To expose floorboards or not

[KDwasJ]

Hello

Absolute novice here, if you had these floorboards underneath a thick brown carpet in the lounge, would you pull the carpet up or keep it down?

Pull up carpet, sand and treat the boards

Do you like the way stripped boards look? I do and I think they will look fab sanded and sealed. Mine do and were in worse condition than that. I'd get a professional in though, it's a big job!
One thing to note is to make sure you get any future jobs done which might entail lifting floorboards sorted out before you get the floor sanded eg moving a radiator, installing electric points etc.

A couple of years agowe moved into a house where the previous owners had stripped and sealed the floorboards. They look great and we love the look.

I love floorboards but usually when people do this the are Victorian boards which are quite wide (like 25cm boards).

Hard to tell from the pic but are yours more modern and narrower? I have heard that modern boards don't come up as nice a colour. But you would probably just need to try a test area or get some advice from a professional

It is a very messy job which you could DIY if willing by hiring a floor sanding machine, but it will not be the most pleasant task. Very very messy and quite hard work.

You could do a little test area with a mouse sander if you have one, to get an idea of how it would look.

We stripped all our floorboards and I love how it looks. I think carpet is pretty grim to be honest, much easier to mop a floor and wash a rug (I think I'm scarred from the manky carpet in my gran's bathroom 🤣)

We sanded our whole house ourselves but it is not much fun so if you can afford it hire someone. I highly recommend osmo oil or something similar for treating it afterwards. If you varnish and wear through it then you have to sand again whereas osmo can just be reapplied on top.

Yes definitely use Osmo, miles better than anything else

Defintely do the floorboards, so much nicer than carpet.

Sorry but I love a cosy carpet ! So much warmer in winter.

Yes, assuming you are planning to sand and treat them.

I find wood floors with area rugs more attractive and sanitary.

Floorboards aren’t easy.
they let through a draught. Vermin can enter much more easily.
food crumbs can fall through cracks easier.
Depending on wood type they can scratch rather easily.
quite a few ‘cons’.

one major pro: they (mostly) look gorgeous.

We had floorboards in our old house, it's a messy job and I wouldn't recommend doing it yourself if you have kids as it gets everywhere and takes a long time.

Whilst it looked nice, I personally prefer carpet and enjoy my current carpet in our newer house. The floorboards were drafty and got mucky quickly. Mopping is fine but if you have gaps between boards you need to be careful. And I didn't like how hard underfoot it was everyday and carpet would feel much better for younger children.

I think it depends on your lifestyle really.

They will look gorgeous! But if you live anywhere remotely cold see if you can insulate underneath them or fill in the gaps properly, otherwise in the winter it will be freezing.

I removed all the carpets when I bought my 1930 terrace and restored the original floorboards and stairs.

I had a handyman fix a few issues with some of the boards and replace a couple.

I love having floorboards and rugs, much more hygienic and easier to clean that carpets...especially when you have pets.

I haven't noticed any issues with drafts or bugs!

Thanks so much everyone! We have exposed floorboards in the kitchen/diner, which we are getting sanded and varnished as I speak so I'm not sure I can afford to get the lounge done too just yet. May leave the carpet down for now and then just move the furniture back out further down the line once we're ready to sand and varnish it.

Also- do you get more spiders with exposed floorboards? :-/ this may sway my decision haha

I've been poking around in the hallway too and found these floorboards, look untouched- pull carpet up in here too!?

Oh definitely pull the carpet out here! They look great!
I'm not in the UK and the wall to wall carpets are not a thing here, everybody has exposed floorboards/parquet and perhaps rugs on top.

BTW do consider sanding now, it is an awfully messy job and it will be much harder once you have painted the wall and put furniture in place.

Those of you who have done this, does it make the house very noisy? I love the look of exposed floorboards but i have a 3yr old and a 4month old and we live in an end terace. I'm worried that we might upset our neighbours 😕

How do you get up the carpet tack edging things? Are they nailed down?

Lay new floating wood flooring, please.

@Footballwidow24 yes I would like to know this too!

@Papricat why do you say this? And which bit are you referring to, the first picture of the lounge or the one further down of the hallway?

Get something long and flat like a pallet knife or a scraper and lever them up from underneath. Careful, they ping...

With huge help from my brother I pulled up every manky carpet in my four floor Georgian house a few years ago including two stair carpets.
We then used an orbital hand sander and lightly sanded every single room and applied osmo oil. It was the most horrendous job, really messy and exhausting but wouldn't ever have carpets as have animals. So glad I did it, a quick hoover once a week if that and a mop when I remember. No worries about people wearing shoes. I have lovely jute rugs and can chop and change them as I choose.
I was thinking the other day I've been exposing floorboards for 30 years and have never had any carpets although have had limestone tiles laid where floorbards are no good, for exapmple on a kitchen

I sanded boards in an Edwardian house many years ago. I did find it quite spidery tbh and when I had a baby started to regret it - slippery and harder for learning to walk. So I ended up putting carpet down again.

We have exposed floorboards throughout our downstairs. They were like this when we bought the house and we LOVE them, although our long term plan is to re sand and oil as they are a bit worn in places. I love how easy they are to keep clean, and they’re lovely underfoot. We don’t find them draughty but they’re tongue and groove so no gaps, and they’re not particularly noisy as we have rugs down

What a beautiful hallway @Iceache ! I love the windows! And the floor is perfect too, of course.