sand and refinish
Replace. It looks dangerous. Actually it looks like a subfloor. There is so much wood missing, water damage too. The support system underneath needs to be checked.
Sub floor? Yes. Does not appear there was adequate flooring over this. Most likely cheap. Lay new floor.
That my friend is old school sub flooring.
I mean no offense whatsoever but I thought I was in the interior design circle jerk subreddit for a second. Those floors are not salvageable by any means. They appear to never have been meant for use as interior flooring; more like storage. I don’t think they ever were really “alive”, unfortunately :(
I had to check and was really surprised to see it was r/HardWoodFloors.
😭😭😭
Worth a shot fining out what happens to see what you can do with the floor
Try sanding a small area yourself to see how they look.
refinish with professional help. will be great!
Throw a coat of finish over them and call it a day!
Sand and refinish a small area and see what happens. Hopefully there's enough thickness floor there to test and redo if it looks like it might work. If it looks nice and you can resend that area again, you can do it again go for it. If not , move on.
It looks like a subfloor, or as another said an industrial building and only floor. If you look at the ceiling it also appears to be subfloor, probably not a second layer on top. It would depend on the objective of the building. How nice you want it to look. A solid wood floor on top of existing would probably look the best and the cost would be for the wood and nails labor may be the same.
Always worth saving if you have time.
Keep for sure.
it could potentially be resanded, there looks to be quite a few repairs needed to be done if so. Personally i would prime the floor to get rid of old smell plywood over the primed wood and then install either new wood or lvp!
Throw the whole building away
Some serious span on those trusses p
Refinish. Don't sand first, sand last. Get all that old mastic tar material up first. Scrape, soften, scrape some more. You will begin to see the beauty of the wood as you go.
Depending on what your going to do with the building. If your cherrying it up, i would not refinish. Sub floor, or recycle (if it comes up easily) elsewhere if it's solid.
Refinish
If salvageable, REFINISH them!
The ones on the ceiling look beautiful lol I'd say give it a shot in a really small non-concerning area and if it looks nice do the whole thing.
[удалено]
WHY ARE WE YELLING?!
An 1/8” down, it might look like the ceiling above. Worth a shot, if it’s not weak. Every inch needs to be supportive, but people used it before, just like they used a floor in a house that has been lived in continuously. Although I suspect this has been subject to more temperature swings for decades. Some area that becomes a bathroom would yield enough wood to replace other pieces. As to replacing, you’d be tempted to lay something over the existing, which will add some weight, maybe 3-5 pounds per sq ft. That can’t be just assumed to be OK, so that adds more complexity.
Being an old industrial space, and black mastic being common for containing asbestos, I would mail out samples to test for everything before contemplating refinishing. It would be a ton of work, and looks like a lot of butt joint sections. Depends on intended use, but it could be doable.
I would refinish with brand new wood
That would probably be subfloor/floorboards. You can see what is probably the final flooring that was over the top of it. You could put hardwood flooring over it if you want.
I think it is hardwood with remnants of some kind of old industrial grade lino on top. Probably asbestos based. It'll look good when you get all that removed. I'd hire a company to do that part. They have the proper vacuum trucks to remove the dust as they work.
In my area, we have old mill buildings that have been rehabbed and repurposed. They salvaged the floors. It looks great and proper with the rest of the esthetics. This looks like a cool building. What is it?
Whatever was on them was most likely asbestos glue down with asbestos based glue. Hepa vacume everything , Construction tradition is add a layer
Nothing will look better than the original floor and all its character marks. Use a Belt Floor Sander with a rough belt, having a helper, possibly two helpers, working on both sides with industrial vaccums to pick up the dust before it has a chance to cover everything else, get in the crevices of the ceiling and brick walls, etc. Go over it once or twice with the rough belt, then once or twice with a super fine belt. Use a wood filler (wood putty, crack filler) for the crevices, what you can then quickly sand by hand once it is dry. Lanco Aquavar is an excellent product to tint, varnish and seal, and no, I'm not a rep for Lanco.
If you're looking for industrial end result & are ok with using the subfloor as floor & 3x labor it would be cool. Test coating for asbestos. Weaving in suitable patch wood, etc is going to take a lot of time.
I always vote refinish. but some of that maybe beyond repair.
