What would you do for this wood floor - repair, replace or leave as is (pics)

[commesi]

I am, as I have now discovered, completely clueless about a lot of home improvement matters.

I bought this beautiful victorian terrace flat. It has wooden flooring in the bedrooms. I can't seem to figure what should I do - are they in need of repair or do they need to be replaced. The latter is not a pleasing idea as if I replace I would have to go for engineered wood (due to costs). Might take away the aesthetics as the wood floor definitely gives an old charm to this place.

What would you do with this flooring. It has some gaps, darkening near windows (I suspect water damage) and some cracked boards that also move. Should I just leave it as is?

I love that floor. It would be sacrilege to replace it with engineered wood.

I don't think that looks bad at all - loads of character. Congrats on your new flat :)

The 'darkening' near the windows might not be damp.

Back in the days when there was no wall to wall carpeting, large rugs were used to cover the floors and the outside to the skirting board was painted, usually black.

You might well be looking at the remnants of the paint.

It looks lovely! Don’t replace with engineered wood – soulless and expensive, plus an absolute bugger if you spring a leak. Just screw or nail down the boards that move.

Thank you for the replies! Glad to hear it looks good as is.
Thanks Gingernaut for that info. I think you are probably right. It is only near the windows and no apparent damp on the walls.

What do you think are those nail like marks? Like in pic 3. They are actually all over.

Those floorboards are lovely, I don't see what the issue is! At least not from the photos.
What PP said about darkened sections on outside, I've seen that before as well.
However if you wanted im sure you could get them sanded down. Someone i know had this done in her lounge and they looks great. It was expensive but no more expensive than new flooring and the end result was beautiful floorboards.

I’m no expert but you don’t ‘replace’ original floor boards with engineered wood. You either restore them - fill, sand, varnish etc, or if you don’t like them or they’re not in good nick you put something else on top such as carpet. Or engineered wood but I personally wouldn’t like that upstairs

I understand - thinking of doing it for the wooden floors in my 1930s house (which are suspended so a bit more tricky) - that rope can be fitted into the gaps then sealed if there is a draught.

Get some cork to put between the gaps.
We did that to close the big gaps up and I just wash the floor occasionally with a bucket of tea.

I do agree. It would be sacrilege to replace these floors. Looks like general consensus is the floor is fine as is. It feels great to hear that I think because of other mounting costs of repair.

I like the idea of washing it with tea. I will have look into that definitely.

Those holes look like woodworm/borer. Not uncommon in old floors and doesn’t mean the infestation is active.

The floor may have been previously restored.

Those nail marks may well have come from another part of another floor, where something (possibly the base for a partition wall) was nailed down.

The holes are too regular for any kind of insect infestation.

The floors look fine to me. If some boards move they probably just need screwing down into the joist again.