We specialize in historic renovations. We have sanded many painted floors. There is just so much beauty in old hardwood floors.

Expiring minds wish to know glo, I have had all 3, i have not noticed more damage to paint as opposed to stain or even non stained. It is all to do with finishing coat, no?

@havingfun, I should have specified *white* painted floors specifically, which look gorgeous but nearly impossible to keep clean and unscuffed...and that is with a relatively small family with one dog ;)

Thanks will avoid white then. Although if i could just get hubby to not wear shoes in house, might make a big difference. Eh, who am i kidding, 25 years, that is not going to happen.

Stain gives hardwood floors a timeless look. That's what we prefer.

You know, i have been on Houzz since around june, if i had a dime for every time the word timeless is used, especially inaccurately, i would be rich by now.

According to Merriam-Webster timeless means, "not restricted to a particular time or date." Other places define timeless as not going out of style. It was used quite correctly.

We have an old 1895 farmhouse, the floors upstairs (under HIDEOUS, vile old carpet) were original 'painted' around the edge with raw in the middle where they must have tacked lino or oil cloth down? We've gone with painting the floors in the service areas (don't go light! shows every cat hair, lint bit, shoe dirt, argh!) and family room but the original heart pine in the public rooms? No way we are painting those babies! We may sand and leave natural the oak floors upstairs in the bedrooms. I prefer no stain myself, just oil or wax.

ok, wendy, not restricted means that the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s this style was still in. but it was not. floors have not always been stained just like they were not always painted. I would say tile and stone, and plain wood are timeless. style of wood or tile is not timeless. All have restrictions. So, none can truly be called timeless. If everyone is running out to carpet or linoleum, or parquet it, then it is not acceptable at that time. I do understand definitions.

You have the right idea. I have recommended and sent my specialized subcontractor to refinish hundreds of sizes and species of aged hardwoods and it is always the best route to take if you are maintaining the original aesthetics of the house. I could recommend you a highly-skilled refinisher because this may not be a D.I.Y. task. Every remodel has unexpected "surprises". The older the building, the more "surprises". Please post the finished product. I can tell you that my own older brother refinished the 200 year old 8" plank wood flooring in his farmhouse and it is stunning and unique. Again, please post a picture of your finished floor! Thanks, Kelly@Division9Architectural.com (Interior Finishes Contractor- Flooring, Tiling & Trim)

kelly it is a poll?

Sorry, havingfun, but your last post makes absolutely no sense.

what, about it is a poll? or that people are always changing style so little truly fits timeless? Sorry, did i goof, i do not see where i did, but with brain burps anything is possible?

My thoughts about "timeless" are about picking a design that is not faddish to the point of being readily recognized and unacceptable later. I don't want avocado green, harvest gold, or Maime Eisenhower pink appliances. I do have a retro 1920's bathroom with black and white hexagonal tile flooring, subway tile on the wall, and a clawfoot tub. So the poll in this thread has to do with painted or stained flooring. It's just about preference. Most have agreed that each has its place, mostly depending on the quality of the wood. Few people want to paint a floor in great shape. Many would save a wood floor in poor condition by painting it. As a style that goes in and out of fashion preference, hardwood floor or carpet in the living room, that doesn't take away from wood's timelessness. It is always going to come back around as the floor of choice. I am 63. I am remodeling my house from top to bottom... for the last time. The entire upstairs will only be for company. I want it done in a timeless manner because when I croak there will be relatively little wear up there. I would hate to see someone feel they have to gut it due to a fad design when it's old but still in excellent condition.

wendy, i am glad that you are doing as you wish, it all sounds lovely. I just hear the word timeless so much. Have you seen the latest the timeless hated terazzo floors we had in FL are now having the glued down carpet and vinyl flooring ripped off and being refinished, because now they are timeless, but those things were there for 50 years and timeless. Actually terazzo does meet the timeless i believe, because it has been around for 1000s of years? but for 50 years at least it was not, it was considered shoddy, cheap, etc. I love stained wood floors, I also love painted, they both have had great runs at various times, but stain was not created in ancient times - tried looking, can not find a history. unlike subway, which was only in the subway for 10-20 years, how is that for a flash in the pan. I just think i have heard too much of this word on too many topics, where it just does not logically apply.

I agree with havingfun about terrazzo floors. My father built our house from the ground up in the 50s before I was old enough to start elementary school. Even at the age of five, I hated those terrazzo floors. They were as hard as rock because they are essentially rock, plus they are cold during the winter months. I don't even like the look of them.