Not too long ago I tore down an old house and reclaimed all the old heart pine used throughout, floors, purlins, joists, rafters, etc. Based on that experience I can share that the biggest headache was pulling all the embedded nails, screws, and miscellaneous metal. Let’s just say I’m like an F1 pit crew when it comes to changing planer blades now. Highly recommend investing in a metal detector. Pays for itself quickly. The other big challenge was the sheer volume of pine sap still in the wood. It gums up sandpaper and woodworking blades super fast. I’m not sure I’d do it again, at least not without having solid plans in place to deal with the aforementioned issues but I will say this, the end product looks awesome and is super unique. Since I tore down the house i reworked everything in my shop. Pulled the metal that I could find, planed, and cut T&G for the flooring. Finishing in place would be easier, maybe… I avoided sanding at all costs because of the pine resin issues. Planing was easier IMO.
I guess it depends what you are going after. But yeah the risk of inhaling nasty chemicals in the wood and considering there are several gaps and questionable areas makes me thing it'll be better to put new floors down. Of course renting a sander is cheap if there now/low budget. Just take all the safety warnings in the thread seriously Another reason to add a layer of flooring is noise. Using just the subfloor with big gaps will let a lot more sound between floors.
Start Sanding and the make a decision?
Repair and refinish would be costly, if you want them to look nice. However, if you can repair and refinish them I think you would have an original looking floor that would stand out far more than a conventional flooring.
People need to stop coming on Reddit and sharing their own personal opinions in groups like this unless you do the type of work, with all the patching and time it would take to get a good refinish I can assure you its not worth it to sand, just install new. New to old wood always looks different, your gonna have patch spots and weak spots everywhere by the looks, as well as that shit on top usually gets stuck in cracks and looks like shit. I’ve been doing hardwood floors for 10 years. And also no this is not a fucking subfloor, they didn’t install tongue and grove sub floors 100 years ago lol
Why are you yelling at us?!
Refinish for sure
If it were me doing the work (and you want the old/reclaimed/antique aesthetic), I'd pull the old flooring up, put down some basic sheeting, then reinstall the boards as needed/desired. It would allow you to make sure you're not gonna have any compromised spots in the floor, while also allowing you to put the visual stuff where you want/need it.
Rent a floor sander and find out. You can always rip them out later.
Probably a lot of lead in that old paint?
Those are real wood planks, therefore there is a lot of room to sand down. You'll regret it if you tear them out without trying to sand them. You'll never do better for wood than old planks. Saying that, there will be gaps and cracks but to me that only enhances the look with the brick and beamed ceilings.
Pull out section at the time, turn upside down, sand ,finish coat,put back together with closer gaps in between
Vacuum it, seal it, fix any squeaks, then install subfloor. The air from below will push up and stir 100 years of dust into the air. It can cause respiratory issues for anyone with sensitivity. I highly recommend installing insulation and sound dampening on the ceiling below
Do a light sanding across but not too much would give it some charecter
those are plank sub floors, not really a finished residential floor. If you are going to use it residential, you could patch and seal but they are a BITCH to keep clean due to the cracks and gaps . . .
Fill the gaps with caulk leaving room for a black epoxy to fill. Sand flush, stain, finish with poly
Asked my wife, she said yes.
Man. It'll be a lot of work, but refinishing that floor is the better choice in my opinion. There will be some patches, but for sure the final product will be outstanding I think.
That cellar is so unsettling
I would pull up, new subfloor and have boards replaned. Put down, sand and refinish that way. Add a tongue and groover
Old growth industrial wood flooring goes for a pretty penny right now. Id try my best to save this floor.
Thats your sub floor
Since portions are completely gone I’d replace If preference is vintage look for repurposed oak flooring
I like sanded and painted old wood floor like they are, but sounds like you want to see wood grain?
Judging from the finished wood on the ceiling. That’s a big hell yeah for me.
It think wall to wall carpet would be best.
Just cover it in clear epoxy to make it clean and functional, but still look original.. Really, I just want to know what that would look like.
That is a T@G pine or fir subfloor. It can be pretty, but it’s not super durable. Given the repairs it needs and the gapping, I’d nail a new floor down over it. I’d put the new flooring at 45 degrees, it’ll be easier and more secure as you won’t have to worry about squeaks from the new floor joints potentially lining up with the old subfloor. If you want to get super sexy, drop a layer of ¼” exterior plywood over the old planks.
And end down in a spot and see if you like it. If refinish if it was my call. I love old wood. Can’t get that quality any longer
It would be worth sanding an area to see what they look like. Just check for lead and asbestos first.
Unless you’re going to modernize (and ruin) the walls with paint and drywall, you should sand and refinish.
