I have an 80 year old fir floor that appears to have been salvaged from other older floors. The old floor is mixed bare and painted in multiple colors, kinda funky but not what I have in mind. It has some old bad watter spotting, gaps due to the water, and 12" linolium squares well adheared to the surface. The subfloor is fir boards laid on the diagonal. There is a low spot in the floor, about a 1/2 of an inch. I have removed some of the linolium and sanded a bit and I do not think this floor will recover, espicially in the water damaged area. I have decided that adding a new fir floor over the top does not present a height problem but could only get away with a 3/8s underlayment over the existing floor. This is on the second floor of the house in bedrooms.

(The story from the neighbors is that the previous owner put a hot tub in the center of the bedroom, The drain disconnected and ... Fortunately it did not do too much harm to the joists which were never sized for that kind of weight but it did have a carpet that was not pulled up and dried.)

Options I have come up with.

1. Lay the new floor over the top but due to a change in direction of the old floor the new floor would have to be laid on a 45. Not sure how that would look. I would fill in the low area with 3-tab. The diagonal would simplify working with the walls that are not square.

2. Tear out the old floor and redo. More work but ...

3. Fill in the low spots and lay 3/8" plywood over the top and re-lay the floor some paralell to the old and some not.

4. Try to refinish the old floor. Marginal at best.

The new floor would be reclaimed old growth fir shorts. (telephone poles and beams)

Suggestions, comments, other alternatives, etc. are needed.

Loren

Loren

Sounds like a rough project no matter how its done.... as such I would lean toward your option two (2. Tear out the old floor and redo.)

You may not, however, have supplied enough info on joist spacing, size, span, room dimension, substrate, thickness, exactly what you wish to refinsh with... etc... for the pro team here to give you more than educated gueses.... which are hard to do at best.

Dave T

Removing the old flooring will allow you to make repairs to the subfloor if needed; including fixing sqweeks and do some leveling. Adding a layer of 1/2" CDX underlayment will tighten things up and add some rigidity plus allow you to lay the new floor in any direction. Be careful about old vct tiles. They may contain asbestos.

Loren... PS

If you havn't already used this sites "search" functionality... try it and put in appropiate keywords like "subfloor", "underlayment", "remove flooring" etc... you'l find a wealth of problems/advice about your subject and (at least) know your not in it alone :--).

I know this will help.

Dave T

Thanks Dave and Gary!

Wow, I come home and have responses already!

I am not supprised by the response, just trying to avoid more demolition. Unless there is an additional, last minute, compelling response I will tear out the old, fix things up, lay a sheet of 1/2 and go from there as you suggested Gary.

I may be back with questions on finishing the floor but the other posts I read and my experiance with preparing floors for tile and such in the past should hold me for awhile.

Thanks again,

Loren

So Loren, Why doug fir? Get a deal on it did you. Or just like the looks? Trying to retain the integrity of the original architecture? Just curious! I have laid some verticle grain fir and refinished it too. Decent looking but soft for a floor. Expect mucho dents!

Gary,

All of those things. I am fixing this up for resale. It was a repo in a fairly upscale area of older homes. I try to use recycled, greener materials when I can. This is a bedroom so the damage is lessened. The cost was 1.56 a sq ft. They are 3'-5' shorts but pretty nice stuff with a knot hear and there. I will use a amber tinted finish to get a bit of that original finish look. The heavy use areas on the first floor are all oak but the bedrooms on the first floor are fir as well and not in bad shape. This seems to be pretty much the norm for the early 1900s in this area. Older houses often have top nailed fir strips or fir planks, some painted. Lots of dents and such but the houses remain in demand. The fir takes a bit of a soft hand when sanding and some care with nailing but ends up pretty nice.

The old fir seems to be considerable tougher than the fast grown new stuff. The guy that owned the house last, striped all of the paint off the trim on the outside of the house and left it that way for 10 years. The weathering was minimal and I was able to save all of it except for a few pieces here and there around window frames. I'm sure that the new stuff would not hold up as long in our damp winters.

Honed counter tops, a big return to linoleum and cork, lime plasters and plaster veneers, recycled wood, matt and stained contrete floors (contemporary houses), natural slate, etc. are a big deal for many in the Northwest.

I will admit that I fall into that catagory to some considerable degree. It must come with the soft webbed feet from the rain and light sensitivity from the lack of sun so some don't like things that are shiny.

Thanks again for the input. I will drag out the crow bar and get busy later today.

Loren