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whit461

Help with new kitchen flooring

whit461
11 years ago

We are remodleing the kitchen and opening it up to the DR. I am planning on pulling up the old harwood floor in the kitchen and replacing it with new hardwood. Width is not the problem, I am worried about the thickness. Everywhere I read, new floor comes up to 3/4" thick. I measured this morning and our floors are 7/8" thick. Big difference. Is 3/4 really 7/8? Should I use a thinner floor and place some underlayment or sheething down to build it up? Help! I also posted in the flooring, but thought I might get better response here. Thanks.

Comments (4)

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    11 years ago

    Why are you doing that? Is the old unsalvagable? The new stuff has neither the thickness, quality or durability of old hardwood, and if I could salvage the old at all, I would.

  • whit461
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I agree with you, and when we can, we have restored windows, doors, trim, hardware, etc. But the old kitchen flooring needs too much work and I will have to find a lot of salvage pieces from closets that I don't think in the end will look right. The house is about 100 years old. "Public areas" downstairs are white oak, 2 1/4 t&g. The kitchen and upstairs were done with straight 3" planks, not t&g, or what I am told was pine. We are removing two walls and one built in and there is no finished flooring underneath those. There are three holes for registers in the floor that will be in the floor space oof the remodeled space, so they need to be relocated under the cabs. The remodel cabs will be in a U shape, and the back of the peninsula cabinets will be right at 16" back from a transition point with the DR. There are two spots where the sub floor is bad (previous owners) and the rework to the finished floor is beyond poor and needs to be redone. About 20 sqft of space. We would like the pathway between the DR and Kit to be "seamless", same with where the peninsula is. The old boards and the space just need a lot of work and the patching under walls will show.

  • Bunny
    11 years ago

    3/4" is really 6/8". So you've only got a 1/8" to build up. Seems there should be some underlayment that will do the trick.

  • whit461
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks for all the help. Over a bottle of Sav Blanc last night we decided to keep the old boards, take what we can from closets upstairs and hopefully under the existing cabinets and splice in where we need. 93 year old flooring. DW still wants all new for, but is happy with decision to keep.