1956 Hardwood Flooring

[JPalmer]

So... on a total whim, the g/f and I decided that because there was no real reason not to... we pulled up the carpet in the hallway to reveal the hardwood floors in our 1956 home.

It was a lot of stooping and pulling... but we were pleasantly surprised and confirmed our thoughts that the carpet had been on the hall floor for a very long time. The wood was in remarkable shape. Now, it probably could use a light sanding and refinishing, but all of the wood looks good and tight and evenly flat.

Now... the carpet is a pleasing if not boring light tan kinda color.

[vfrjeremy]

Being a '56, I'd bet there's hardwood under everything with the exception of the bathrooms and possibly kitchen. We just pulled all the carpet out of a '54 house and refinished the wood. Looks great. You're lucky you don't have thousands of staples holding down the carpet pad. We spent HOURS pulling all the staples out.

[toverman]

Awesome!

My life would have been easier had our house (1964) had hardwood under the nasty carpet. There were asbestos tiles (think crummy schoolhouse). Now there is wood and new carpet in the living room. Lots of work either way I guess!

[Corrie]

So jealous. I live in suburbia so when I do my floors I get to find reclaimed wood that isn't $3847689456 a sq ft.

I am from Wichita falls btw.

[JPalmer]

Originally Posted by toverman

Awesome!
There were asbestos tiles (think crummy schoolhouse).

Oh snap... I'm almost positive that is what's under one of the rooms. From the carpet pulling at the walls, we've got the same hardwoods in the huge living room, hall, master bedroom for sure. One of the other bedrooms may have it as well, hard to tell because they laid a plyboard with a wicked chicklet style linoleum in two bedrooms (then put carpet on top of the linoleum).

But one of the bedrooms had this grey-esque tile level with the hardwoods in the hallway... I didn't even think about it being asbestos.

[toverman]

My house had asbestos tiles almost wall-to-wall, except up the stairs and in the room over the garage was green shag. I ripped up the carpet off the stairs, cut and stained oak treads and put beadboard-looking risers on the stairs ... what a difference!

[studiocygnet]

Nice floors. I actually like the look of them old, if they are clean. I can't wait for the oak I put in our bedrooms to start gaining a patina.

[JPalmer]

We've still got to give them a good cleaning and conditioning... but they are in remarkable shape considering. The hallway was the one place I was most concerned about wear, and there is wearing... but nothing too bad.

[Tim-in-TX]

I love mid century homes. The wife and I are looking for a house right now and would love to stumble onto a nice MC home. And finding a prize like original hardwoods like you did would just be the icing on the cake!

[Kohnfoto]

Love old wood floors. They are going to look so nice when you get them cleaned up.

[L Stegall]

We had the original 1916 heart of pine floors in our downstairs when we moved in 6 years ago and they were gorgeous. One large dog later, not so much. :-(

[FleurdeLisArts]

Originally Posted by JPalmer

they laid a plyboard with a wicked chicklet style linoleum in two bedrooms (then put carpet on top of the linoleum).

But one of the bedrooms had this grey-esque tile level with the hardwoods in the hallway... I didn't even think about it being asbestos.

Here is the horror that we were faced with in one of the living area's. We had an awesome chicklet style linoleum also!! It looked like little bits of Capice Shell...way cool....
but under it was the iky green asbestos tile...
and under the asbestos tile was the black tar that only came up after loosing an ENORMOUS amount of brain cells using Xylene and 25 boxes of disposable rags...(dont bother trying to scrape it! It gets airborne really quick and thats v. bad! But make sure you have LOTS of good ventilation before you start on Xylene. )

That took us to the (actually intact in this room) concrete slab!

The good news is that our concrete is in a good enough condition to be stained. The bad news is...if you want to lay hardwoods over ANYTHING that has/had asbestos tile...you gotta get up the glue and get down to bare concrete. Otherwise they tell you to just lay hardwoods ON TOP of the asbestos tile..
like I want that crap in my subflooring?!?

Anyway good luck!
B

[JPalmer]

Ugh... that looks like something from my future for sure.

Here is the transition from the hall to the small 3rd bedroom... the paint line is where they painted the bedroom door. It's like that on several spots along the wall. I guess they didn't invent painters tape and plastic sheets until the 1980s



Here is a more detailed shot.



It will probably be a bit of an ordeal to get that all done. The good thing is that it's wood subfloor and not concrete slab. Maybe the tar will come up a bit easier. It was pretty easy to break the small piece that I did off and even pull up the tar. We'll see...

For now I'll just try and think about the positives.

[toverman]

Hey Bonnie, that scene looks familiar!

If you wanted to get down to bare concrete, that's about the only way to do it. But there are two other options, one you mentioned (putting new flooring over the asbestos tile, which I've been told is "safe" and works well as long as there aren't any loose tiles to shift).

The other option, which I used because I put replaced the tiles with vinyl (seamless sheet of it) is to use a concrete-like substance called a "skim coating." You mix it up and put a thin layer on top of the tar. When it dries, the surface is clean, nonporous and level enough for the glue to adhere for the vinyl. Carpet is easier, just lay it on top.

[Dobick]

The chemical that I have found that works best for removing old tile and glue from flooring, is diet coca cola. Peel all the tile up, and then just come in with a few two liter bottles of the stuff and pour it on generously. It turns the glue to a nice easily scrapped up goo. Just use a large bladed putty knife.