This is what the floor and built-in look like in the rest of the house. We haven't refurbished them yet, but at least they weren't quite as abused when we moved in, as the kitchen was.

Recover as in salvage? Probably not worth it, even if there is subfloor underneath. If you have a basement with an exposed ceiling that’s the easiest way to see what you’re working with. If you don’t, you’ll have to do a little detective work. What happens when you stick something down into in one of those holes I see?

Originally painted? Wood looks to be in good condition; definitely salvageable. But if painted be aware that the paint almost for sure has lead in it so might be a tad expensive. But worth it.

Wood looks to be in good condition underneath the adhesive backing. It will take a lot of sanding, but looks like you have a possible gem underneath there. It's either heart pine or southern yellow pine.

When I bought my house I removed the carpet from my DR and I found an oak floor with similar looking black stuff on it. I had one guy come and tell me it was adhesive and could only be removed by hand because it would 'gum up' a machine sander, so I started working on it..... I spent hours and didn't progress far at all. I had another guy come look at it and he said he could use his big machine to sand it off in no time and he was right.

Don a dust mask, grab a belt sander, and take a peek please. You may have spectacular floors hiding there.

The likely reason that there were that many floor overs is that the first flooring layer contained asbestos and someone knowledgeable didn’t want to pay to have abatement done and it removed. Asbestos is also likely there in the cutback too, that should never ever be sanded dry. EVER.

Did you do ANY testing at all to anything here? Wear any type of Personal Protective Equipment t? Keep the kids at grandmas until the lead paint renovating is done? Do any type of site containment to keep contamination from flowing throughout the whole home? Or did you just go at it without thinking it through? Old home ownership has its perils. You just uncovered two very serious and potentially deadly ones. There’s a lot more where that came from. Educate yourself before going all cowboy and making you and your family ill.

I'm not as uptight about lead and asbestos as some here are. I've lived in mostly old houses my entire life, now well into 6 decades. I've done plenty of sanding. I've handled asbestos. While I don't recommend doing either if you can readily avoid it, I'm still around.

The fact is that casual and occasional contact with these hazards, which is what you get as a homeowner, is seldom harmful to healthy adults. The ones who really have to worry are the ones who handle lead and asbestos daily, or once did, as part of their work.

I'm always a little perplexed by people who tell me they're sick with worry over finding out that their houses have asbestos -- as they smoke a cigarette. :\

However, while I personally would take on lead or asbestos risk for myself, and have, I wouldn't take a chance on exposing growing kids to lead. That's a different ball game, IMO.

I also agree that it's good to know what you're dealing with. A reminder, however: if you get positive test results, when it's time to sell your house, you won't be able to legitimately sign a statement saying that you don't know whether your house has lead or asbestos in it.

If you use the at home lead tests available at Home Depot you won’t have a “report”.

Sanding lead paint will put it into the air and spread it through the house unless you take much effort to contain and clean it up. I see that there is a child in one of those pics. Playing on the floor. Before she goes to kindergarten they will test her lead levels and the minimum lead level allowed is now pretty low. This will be reported to your state. And the government people will come into your home as one of the potential sources for her contamination. And they will be able to identify where that lead came from and you will be in the middle of remediation. This is not a fun situation to be in.

So you should take care with the lead. I would under no circumstances dry sand that.

Abrading a 2'x2' section for a test while wearing a dust mask and with proper ventilation has never contaminated a site or endangered anyone's health. Yes, lead and asbestos are concerns, but let's not get silly either.

You can use a scraper, it doesn't produce dust like sanding.