kitchen sub floors construnction ???

[Powell]

My friend's house was built in the 1850's....yes I said EIGHTEEN fifties.....the pine flooring is the floor!

[RocketDog]

You guys with pine flooring especially the old old pine flooring do not know how lucky you are. I lived for a time on the East Coast and saw the Heartpine floors you're talking about. Absolutely gorgeous. When I came back home and my husband and I bought this house seven years ago, I actually had Heartpine shipped from New Hampshire all the way out here to Spokane so I could install it myself. Nothing out here is that old and what is old, is Douglasfir. Which is gorgeous too, but once you see old antique Heartpine, you never forget it.

[Liesje]

Originally Posted by Narny

There has to be something between the pine wood and the slab or whatever you have. If not wouldnt all the water from snow etc cause a LOT of problems?

??? I live in Michigan, so every home but trailers have basements. In the basement the floors are sealed concrete. Some areas do have another layer under the current floor but it's not "subfloor" like what people think of now, they are just wider slats that lay diagonally. There's no plywood or particle board. Even older homes only have these wider slats that are set right on the joists. You have to have a basement or at least a crawlspace or all your pipes will freeze.

My house is not as old as Powell's friend's, it's about 80 years old (pre WWII). I don't mind the look of the floors but they are not in good shape and seem pretty soft. I took this pic over the weekend, it's my back hallway where the dogs run in and out. It's wet because I cleaned the floors and then swiped them with Murphy's and with the sun on it you can see all the texture and wear. If/when we ever touch that hall it will probably become tile (the landing that's covered with the dog bed is already tile).


What I really like about my house are the plaster walls! The only dryall we have is part of the ceiling in the basement and the walls in my tiny bump-out den (ceiling is some sort of stained beadboard).

[RocketDog]

See, I love that scratched look. Maybe because I have three kids and I've always had a big dog, so I decided rather than fret over oak floors and every little scratch, I'd just go with something that looked good scratched. To me, over time, all the scratches blend together and just make a nice patina all over the floor. Of course my floor has a few hundred years to go to look like the ones I remember LOL

[Gharrissc]

I love the look of the old floors. Unfortunately around my area though they don't have them in a lot of the homes. The ones that do have them are not usually for sale.

[Liesje]

I don't really mind it either, you can only see it when it's wet and the light is on it, which is almost never since I clean my floors maybe twice a year! Although we have a few spots where there are actual grooves or chips which are annoying b/c of slivers. My Dyson vacuum actually pulled up a chip a few months ago, lol. The floors were like this when we moved in so it's nice not to have to fret about keeping them in "new" condition. What I also like is we don't have many creaks. That annoys me more than the wear!

[Sunflowers]

Originally Posted by Liesje

Hey at least it's not my kitchen! My floor *is* the subfloor! Our house is really old and according to my dad our floors are pine and that's all there is. Oh it has "character" all right but I don't know what we'll do when it's time to replace it. You can kind of see it in this pic.

I love a floor pic that has a GSD modeling in it

[shepherdmom]

Originally Posted by RocketDog

You guys with pine flooring especially the old old pine flooring do not know how lucky you are. I lived for a time on the East Coast and saw the Heartpine floors you're talking about. Absolutely gorgeous. When I came back home and my husband and I bought this house seven years ago, I actually had Heartpine shipped from New Hampshire all the way out here to Spokane so I could install it myself. Nothing out here is that old and what is old, is Douglasfir. Which is gorgeous too, but once you see old antique Heartpine, you never forget it.

I've got the old Douglas fir floor. We pulled up the old 70's shag carpets when we moved in to replace and found the floor. Its beautiful but freaking cold in the winter. Thinking about covering it up with carpet again.

[RocketDog]

Are those stained, shepherdmom? My cousin stained his. I 'bought shot him. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that orange color with that little bit of blond streak.

Why do you think they're cold? I love mine. So much easier to keep clean with all the snow, rain and mud.

[shepherdmom]

Originally Posted by RocketDog

Are those stained, shepherdmom? My cousin stained his. I 'bought shot him. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that orange color with that little bit of blond streak.

Why do you think they're cold? I love mine. So much easier to keep clean with all the snow, rain and mud.

Yes they are stained, cherrywood I think it was called. They are just cold to stand on and the rooms that have carpeting are so much warmer than the ones that don't. Also getting scratched up from dog toes and other things. I've never had wood floors before and I'm finding them kind of a pain. Carpet is easy. Vaccum every few days and use carpet cleaner every 6 months or so. The wood floors need to be vaccumed constantly or we get huge fur bunnies... and when you move furniture to vaccum and mop under it scratches floor. Even vaccum scratches floor if not careful.