Wow, you are not kidding what you may find under that old carpet. I just bought this house and the entrance/hall, living room and third floor all had the same plain and somehwat worn grey carpet. Pretty boring for a 1890 home.

I did not do the refinishing myself - sorry, but I did remove all plywood and staples myself - that was a project in of itself!

I called 3 people and the first two came in and told me the parquet living room could be salvaged, but the hall and third floor were completely shot. Knowing very little about wood flooring I was all but ready to fix the living room, but lay carpet back on the hall and third floor because I could not afford all new hardwood with having just bought the home itself. The third guy missed the first appointment without calling and I almost signed with guy number 2, but gave him one more chance.

When the third guy finally came he had hair sticking straight out like a mun-chi-chi (remember those?) full of sawdust and his glasses were so dirty I could hardly see his eyes. Somehow he was able to view the floor and without hesitation he said "no problem", this is a beautiful red oak new york strip floor, hand cut with precision, mostly laid for doctors and lawyers at the time, .....

The living room parquet - same thing - he showed me how it was impropetly sanded the last time and how to see the subtle lines formed from doing it wrong.

Then he went to the third floor antique pine boards, licked his hands several times, rubbing the floor profusely and exclaimed the same thing - no way in hell I'd cover this up - it will have a glow you could never reproduce with any stain or chemical.

Needless to say he was hired on the spot!

We could not even see that the hallway was almost 100% quarter-sawn red oak at the time. And after it was sanded, I still did not know what this meant because all the pictures online have minimal "tiger-stripping" (as I call it). This site helped me understand that old lumber had many more rings and stronger accents that current lumber. Boy and I glad I gave the guy another chance!!!!!

First pic is after I ripped up the plywood, which was both glued AND nailed every 3 inches on center!! Woah, that was an ugly job pulling thousands of nails! They ultimately trowel filled the floor to fill the holes.

Pic 2 was after it was sanded

Pic 3 was after it was stained (to blend some replacement boards with old wood to minimize variation in the floor - worked VERY well) They pretreated each new board individually to help it absorb stain better and it really made them match VERY well.

Pic 4 is a close-up after it was coated twice with BonaKemi Traffic to help preserve the floor as it is not sandable again.

That is very pretty wood!

Outstanding.

Holy moly! Talk about hitting the jackpot!

I agree Chuck!

Catman:

Can we use those pictures for the website? Any before and afters of the upstairs?

Just imagine the size of those logs. That is a priceless floor. You just can't get lumber like that anymore.

Yes, you may use the pictures as you wish. .

I do have pictures of the upstairs, but not a great before shot as that was done before we actually moved and I only have sporatic shots showing the floor in its dirty barn state. When I have time I will place them here.

The parquet adjacent to the hall shown above came out beautifully as well. It really is amazing how well-laid the floor was considering the time it was installed. There is not a visible gap of even 1/32 of an inch anywhere in the original floor. Still tight as can be. The guys could not re-lay new pieces (some holes needed fixed) as tightly despite using precise Festool equipment. They had to trowel fill the new sections to close the small gaps.

Lighting is poor in there so shots are not great, but I will put some up when I can. We are really please with the floor!

Hi!
I'm new in this board. I have a similar story as "catman" to tell. I bought this house 2 years ago in the Bronx, NY. I think the house was built in 1910 so I had to renovated the house totally with new gas line, sheetrock, and almost everything. House had metal ceiling and wood floor (some wer exposed and while most were under 3 layers of glued tiles) which I left alone b/c my wife liked the ceiling and I did not have enough money to have sheetrock over them. Left the floor alone by installing new carpet. Anyway... over time I started to like wood flooring so I decided to take the new carpet out and and slowly take down the tiles (tiles were not an easy job.)

I have the floor refinished and with clear gloss, guys who did the job said I have very expensive wood floor, I was wondering if anyone here can look at the picture and tell me what kind of wood or whatever it is? I am very curious. Thank you!

Herringbone red or white oak with a walnut border? No topnails in 1910? Gary?

Indeed a gem!

Being on the east coast, I'm not too familiar with the flooring history there. In San Francisco, that would have been a 5/16" face nailed floor. But it does not appear to be that from the pictures. So, it must be a tongue and grooved blind nailed floor. Could not be glued as there were not good flooring adhesives at that time. The wood looks to be white oak or perhaps golden oak ( a species that was once available but no longer ). Some of the flooring is quartersawn but not all. It is a herringbone parquet with a border and double walnut feature strip. A very European style floor and very high end. Quite costly to duplicate today but it is done for those with deep pockets. A note to all you installers: Notice the log cabin or stair step corners. They didn't miter the corners much back then in the border work. This was during the Craftsmen and Arts and Crafts era. Butt joints were prefered over miters. The herring bone joints are also butt joints. They could be miterd, and sometimes were, especially in Europe. During this era, butt joints were prefered

Thank you Ken and Gary for the information. I have no clue on terms Ken used to describe this floor architecture but I take they are good? From the house history I found that the house may have been owned and built by an Irish family, historically this is/was mostly Irish neighborhood, if this gives you guys any clue?

So I guess I can say to anyone that floor is "Herringbone and Quartersawn? looks like golden) I'm amazed by the information you guys provided just by looking at the images. Thanks again for your help!

Catman, I would almost bet you have another gem hidden under the carpet on that staircase....

Hi Syed,
Id charge ya 18 bucks a foot for that floor, your appraisal value should definately be affected by that floor,
J

Gary, Is that the same as 'Tan oak'? Sometimes one of the suppliers up here has had some Tan Oak. He claims it's Canadian. I've heard that it's usually pretty warped ... however I've noticed that this supplier hardly ever gets any good (not warped) material if you know what I mean. I shouldn't bash any mills on this site but this supplier's favorite one reminds me of a guy wearing no shoes.


Anyway. I liked the Tan Oak I saw alot as far as grain texture and golden wheat color ... ever use the stuff?

No, Tan Oak isn't Golden Oak. I haven't done any Tan Oak. A guy wanted me to but didn't want to pay my price. Looking for the lowest bidder I guess. And I gave him a good price as well. Golden Oak, as I understand it was/is called California Golden Oak and I've seen it around here in a few homes. It looks sorta like tan oak and sorta like a creamy white oak but with no greys or greens like you get in white oak sometimes. Usually the boards were long with straight grain. Coulda been quartered but it didn't have that quartered fleck. I thought I heard about a mill a few years back starting to mill some for flooring again. Kinda a specialty item I think. That's all I know. Maybe I'll google it.

BTW, check out all the oaks. Plus there are regional hybrids! When saw mills were at one time just milling local lumber, that's the oak they used for the flooring.
http://www.oldknobbley.com/woodland_eco ... _other.php