Help!no sub floor under hard wood

dustbunnydiva

My old house was built in 1930, not quite as old as the one you are dealing with. It was a nice little bungalow that had some craftsman type features but a pretty basic house.

It was all plaster, wood floors like you described with oak in the main areas and all the houses in the area were similar. None had insulation except in the roofs so a lot of people either had it blown in (little holes made in the exterior) or added more when the took outer walls down. Some plaster just wasn't good enough to keep.

In my house I left it as I didn't find it cold at all and I could fix the plaster that had problems using those screws and tape and filler I mentioned in another post. The biggest problem was taking off old wallpaper, lifting old flooring, and basically getting the house back to where it started. I lifted the vinyl but left the sheet lino down and just covered it (where my neighbour removed hers altogether). Pulling up old vinyl tiles in my house was a nightmare until someone told me to get an old iron out and heat them up as I went. They came off like butter then.

Almost everyone I knew who removed wallpaper had to deal with plaster issues. It seemed the paper was holding the walls together in some cases. I repaired as mine could be saved, other people just knocked it down and put up drywall instead. I think a lot depended on the conditions and the skill level/pocketbook of the owner.

I didn't have to do any stripping as whoever had lived in that house had never painted the wood (the main reason I bought that house over others) so didn't have to deal with that or the worry of lead. All wood was finished with shellac at the time so I learned to use that to fix any dings in the wood and have come to love shellac and the way it looks. It's way easier to use that to fix wood than to strip and refinish that old wood if you have original wood showing. Of course it really depends on what previous owners have done.

I didn't do much kitchen reno like some (who gutted and replaced). I did more facelift type things like pulling up the old formic and getting copper, adding trim to the old wood cabinets and painting them to look distressed. After a while I just adopted an attitude of not making things look new, just adding more character really and I liked it that way. More true to the era of the house and cheaper for me to tackle.

What I can tell you is it is good to talk to your neighbours as many have probably already tackled some things you may run into. Also take trips to the library and hunt down the books particularly if they deal with Canada or northern climates. Those books that talk about Calif. type houses are often not very helpful as warm climate homes were built differently.

I can't think of much else specific. There were so many little jobs and things that had to be done. Ask away if you think of anything because there are others who have taken on old houses and can offer up tips and tricks.

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dustbunnydiva

Is that is the floor and it could well be fir rather than a hardwood. It sounds just like the 'subfloor' in my old house. It had lino in some places, oak in LR/dR, and the fir everywhere else.

That said, one of the neighbours was having her oak redone and decided to pull up the old lino in the kitchen (she had it tested and no aspestos). The flooring guys thought she was a little nuts, but she had them refinish those old fir boards. That floor is stunning. Even the flooring guys were impressed when they finished. It's the hit of her house.

So, see what you can do about that old tile if you want to use the original floor. If it is fir, it will be much softer wood than oak which means more coatings of varathane. Otherwise you can use it as a subfloor and add some new flooring.

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