In ripping up the floor in our circa 1900 home we found that the subfloor that was used when it was built was old pine planking. The tops of these planks are pretty dirty and rough but the bottoms of them have aged to a nice reddish color.
Maybe it’s silly of me, but I would like to use the bottom side of this subfloor as the finished floor in one of the rooms, but I have a couple of problems:
A: Sanded down, these end up being a lot lighter (except for the nail holes) than the reddish color described above…still, there’s more color to it than fresh pine. Which “tint” do you think would go best with cherry cabintry?
B: Since the planks are so uneven both in length and width, what would be the best system to put it down with?
I know this is probably a lot more work than just buying new flooring and putting it down, but I’m trying to keep as much “old” stuff in the place that I can. Any help would be appreciated.
Replies
Ok,
Cool job. Here is what I would do, I think you have a lot of options. If you like the underside its not uncommon to flip them, but another thought is that the process I am suggesting will take a lot more effort and you will probably get a similar result if you left the floor in place, sanded it, and finished it. That wont take care of gaps if they are a problem.
My thought about flipping...
If you dont have one, get a nailset (maybe #3), and pound any nails you can find through the boards. Lift the boards. If they are in strips the same width then number them. If they are all uneven, pair up close matches and rip them on a table saw to even up width by row. You can stagger different widths across the floor. The red surface will come back due to aging, and the sun. So the cabinet decision wont work. They will get more red overtime, but you could use a UV block to slow that down if you dont like it.
You can drop cut nails in the old nail holes or make new ones if you like the face nail look.
Get back to me if you are confused.
-zen