Help with floorboards in Edwardian house

[010lowernuggate]

New house, ripped the carpet up and was expected to find floorboards but no idea where to start ? Chat gpt tells me they’re pine ?
Obviously they need a good clean, sand and oil/wax? I don’t want them to be orange though

Your post isn’t clear. What help are you looking for?

Oh, how to restore them !

This takes me back to our first house in the 90s.
Ground floor or first floor? If ground floor you will miss the insulation and draught proofing of carpets, just bear in mind. Unless you have cellar and can insulate underneath.
Basically you need to fill gaps, sand and apply protective finish. Hard wax oil like Osmo Polyx oil for floors, for example. You can get it with a slight tint to counteract the orange. But actually the natural colour of 100 year old red pine is quite beautiful.
It's quite a big job, if you are not experienced at DIY there are companies that do it for you. It makes epic amounts of dust and noise.

Don't try to DIY it. I have done lots of DIY and sanding floors is really hard work and you will get a much much better finish form having someone else do it. I also totally agree about having a very cold house if you leave bare floor on the ground floor.

Get the professionals in; they have sanders with a built in filter so almost zero dust. Quite incredible. Make sure gaps are filled to prevent draughts. The house will be noisier afterwards (carpets dampen noise transfer).

I was already thinking I think it might be too big of a job for us !! Worried about cold though, the house is 110 years old so already cold… dh does want to insulate under the floors

we self sanded the floor in our 1930 house upstairs room. it wasn't a massive job and we self sealed it with a special varnish. they look good!

however, they aren't really designed to be flooring so they do dent quite easily. plus its quite noisey with my DD playing on it.

we did it because we couldn't afford a carpet at the time and it does look nice.

carpet is much warmer and sound insulating too.

Parents had professionals in to do our old family home. Large 1930s house. They mixed some of the sawdust in with some type of glue/filler to fill any gaps and they were then varnished. They looked nice and were a honey colour. I’d definitely go with a professional if you’re doing it though.

The only thing I hated when I use to visit was the noise and echo as people walked around. It did have very large rooms and it sounded like the floors were hollow below the boards so maybe that was it. We had a house with parquet flooring and it never echoed like my parents house but think it was a solid concrete floor underneath.

Sealing and insulating will cause damp.
your house was built in a different era to how they are now.

lightly sand where really necessary, don’t use a machine as this will weaken the boards. Use osmo oil or similar. Do not seal them, do not over sand.

your house will be warmer like this + a rug. Airflow keeps the warmth in, insulating under the floor won’t allow airflow, will trap moisture and cause damp and cold issues.