Turn over Victorian floorboards?

[MintyMintyMint]

The floorsanding man can't sand the sitting room floor in my old cottage. He says the blobs of black stuff that are all over the floorboards just melt and will ruin his expensive machine. He says it's bitumen.

The builder thought he could get the black stuff off with a grinder but it's the same problem; it just melts and spreads.

One solution is to paint the floor - but it would have to be black.

Alternatively the builder is suggesting he turns over all the floorboards (£350 labour cost)

I'd be grateful if anyone could tell me how feasible this is. Can you just turn them over?

Sounds like quite a good idea. If he is suggesting it then go for it.

Flipping them over might work, although I love the look of painted floorboards personally. Check this out for inspiration!

www.farrow-ball.com/floor-inspiration/content/fcp-content

We had the black stuff all around the rooms in our Victorian house and we tried to turn them over but they didn't come out that nice and we ended up carpeting. It was mainly as where nails had been there was a lot of damage from removing them. I would take one or two up and see?

I have done both your options. Hand sanding the black off before using the industrial sander all over works fine but is very labour intensive and uses up loads of sanding sheets - cant imagine anyone you pay doing it but quite easy to do yourself and I did whole house. Alternatively boards can be turned and re laid - I planed them first. There will be unused nail holes. I much prefer the effect of my unturned ones. Very easy maintenance with just a coat of wax. Cant imagine painted floors could have this durability but have never tried.

Thanks for the replies MNers So skischool and 00alwaysbusy you both flipped the floorboards but found they didn't look so good.

I'm glad I found that out. I'd have been disappointed if after spending £350 having them turned over the boards just didn't look right.

bass I love painted floors too but I'm trying to keep the floors all the same throughout the cottage as the rooms themselves aren't big.

I had a go today with first the hand sander then a special tar remover from halfords. It kind of liquefies the bitumen so that it spreads all over. It stinks, it's slow and messy but it is breaking it down and I'll save £££ - thanks again

Yes, we had this in our old house but the black layer was only around the edges of the rooms - ie they’d just gone around rugs in the middle!

We got it off by hand, prior to then going over the whole lot with a hired sander. It was hard work but you’d never have known the edges were any different, in the end. We stained the boards slightly darker anyway, and used matt varnish, and it looked great

Have a look at reclaimed floorboards on EBay or from a local salvage yard.