I'm gradually working my way through my old house doing it up 
My attention has now been turned to doing the floors and the stairs. I have stripped off the years of paint and gunk on the stairs to reveal nice aged yellow pine wood ( although there is a discolouration where a runner was once installed on the stairs ). Whilst stripping the spindles, I noticed that some of them had been changed over the years, and didn't match ( in design ) to the others! So I decided to replace the entire set of spindles with new, which I have now stained. Now back to the floors...
When I lifted the carpets in the hallways ( the house is on two different levels front to back so there are four small hallways ), everything looked reasonably okay, so decided would prep the floors for sanding. Once this had been done decided that I would check the main downstairs room. Once I had lifted the carpet I discovered a right mess. Where a wall had been removed ( knocked though by a previous owner ), the floor had been filled in with concrete. Just to add to the fun it looks as though a chimney breast and hearth has also been removed and filled in with concrete. Also half the original floorboards have been replaced ( badly ) by ( I assume ) a manic plumber whom seem to have decided to cut and replace wherever it suited him!
So now I have a quandary. I can't really restore the current sub-floor in the room ( it's too far gone, honest! ), but if I lay a new floor I would want the rest of the (exposed ) flooring to match ( in the hallways and on the stairs ).
What would be the best thing to do here. Should I ply out the bad floor, and the (hallway on the same level ), then float the floor on this level whilst secret nailing it on the other levels? Then how do I get the stairs to match ( and where do I get the nosings from? )
Any help or advice would be useful.....
My attention has now been turned to doing the floors and the stairs. I have stripped off the years of paint and gunk on the stairs to reveal nice aged yellow pine wood ( although there is a discolouration where a runner was once installed on the stairs ). Whilst stripping the spindles, I noticed that some of them had been changed over the years, and didn't match ( in design ) to the others! So I decided to replace the entire set of spindles with new, which I have now stained. Now back to the floors...When I lifted the carpets in the hallways ( the house is on two different levels front to back so there are four small hallways ), everything looked reasonably okay, so decided would prep the floors for sanding. Once this had been done decided that I would check the main downstairs room. Once I had lifted the carpet I discovered a right mess. Where a wall had been removed ( knocked though by a previous owner ), the floor had been filled in with concrete. Just to add to the fun it looks as though a chimney breast and hearth has also been removed and filled in with concrete. Also half the original floorboards have been replaced ( badly ) by ( I assume ) a manic plumber whom seem to have decided to cut and replace wherever it suited him!
So now I have a quandary. I can't really restore the current sub-floor in the room ( it's too far gone, honest!
), but if I lay a new floor I would want the rest of the (exposed ) flooring to match ( in the hallways and on the stairs ).What would be the best thing to do here. Should I ply out the bad floor, and the (hallway on the same level ), then float the floor on this level whilst secret nailing it on the other levels? Then how do I get the stairs to match ( and where do I get the nosings from? )
Any help or advice would be useful.....