Wendy, don't worry about what the future owners of your home do when you no longer need it. No matter how you decorate the second floor, a future owner will want to make it her own house by changing whatever you do. Your retro 1920s bathroom might be attractive to you but an eyesore to someone else. I've been forced to remodel my house as a result of extensive water damage over a year ago. Since I don't know whether I want to continue to live in my current location or move back to Florida where I was raised, I've worried whether my choices will affect the resale value of my house if I were to sell within the next couple of years. I finally realized that we have to make choices that satisfy ourselves without worrying about the future. For example, my contractor told me that no one will believe that I remodeled my kitchen if I don't use white painted cabinets. Nevertheless, I chose natural cherry. I grew up with natural wood cabinets and I feel like they fit this 1964 house. I attended an annual remodelers showcase a couple of weeks ago. Five out of the seven homes that I toured had the exact same style of painted white cabinets. Although those are beautiful, I decided that I didn't want to duplicate that look even though it is hugely popular at the moment. A potential buyer might not want the house because it doesn't have white painted cabinets, but someone will come along who prefers the natural cherry for its warmth.

aye, trob, childhood home 63 ranch in Tpa, natural wood cab, own home Tpa- 58 ranch, parquet, carpet attached with tacs, ughh, outside porch like a terrazo, cement with tile in it and natural wood cabinets? Now in DE, 1962 ranch, natural pine cabinets, all wood floors. FL, every ranch from 60 on had terazzo, though i have seen a few nice, white with yellow stone or something.

You are right. Some terrazzo can actually be attractive. I've seen some in the lobbies of hotels and businesses that are highly polished and very pretty. The terrazzo floors that my father built were nice. I just don't ever want to have to live with it in my own home. My ex-husband and I bought a 1950s house on the river that had terrazzo floors. The first thing we did was have them covered with hardwood. What a difference that made on our feet! The wood was soft and warm.

yes, now that i am in my 50s don't like standing on tile or stone for more than a few minutes, wood far kinder.

After all the prep, you may as well stain!

we moved into a contemporary house with new brazilian cherry hardwood floors throughout. they are lovely, wide plank and though expensive, not what i would have picked (a bit red for my taste). anyway, i have always loved white floors. so i painted the floors in the bedrooms white. when new friends come over and see the bedrooms, they gasp at the simplicity and beauty of the bedrooms, thanks to the floors. it's a very fresh, clean look and i haven't regretted it one bit. walking into my bedroom is like walking into a cloud. friends say they wish they could do it; but they worry about ruining the floors/ resale. but we don't plan to move anytime soon. regardless, based on my most stylish friend's reactions to our white floors, i may have improved our home value for the right shopper. AND the white floors show way less dust than the stained floors throughout the rest of the house.

Dark flooring "grounds" a room, otherwise, furniture can possibly look like its floating. I would never paint a hardwood floor.

You want people to notice your floor, paint. So paint a rug on it while your at it. Staining a floor is a....stain.

Oh but museum don't you see how luxurious your very words were? furniture floating, walking on clouds, pgs having a rug painted on, it all sounds wonderful and so out of the ordinary. i get so tired of, I must have this that and the other, what happened to striving to be independent or the next hot thing. I know I named my son a name that was in the top 5 and by time he was 6 he was going by his middle name, but it was precomputer and i was clueless! i had only known 3 guys by that name, how was i to know? But on the whole, I never want the same as the guy next door. I always want my home to reflect me. To shine or fail with our style, not someone else's.

oh you know something about michelles statement made me think, finally dawned on me, when we painted our floors black we did not do a lot of prep, but it is also not a heavy paint like some. it just sort of glowed with the grain still showing a little, everyone one has loved them.

excuse me, no prep. one coat of wall paint, a coat of poly.

Of course, it depends on what the house wants to be. If it's open and "beach-y" yes, paint those floors white. But if it's a city brownstone, then stain the wood floor.

I've had painted floors and loved the look, but stained would have been my first choice. We only painted due to budget constraints. The floor had been covered by carpet and a previous owners dogs peed on the carpet enough that it severely stained the wood underneath. We would have had to replace half the boards the staining was so bad. So we painted it a lovely midnight navy blue which looked great since the boards weren't warped at all and it covered up the staining and priming them made me feel better about any lingering odor there might have been.

My paint and coatings background admonishes me to warn you if you choose to paint make sure the surface is really clean and use a floor specific paint. There are solid color stains typically used exterior that could work better than a paint. Even so painting will require more maintenance than stained floors. Stain penetrates into the wood where paint is resting on top, so my choice would always be stain.

You can white wash not a stain but not a heavy paint.

All i can say is it is over four years and am loving it. you can find it on diy sites too. another guy did a whole wood room in gray. on here a while back.

Natural clear 'stain' unless the floors are beyond repair

I love painted floors. Living in a log house with wood cabinets and wood furniture makes one crave color. We have so much wood going on here that it's driving me to painting our cabin up north to get back at this house here. ;-) Our cabin has untreated 50 year old wood walls and it's so dark that we need lights on during the daytime on cloudy days even with the floor to ceiling window shades up.

Again, it's all about the style of house you have, how it was constructed, and what you want to live with.

Stain can last forever. Paint can peel & blister. Professionals can sand down mildew floors even if they are black (usually). Buckling can be fixed by replacing that portion OR one can try removing the buckled ones, place a wet cloth under them, and weight them down with heavy blocks but I can't remember how long..it may take months? I would remove healthy ones from a closet and switch them. Professionals will also remove the old varnish with varnish remover before sanding them down. I live in a 50 yr old building & wow, hats off to those professionals and it was less than $800. I have removed dark stains by shredding off the top layer carefully until it was gone. With the old wood floors one could sand and sand and sand for decades but with the new type of floating press so called hardwood...good luck.

