Sunday, January 10, 2010

What's next with our floors?

We are facing the great floor puzzle.    We have pulled up carpets and vinyl by the tons and now we are actually getting to the wood floors.  Our house was not some fancy upper class house with hardwood oak or maple floors; in fact we have mix of redwood and more redwood floors.  We’ve found some nice tongue and groove floors in one bedroom and in the kitchen,  many of the other rooms having broad planked redwood subfloors that are now exposed.
The North coast of California, including Eureka, was a very isolated area with no rail service until well into the 20th century.  As a result of this isolation many of the houses had only softwood floors, mostly redwood, and very few original hardwood floors, or so we have been told.

Once we got to the redwood floors we called in the carpenters, floor restorers, and everyone with an opinion, to come up with a plan to deal with the floors.   The floor experts are pushing for new hardwood floors, while we would like to find some way to use the wide planked floors. 

We are looking for others who have had these redwoods floors to help make a decision about new hardwood, or trying to "finish" the redwood planks, cracks and all, or some other plan.
Here is one of the redwood plank floors -- 




3 comments:

  1. Look, even softwood can be varathaned and will look great. I did this some wide pine floors in
    the late 80s, and they still look good..

    You don't need hardwood.. Just sand and varathane.
    And enjoy!

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  2. A closer look would reveal that your wood floors look pretty! All it needs is a little cleaning and it would be prettier. But if you don't want these floors anymore, why not install a new one? =)

    -Kathy Carbone

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  3. Our redwood floor planks are unfinished. I am wondering what the original flooring on top was. I guess carpet was used for floor covering in 1888 here in Eureka. I am sealing the gaps and plan to sand it some to see how it looks under the the old grey patina.

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