Reinstating wood floors

[ilovechops]

We are moving later this year and the house we are buying has average ish carpets at present. They're in perfectly OK condition but I am toying with the idea of ripping them up and exposing / reinstating the old wood flooring (which the vendor tells me is there). Does anyone know how much it would cost to do this in an average size lounge (to start with!)? I would consider doing it myself but have a 2yr DD and am not sure it's feasible with her in the house so looking at options of paying for help too.

Thanks

It really depends what needs doing. Our dining room floor was reinstated. It is oak but some sections were beyond repair so they were replaced and "aged" to match the rest of the floor. The floor was sanded and then sealed. It was ages ago and part of a much bigger job so cost somewhat hazy in my mind and irrelevant! If the floor is in very poor condition, then obviously the cost is more as you need to replace the wood. You might find there are big gaps between the boards too or it can be very knotty if it is pine. Take a good, critical look at it before you start because not every wooden floor can be brought up to a good standard. Staining, for example, might be hard to remove.
If you hire a sander it is dusty and noisy. I would consider getting someone to sand it, but seal it yourself.

I know someone who has just bought a house with the intention of doing this. They lifted the carpet to reveal that they were all painted with lead based paint and have had to move out for two weeks while a professional firm stripped the floors.

I've also done a whole house myself with DH. It's very noisy, dusty and timeconsuming. The results were good but we didn't lift up the downstairs floorboards and lay insulation underneath which was a big mistake. We didn't have the skills to do it to be fair, but it made the house very very cold. Second time around, we've laid insulation and just put hardwood on top. Got a good deal on the wood and the cost in terms of time and effort has been worth it. I'd never have wooden floors on a stairs and bedrooms again, just too noisy and cold with small children.

Yes we are thinking to do it in the lounge and dining room (kitchen already done) and leave stairs and bedrooms as I do think it could be a cold house. I think I'll look into replacing the wood completely and get a quote before we decide to tackle it ourselves!

If memory serves [so I caveat this whole post by saying that I did this 10 yrs ago] the sander seems relatively cheap to hire, but you have to change the discs quite frequently especially if it's a victorian house and the old floor boards have a black border painted on. That stuff clogs up the sanding discs really quickly - it's a sod to take off.
www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20556

The cost of floor varnish - Ronseal in particular was ludicrous circa 50 a pot. Once we got the colour we wanted we moved onto Wickes clear varnish and in total had about 8 coats. It still looked perfect when we moved out 5 yrs later so it's worth doing a lot of varnishing while the rooms are empty as it's a sod to do with dust and furniture later.

Filling between the cracks is tedious - a professional if they are insulating under the floor will simply relay the floor as tightly together as they can make it [floorboards shrink over time] so there is very little filling to do.

All in all - we only saved ourselves the cost of the labour. Didn't have the cash at the time and needed to get them done by a certain date so no choice but to do it ourselves, but it became apparent as soon as winter came in that it might have been a good idea to consult with professionals, get quotes and see if they would do a superior job.

For my money - keep the carpets (clean if necessary) until you have the cash for professionals to strip them back or lay hardwood on top of. Get them to do the hard work and do the staining and varnishing yourself so you can get as many coats done as possible with a quality product that will last. Or wax which I don't know anything about other than they will water stain which is a pain.