Reclaimed floorboards

[Rhubarbgarden]

Has anyone put these in? Just looking at a Victorian house that has had laminate floors and plastic windows put in. The windows are easily replaced with wooden box sashes, but can the floors ever be made attractive? Reclaimed floorboards from architectural salvage could be an answer but does it work?

I have used reclaimed floorboards from a reclamation yard to patch an existing floor - DP and I are in the process of taking the carpets up in our Victorian terrace and sanding and restoring the boards. We have done three rooms so far and have been lucky that the boards are in pretty good condition. There have been some boards that were a bit damaged and some that had been replaced with modern boards that didn't match. It was really simple to take a sample of the board to the reclamation yard and buy boards to match. Now they ate down you cannot tell that they are not original.

Do you know what is under the laminate? If you are lucky there may be some original boards, but if not, I don't see why you couldn't do a whole room.

Thanks. That's encouraging. No idea what's underneath, we could be lucky but I suspect everything has been ripped out. The house is a bit of a blank canvass because it's been a bit over-renovated (in my opinion) so it needs some charm and character adding.

We are going to view it with the vendor there at the weekend so I might try asking what's underneath, if I can think of a subtle way of doing it that doesn't offend!

I have to say though that sanding and restoring original boards is one of the messiest and most backbreaking tasks you can do. DP and I said that we would never do it again after doing the living room and dining room. We would definitely get someone in to do it, no question. We are still saying the same thing after doing the second bedroom, and will probably say the same after we have done the main bedroom too!

However, it is hugely satisfying to do, and looks really good, so it well worth doing.

The people who renovated our house used reclaimed cherry wood parquet for the kitchen/diner, and although it's slightly tired now (10 years later and with almost no upkeep from us ) it looks great. We're now contemplating an extension which will involve replacing a lot of floor in our house - although not the existing parquet - and I'm tempted to go down that road again. Am nervous of having a characterful period house and stripping all that away by putting very 'new' wood flooring down. Having said that, I'd be nervous about buying a job lot without an expert casting their eye over it - previous owners here were an architect/builder combo so they had it all sussed!

Thanks lady. Parquet is a good idea.