hardwood floor?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

cruiserwanted

cruiserwanted

Joined
May 11, 2003
Threads
34
Messages
338
Location
Elmwood, WI
I have been thinking about laying down laminate flooring in my kitchen. The other night I went down to the crawl space and through the cracks of the 12 x 4's could see about 2 1/2 wood planks running the other direction. After moving my stove and pulling up the floor discoved the following. linoleum, partical board sup floor, wood planking 2 1/2 long. Looked gray. My question is was this common back in the late 70's early 80's to cover up the hardwood with partical board to lay linoleum. Is this hardwood or another sub-floor? Why didn't they lay the linoleum right on top or the hardwood. If this truely is hardwood I have a big project ahead of me. Rip out the cabinets, rip out the linoleum, rip out the sup floor, rent a sander and refinish the hardwood. Thanks guys for all your help with this. Feel dumb having to ask this question but do not understand why you would cover up hardwood with partical board subfloor? Also do not want to rip everything out only to find out that there is a reason I should not have done this......

:cheers:
 
More common is a 1/4" luan to keep nailheads from poking through the linoleum, the particle board might have been a substitute.

IF there is real hardwood under there it might be worth going after but what I learned while working on a 50's house was the labor might be better spent covering instead of re-finishing.
 
First, it's probably not linoleum (that's actually oil-soaked paper flooring, popular until the 1930s or so), it's probably a vinyl or composite floor. Second, vinyl or composite floors, over time, reveal EVERY DETAIL of what's underneath them--nail heads, uneven boards, etc--so it's best to put down something super-smooth first, like particle board or luaun.

I don't like wood floors in kitchens--they take a real beating, constant getting wet, etc.--but that's just me. In the rest of the house, we actually went down to the spruce subfloor and sanded that down (oy, talk about work--nail heads pooched a drum sander, luckily it was the guys we hired that did that to their own machine).

If it's hardwood, why not refinish a sample section and see what you think? If it's not hardwood, I'd say cover it up with a nice tile and be done with it--a softwood floor in the kitchen is gonna get reall rough.
 
Deep South Cruisers said:
More common is a 1/4" luan to keep nailheads from poking through the linoleum, the particle board might have been a substitute.

IF there is real hardwood under there it might be worth going after but what I learned while working on a 50's house was the labor might be better spent covering instead of re-finishing.
Click to expand...


WORD.

My house was originally built in the late 1870's, and saw many chnages over the years. Must have been a lineoleum craze in the 70's or something. On a porch, I had asbestos based lineoleum over oak flooring. WTF were people thinking? Same thing in the kitchen, but it went something like this - lineoleum - some type of particle board stuff - old pine planks. It was just too much time, money, and effort to remove the layers in the kitchen. So we put another layer of wood over all of that.
 
You might not have to tear out the cabnets if they are original. The floor guys might have laid the other flooring over the hardwood but not under the cabnets. Pull the molding under the cabnets to see if the lenolium goes to teh wall.
 
I doubt that if the house was built in the late 1970's-early 80's that is is hardwood under the linolium, just not something that was done at the time, at least around here.

now if it was built in 50's, it might be
 
The 50's house I worked on was my grandfather's, the framing was 2' centers and all the wood is dimensional (2x4=2"x4") apparantely there was no plywood back in the day because all the sub-floor is 2x8 on a 45 degree angle and the side walls are 2x8's stacked :eek: talk about stout.

I thought I could save the original pine floors so I tore out Congoleum + 1/2" plywood subfloor + 12x12 asphalt tiles + roofing felt only to recover 1/2 the house with plywood subfloor due to damage and non-removeable tar paper.
 
Don't do it...It's a world of work and headache that you don't want any part of...We refinished the floors on our old house...same situation...I ended up just putting tile over the top in the kitchen and halls...much easier and way more durable...
 
pimp--House was built in the 20's.

Thanks guys for all your responses. My floor sloops badly so have to take care of that problem also. Thought if I pulled it all up maybe could figure out what is going on and maybe re-finish the hardwood floor but you are making me reconsider. Maybe use a floor jack or some of that pour leveler that you can get a menards and lay laminate and be done with it. Slooping floor sucks though but that is what you usually have with an 80 year old house.

:cheers:
 
might be car decking.

would have sworn you say 70-80's though ;)
 
i wouldn't do wood or laminate in any area where you have water (kitchen, baths, water heater closet). you will be asking for trouble once you have a plumbing leak....and you will one day have a plumbing leak. everyone does.
 
Oh yeah, forgot about the tar paper that under mine....

:mad: :mad:
 
without reading all the other posts, the underlayment was put down to give you a nice smooth flat surface for the linoleum. In a kitchen, I would tile it. Depending on what is on the bottom layer of that floor, I would overlay the floor with underlayment then put down backerboard and tile it. Might be able to skip the underlayment if the floor is in good shape. You could even spread a floor leveler on the backerboard or do it with morter if it's not to severe. The underlayment could help, or you could shim bad spots prior to installing the underlayment.

I wouldn't start by planning on jacking up any part of the house, your just asking for other problems. Find out what made the floor slope in the first place. Odds are it's water damage and rot. Might be able to correct it by shifting/doubling up/replacing a couple of floor joists. If the house is old, the footings (or lack thereof) are probably the problem.

I would seriously consider tile. It's gonna wear better, especially in a kitchen. It's also very easy to match up to existing flooring.

Post up some pics so we can see what your up against.
 
fj40crusher-do not have a digital camera.... :crybaby: no pics.

These are all great replies thank you. I guess no demo for me. :banana:


:cheers:
 
Deep South Cruisers said:
The 50's house I worked on was my grandfather's, the framing was 2' centers and all the wood is dimensional (2x4=2"x4") apparantely there was no plywood back in the day because all the sub-floor is 2x8 on a 45 degree angle and the side walls are 2x8's stacked :eek: talk about stout.

I thought I could save the original pine floors so I tore out Congoleum + 1/2" plywood subfloor + 12x12 asphalt tiles + roofing felt only to recover 1/2 the house with plywood subfloor due to damage and non-removeable tar paper.
Click to expand...


Actually plywood has been around since the pyramids. Was used in sarcoficas construction believe it or not. Commercially produced within the last 100yrs, buts its been around a longggg time.
 
My kitchen has hardwood floors that were present when I bought the house. It looks fine, but is a terrible idea. I will likely at some point tear it up and put tile.
 
They use to use 1x6 tongue and groove yellow pine for sub flooring. You should be able to see the knots in it from the underside.

Not really meant to be finished.


Kevin
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom