Painted Edwardian pine floorboards?

[JBean]

All the upstairs rooms in our 1905 house have pine floorboards. They look old (to my untutored eye) and I hope may be original to the house. They show no signs of having been stained or painted and I had assumed had always been that way.


But we have just lifted some modern tiles in the bathroom and found the same boards, which have clearly been painted red at some point.


So we'd welcome advice. Do people think that all the boards would have been painted originally? And if so, any advice on products and colours to use - or avoid?

Thanks.

 

[MatthewC]

Those bare boards are lovely so please don't paint them. I would guess that the paint on the boards in your bathroom was just an acknowledgement of the potentially damp environment, given that there was a limited choice of ways of protecting them "in those days". In my 150 year old house, I had to completely replace the boards in my bathroom which were not the originals anyway, so I think yours have done well to survive.

 

[bennoa1]

I'd replace any damaged boards (with reclaimed like for like), lightly sand them and then put some danish oil on. When I lifted out lino covered chipboard the original pine boards were there and they were black. Even got the old oak boards underneath the pine one which I guess are well over 200 years old and about 8 inches wide.

 

[plasticpigeon]

How wide are the boards in the top picture? The look in good condition. Is there any dark stain around the edge, as if there was a big rug and only the outside was stained as only that would have been on show?

For practicality the bathroom floor really needs a covering. Gaps in a bathroom floor are not ideal. If you want to be really restoration minded perhaps you could repair the floor and put a lino or vinyl over the top. That way the floor level in the bathroom will be the same as in the landing. I find floors of different heights in different rooms due to tiles or overboarding a bit annoying.

 

[JBean]

Thanks for the replies.

The boards are 6.5 inches wide, and many of the them are 120 inches or more long. There is no sign at all that I can see of any previous staining or painting, even round the edges.

The red-painted ones are in a room that is now an ensuite, but I guess it was a box room or nursery originally. Actually, the floor in there is in a much worse state than appears in my photo - there is lots of modern pine patched (badly) in. So we are going to leave the floor as it is and put board and tiles on the top (so someone else may one day restore it), and just accept the slight step up. I am not keen on vinyl, for its bad environmental impact.

 

[JBean]

Perhaps to be clearer, we have decided on tiles for the bathroom, but I'd still welcome advice on the other rooms upstairs, where the boards will definitely remain on show. I like the sound of a light sanding and Danish oil, but it would be good to know if they would be more authentic painted or stained (especially as hubby would like to paint them!).

 

[mims&pip]

Hi JBean,

Our house - built 1853, but extended in 1924 - was revealed to have some painted (not stained - some were actually quite light, beige-y, in colour!) floorboards when we removed the disgusting, stinky carpets, though I should add that these were predominantly in the upper rooms of the 1920s addition (the main ground floor rooms having parquet), so I can't be certain exactly when the painting dates from. I should add though that the house had not been touched, decoration-wise, for some years and my guess is that the painting was from the 1920s or shortly thereafter.

As we are planning to sell soon we took the decision to repaint rather than strip. We have quite a few rugs and the rooms we have completed so far look great. In previous period houses we stripped and oiled the old boards......

Mims x

 

[MikeG]

Just a quick word about Danish oil. There are many superior products available which I would use instead of Danish oil. This stuff has a very high "solids" content, and indeed is thought of by many woodworkers as a thinned varnish. It doesn't all soak in like most oils, and the build-up on the surface yellows dramatically over time. "Stale urine" is not what you'd ever find it called on a colour chart, but is about the best description of the colour of Danish oil after a year or two. As an alternative, I would suggest Osmo PolyX, but it isn't cheap.

 

[JBean]

Thanks to you both for the further advice. I have found a local floor maker who is going to do the work, including filling the gaps between the boards with sawdust and glue, which he says will be dark, and so appear to be gaps. I'll ask him about using the product you recommend.