You could have them screened, not sanded if they are not buckled. This is pretty cheap. Use rugs to cover problems. Let the house influence you in your decisions. Does the hardwood match the house in some way? Why was expensive hardwood installed. Paint wears and will look dirty soon and hardwood is a lot less maintenance.

If you paint, realize you are choosing a trend and not something that will last long both because of durability and fashion. To remove the paint, how much will it cost? If you sell, do you consider resale value? I see the decision always in a cost vs fashion and personal taste way. I think you should buy a house you like and not try to change a house you don't like into a house you do. It's too expensive. I would either sell the house or let the house retain it's personality and you try to appreciate it and understand what you loved about it when you bought it.

WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!?! Maybe I'm being overdramatic but the whole concept of painting beautiful hardwood floors gives me panic attacks.

Not all hardwood floors are beautiful. My former house was full of abused floors that were so mangled that the estimates I received to refinish them was way too high. Rugs and carpet were way cheaper.

You don't know what a hardwood floor adventure is until you've lived in a log home. Right now, we're entering the "hill" season. Our house shrinks and grows with the seasons and it takes about 6 months for each transition. During the summer when it's more humid the logs grow. During the winter if it's a dry year they shrink. So, where the walls from the 2nd floor put pressure on the first floor we get waves.

They told us at the Barna seminar that it takes Special Patient People to build and live in log homes.

We are thinking of putting in ceramic floor tiles at our entrances, though. The wood just inside the doors has shifted from the movement and it just makes so much noise and one of the planks has actually shifted so that the heat register pops out on its own.

Most of the models and existing log homes that we toured had carpeted and ceramic floors. I wonder how all that grout holds up during all this.

remember stain and hardwood is a fashion that was out for years too.

My old house has painted fir floors upstairs and stained oak downstairs except for the kitchen. I was hoping to restore the fir floors in the kitchen with stain but after the floor guy sanded them, he said they were too far gone for stain. He said they would continue to splinter. He said they would be OK with paint but I am glad I chose to cover them with marmoleum which will be much sturdier and more easy to clean in the high traffic area of the kitchen.

I just sat down having sealed four rooms of stained floors. My next home's floors will be dirt.

My beach room is off the master bedroom. I have been experimenting with a sand, not a dirt floor. I brushed polyurethane on the subfloor, then sprinkled on playground sand. When it dried I added another coat of poly. I am excited about doing the whole room. Anyone tried this? I am getting a full wall beach mural later. Adirondack chairs will be the seating to look out over my backyard.

wendy is your resulting floor rough or smooth?

It won't be rough - most likely it will be textured but not rough enough to clean the fuzz off her vacuum when she's cleaning.

Thank you Susan, this is what I want to know; is it textured (rough) or is it smooth? In my experience, it would depend on how much sand is used as to how rough or smooth the floor is under the poly. If Wendy merely sprinkled the sand sparsely, it would produce a rough surface that would indeed be more difficult to maintain and also feel "textured" under foot. (the more dense the sand, the smoother the surface will be.) She seems to be pleased with this effect, so I would like to know if (and how) she was able to achieve a smooth floor. If Wendy can please answer or post a pic I would appreciate it.

I've done both--sanded and painted. Sometimes the floor is so darkly stained from pets that it does not come out (the books tell you oxolic acid--but it does not work on a bad stain). I have lived in my house thirty-six years and we did not have the option of staining dark like they do now. I did do a walnut stain on my kitchen 10 years ago and all the places I repaired need more--so I may replace or repair. My kids painted their bedrooms taupe and they look good.

They wore fine because the traffic areas had rugs. I figured at the time I could always sand it off later.

I am also considering refinishing my family room. It is still up in the air. I doubt if I can still lift a rental sander. Not sure I want to live with the chemicals either--nearly killed myself in 2010 with epoxy wood filler.

Thanks for your feedback. So far I have only done a square foot sample. I cannot even take a picture of it as it is buried under stacks of baseboard molding! We are doing the entire house. I plan for it to be fairly smooth. Just finished staining and polyurethaning the living room, kitchen, and dining room... which is why I am on this thread!

Thank you, Wendy. I poly'ed my floors 12 hours ago. The can said it would dry in 30 minutes, and many places are still tacky and sticky underfoot. If someone can please tell me how to expedite this process I would appreciate it. This is getting aggravating...

I did 750 sq ft. By the time I finished, the first part was dry. I put on 4 coats. I waited three days and put down protective paper while we do other construction. Is it the brand? I don't know.

I hate to say the brand on here, but it is the most popular brand that people buy. The man at the store said it was cheaper than the one made especially for floors and did the same thing. Maybe I should have gotten the one made for floors. What is the difference? The ingredients are both the same.... Next week after company leaves and hubby goes back to work, I'll do a small area at a time and hope it doesn't look "patchy". Although I truly love the look of a nicely polished wood floor, I hate the look of a beautiful wooden floor that is poorly finished. Painting the floor is beginning to appeal to me: a couple of coats of paint with primer in it, and done. Decisions, decisions.....