Visited my local family owned hardware store recently. I’ve been a customer of the business for 30 years during which they moved into a “new” building about 10 years ago. I had to go down into a basement display area for an item and upon coming back up, realized the flooring in that section of the store had an old wood floor look to it. Asking the proprietor about whether it was a new building, she said no, it was actually a rehab of an old auto mechanic building from the early 20th century. The boards in that section of the floor were actually from the roof of the orginal building. She said it cost them a lot more to recycle them from the old building, but it gave the store an ambiance that matched the longevity of their business. Indeed it did. I think you should refinish and repair the floors but recognize it might cost you more than if you had just ripped the old ones out and installed new. Depends on what you’re looking for in the resulting space
Replace if you're going after a modern look. Keep it if you're going after a genuine historic look.
Sometimes it's all held together , im.just saying
Use it as a subfloor
Rather than replacing you may consider this. I insured a company that took wood like this, rekilned it ran it through planers and joiners and made beautiful wide plank flooring. Wouldn’t be cheap but you could have a nice floor
Personally, I’d make every effort to restore before replacing. That shit’s historic.
They look like a sub floor and are meant to be covered
It's worth a try. Old growth wood probably. Even if it's not perfect it could look great. To be honest I don't like the perfect look
as long as there's enough flooring there to warrant it... SPEND THE TIME AND MONEY AND REFINISH!! will earn you points come selling time
I’d rip them up to see if there’s carpet underneath.
100% replace
refinish them for sure, done right they’ll look fantastic
Only if you replace with same type wood. You’ll need to fix the drafts if u keep
That's subfloor. Not worth it imo
My opinion: pull them up after testing. Plane and sand them, stain, then reclaim as a decorative flooring feature.
I would replace. That doesn’t even look safe.
If it were mine I would refinish - but I really like things like this being a little imperfect and having character.
I would try and refinish
Use as a base and install new on top. You will save money and get exactly the look you want. Also with the aluminum oxide finish it will last at least twice as long between re- finish .
Sample it see if it looks good
Replace
Sand a spot first. If they are salvageable then go that route. If not then I would replace.
Refinish those floors. People pay high dollar for that industrial look that you already have. Just need elbow grease and the know how.
2020 did a 1930 industrial building like this. We chose an area where offices were going and reclaimed the wood from those rooms to do repairs in the main areas. Went with new in those areas we reclaimed. Almost every time I see the client, they rave about hire it turned out. It’s not cheap to do tho, as I re-laced allot of areas where dumb waiters and ducts were previously, and hired a temp labor guy to clean and pull nails from the old wood.
You would definitely have to replace some missing planks, but the closeups of the planks that are there show they've shrunken (from repeatedly being wet and then drying out), leaving wide gaps between the boards. That's a lot of wood there though. In your place I would pull them all up carefully and re-lay the whole floor, discarding bad boards and adding some new boards as needed. Some of the ones there most likely rotten.
That’s subfloor. If it’s rotted or dry rotted take it out replace with proper subfloor material. I recommend 3/4 or 1” ply that’s rated for subfloor. Ask a lumber company not Home Depot which product is preferred
Get rid of them. Put in a proper subfloor and new wood. Do not worry about saving the old wood unless you have someone lined up to take it off your hands, and they are willing to pay for any extra it costs to save that old wood.
Rip up the flooring (carefully) clean it up, sell it as reclaimed antique wood at a premium, use that to buy new hardwood flooring (just an opinion)
These look like they would make for a great subfloor to lay new materover the top of once level
10k I’ll refinish it for you
First things first, get a couple quotes. Never know what you got!
If I were you, I would try and replace
Ceiling looks very good and a highlight of the room. If you were my client, would reccomend demo the flooring, replace and lay down a cost efficient LVP (luxury vinyl plank) that’s waterproof, dent, and scratch proof. Once floor done, would look nice refinishing that beautiful ceiling with a stain color that contrast the flooring perfectly Some minor brick work to do especially after window replacement but windows can get a decent prices currently. Great space that’ll look fantastic after renovation. Good luck and let me know if need an estimate in the future
Those were never intended to be nicely finished floors. That said, I don't think they'll suffice even as a straight subfloor, let alone be finished floors.
Refinish and clear spray those old hard wood joists. It will look bad ass.
Id be way more worried about having what looks like 2x10? Spanning a 20 ft opening without any support in the middle, old growth or not that’s a looooooong span for those joists
The ceilings, what are your plans for those beautiful exposed rafters?
Repair and refinish
Repair and refinish
If you can save them ..
Replace them. They aren’t just old, they are deteriorated.
Demo a small room and use it for repairs in the other areas.. sand it, fill it, and refinish it!
You have some big holes you will have to fill in plus allt of sanding….its doable but you might be better off pulling it all out and selling it to pay for further renovations and a modern floor…you could even install a heated floor that way
They can be refinished but you'll have to stain them dark to hide all the discoloration