Me: Hello Mr. Floor Refinisher, I'd like to get a price on refinishing these floors.
Mr. Floor Refinisher: Which floors?
Me: The pine in the living room, the maple in the foyer and the oak in the dining room.
Mr. Floor Refinisher: I see you've revealed some pine under the foyer floor.
Me: Yes. I can't decide whether to go down as far as the pine. It's a dilemma.
Mr. Floor Refinisher: Well if you do, you might as well go down to the pine in the dining room too.
Me: Huh??!!!!
And that is where this particular story began. An innocent enough call to a local floor refinisher which subsequently had me Googling DIY recipes for Ativan.
I'd asked him to give me a price on sanding the 3 different floors on the main floor of my house. You may remember (because it was only a week ago), I discovered an original pine floor under the maple floor which was under a new pine floor in my foyer. You can read about that fiasco here.
When Mr. Floor Refinisher walked around my house inspecting the floors to see how they'd react to another sanding he squatted down in the dining room and declared the oak flooring had probably been sanded by a DIYer because it was uneven and had sanding marks all over it.
He told me the oak in the dining room *might* not be able to be sanded again. It was already very close to the level of the tongue and groove. He could try to sand it but because it was so thin, the wood might splinter and break apart.
That's when he pulled out my heat register, looked inside it and said that pine was running under the dining room too.
Oh shit.
Ohshitohshitohshitohshit.
Why would he tell me that? I mean why would he say out loud, ever so casually that "there's pine under those floors"?
This poor guy obviously had no idea the meltdown that sentence would lead to.
Mr. Floor Refinisher: So, I'm not sure I'd recommend the pine either because it ...
Would you like to save this stuff?
We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.
Me: WAIT. STOP, HOLD ON. SHUT UP AND STOP TALKING. THERE'S PINE UNDER **THIS** FLOOR???
Mr. Floor Refinisher: Well, yeah. I thought you'd know that.
Me: No. I did not know that. THAT IS NOT SOMETHING I KNEW.
Mr. Floor Refinisher: Are you O.K.? You're twitching. You weren't twitching when I walked in. Did your eyeball just fall out?? Listen, I'll get back to you with a price, I should be going ...
Me: STOP RIGHT THERE. O.K. Hold on. Don't you move. You're telling me there's pine under this floor like the pine in the foyer and the living room. How do you know that? I mean just because it's over there under the heat register doesn't mean it's through this whole room does it? This house is old, it's been added onto, things are wonky, there could be anything under this dining room floor.
Mr. Floor Refinisher: Well yeah, there's probably a lot of bugs under it.
Me: We need to rip some of this floor out. Now. Right now. I'm going to rip it out right now so you need to get out of my way. Do you think I can just smash it?? I'm going to just smash it. With an axe. There's an axe in the backyard. Can you Google if there's any way I can make my own Ativan?
Mr. Floor Refinisher: Yup. I'm sure your eyeball just fell out. That's it rolling under the dining room table right now. It has cat hair on it.
Me: Whatever. I need to rip this floor up now so - if you could just ...
Mr. Floor Refinisher: I can take up a piece if you like right now. Then we can see if it runs the whole length of the dining room.
Me: Do you want to use my axe?
Mr. Floor Refinisher: Thanks very kind of you to offer, but no, I have my own way.
Me: O.K. But I have an axe. It might be faster.
Mr. Floor Refinisher: Done. Take a look and see what you think.
And here I've sat for the past 4 days. Unmoving. Holding a piece of oak flooring, searching fruiltlessly for my hair covered eyeball under the dining room table.
Still no decision. But I'm leaning towards a simple mixture of aspirin, catnip and cough syrup.
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Andrew
Great post. Go with the pine!
Jacquie Gariano
It's never so simple as "I'll refinish the floor" It extends it self like magic. We wanted to replace the kitchen tile. Simple, yes?? NO.. the sub floor had to be replaced in 2 places and the floor needed new supports under the house to hold the weight of the tile. Then there was the kick boards to replace and a new spacer between the kitchen floor and the dining room floor to make them even. It was suppose to be done in 5 days.......a week and half later it was done. A great job in the end, thank you. OH yes, in the mean time the refer was in the dining room and the stove on the patio. A lot of take out was eaten.
We want to replace the kitchen counters and redo the cupboards........I think it will a little while yet.
Bonnie Gutierrez
One maple board singing to the pine" She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!" (John Lennon & Paul McCartney) Go, Karen, go!
Aimee Daddi
Your floors drama is so good! Keep us posted!
Joe
Karen I used to be a floor layer when we lived on the left coast (Esquimalt on Vancouver Island to be precise, lots of woodwork there) Tear up the floor because the worst thing that can happen is you would have to replace the whole floor with a new floor and today we can even distress, hand scrape etc. Maybe you would even have no squeaks1
Karen
Well if you can come and do that for free for me if need be my worries are over. ;) ~ karen!
Joe
If I could i would but, i have not done floor work for years. With your personality (simplicity and solid products) I just think with the options out there today you would love the headache free, great 1900's look option. Maybe not free but close to the refinishing costs associated with your present floor.
Have a lovely.
Kim
I’ve reconsidered. I think you should go with the pine. Because it’s everywhere now. And original. And I like original and matching. Our floor is fir. Which is also a softwood. But my wood guy (sounds dirty doesn’t it?) says the floor is basically like a hardwood now because after a hundred years that’s what happens to wood. And your wood is 200 years old. So probably durable as heck. Also I did a google image search on “200
year old pine floor” and I like what I see.
Basically actually. No. Wait. I have no opinion. That way I can’t be blamed.
ps. You’re as hilarious as usual. & sorry about the eye.
Karen
O.K., lol. Noted. ~ karen!
Tarra
Pine is soft. You don't hear people talking about softwood floors
Karen
Yes, lol. It's softer than oak or maple. But you also don't hear people who have a love for heritage homes in my area talk about oak floors. Pine is what old homes in Canada (and England) had as floors and that's what's coveted. Antique pine floors. 180 year old pine also isn't the same as new pine. It's from very old, slow growth pine, unlike what you'd find in modern times and is much harder. ~ karen!
Georgia Girl
Pls fwd DIY ativan recipe.
Shelley
You crack. E up. LOL
Sheri
Why would you tear out oak floors for pine? I have original pine floors. They are so soft and easily damaged.
Heather Grauman
Well he good thing about getting down to the first level is you might have 14 foot ceilings!
SusanR
Leave the oak and stop at the maple. Get a price for refinishing what you want refinished. Have them start on the oak. If it splits or frays, then you know you have to at least go down to the pine in that room. The sanders can work on the other floors as you tear up that one. As others have said, there's a reason the pine was covered up. People don't go to that expense just for the hell of it. They were covering up something they didn't think they could solve any other way.
I think your primary point of decision should involve the centipedes you probably don't want to find on your first floor when you turn on the light late at night. That could be a nightmare you let loose in your house by going down to the pine.
You've already got pine in other places that you like. Keep liking it where it is. Like the maple, which will look quite lovely once it's refinished. Be aware that the dining room might need a whole new floor, if the oak is so thin, now. At the very least, the pine under it might have to be painted, if it's in really bad condition with stains too deep to sand out.
Kim
I live in a 100 year old house and I can assure you people DO cover up things for perfectly no good reason. All sorts of crazy stuff happens over the years and half of it is for trends.
Stephanie Orasi-Fitzpatrick
Your eyeball might be a great Halloween accessory for this year!!! LOL!!! Rip up those floors and let's see the amazing pine! :)