Tiles are extremely cold and would be a concern given where you are located. You could use a radiant heating system underneath the tiles. There are a lot of tiles available that look like wood and cork. Using an epoxy, your floors would be maintenance free! If cost is a concern, this tile installation could be much more than new hardwood.

Nothing should be the bane of one's existence in a home even if it's precious...I would install new floor and go with a similar idea, like a wide plank, hand-shaped grey oak flooring or something a bit more funky like the laminate from German company Parador

Replace it without guilt, and enjoy a new, low-maintenance floor. You deserve it!

Just because it would cost you $60,000 to replace this floor with a similar floor doesn't make the one you have that is in disrepair that much of an asset. If you're planning on staying in your home for a long period of time, then replace the floor with something that you love that will work well for your lifestyle. If you're getting ready to sell, then consult with your realtor about whether or not changing the floor would be a good idea.

replace...it has done it's time and is old and tired, let it go. And ENJOY the new floor!

Oboegirl, do you have photos of the house? Other rooms? I'm curious about what's around this floor--if the floor is a unique feature in a unique house , you might be smart to keep it and experiment with things you can put over it as suggested by Katie Gooding. If not a floating floor, then maybe some hand-painted floor canvases? The ones in this link tend to run sort of country craft-y, but I have seen them done in all kinds of interesting styles.

Also, is there a reason ypur floor can't be epoxied over? (I don't mean polyurethane, I mean a marine-type clear epoxy like they use for bar tops. If you do it thick enough, it oughta hold anything down!)

Aaaand.....with the link this time!
https://www.google.com/search?q=floor+canvas&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=0vZXU6DcDY7OyAHf7IGoAw&ved=0CFgQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=963#imgdii=_

That is a good question. Our home was designed by an architect to be his home and has several creative DIY features, like this floor that was hand glued by the architect and his wife. This one is the only one that is so high maintenance. I think I will renew my effort to try and save parts of this floor and maybe replace the high-traffic areas. I hadn't thought of the clear epoxy stuff before so maybe that could be an option. We bought the house a few years ago and at the closing the previous home-owner's wife came up to me and said, "that floor is a nightmare and you can't begin to know how glad I am to be rid of it!" I really don't want to be that way when I leave this house! If we can't work it out we will have to replace it.

Those floor canvases are beautiful! WOW!

oboegirl... This is a link to a flooring forum with several professional flooring pros answering questions. I have found a lot of good advice from them, maybe someone here has an idea for you.
http://www.thefloorpro.com/community/

Your flooring sounds like it's seen it's day, as most things do. Let it go, replace it with a nice hardwood that you can enjoy. There is no joy in keeping something that is stressful, even though it may be beautiful and expensive. Obviously the material isn't suitable for floors and the building architect was trying for something unusual without knowing how much upkeep would be required.

If you do remove it, and I would do all I could to fix the problem.... I would consider adding it a wall or outside. It could be a slow meditative process but at least you would have the beauty of those lovely tree rings.

When I was in grad school I rented an apartment in an old building that had really old scuffed floors. I simply varnished the floor and it became easy to clean up with a damp mop. This obviously won't solve the problem of the tiles popping up, but being able to clean the floors easily will be a plus.

I could get rid of that floor in a heartbeat IF I knew all avenues had been investigated for fixing it.

It was a mistake originally, as the architect and his wife soon found out, and the subsequent owners confirmed. Replacing it will correct the mistake. Get what you love.

I agree with Apple Pie...probably an attempt at creativity that just simply turned out to be a maintenance mistake. That being said, your photo looks like MOST of the tiles popping up are in a line like a weakness in the floor ( as will happen in homes with settling). They don't seem random so much, correct?

The tiles on the first picture do appear to be because of normal settling but that is not the case for the rest of the ones that pop up. They are just loosing their grip after being glued down for 30 years and it really is a random occurrence. In the third picture you can see a patch in the main hallway that is lighter because that batch of tiles popped up and I had to replace them with tiles that had aged differently.

I like ASVinteriors idea to find another use for the tiles. Maybe then you won't feel bad about replacing the floor, which, btw, I think you should replace.

The ones you have glued back down, do they come back up again or are they different ones?

The floor might have been beautiful at one time but, because of its impracticality, is no longer. You should remove the whole thing and replace it with a beautiful hardwood or heated tile. Don't feel that you have to reuse the wood tiles, unless you really want to. You don't owe the floor or the former owners anything! Don't feel guilty.

I vote for hardwood. I think you may be surprised by the actual cost as compared to the 60, 000 dollars you are thinking it may cost.

If you truly love the floor, contact someone about pouring a nice clear coat over as mentioned above, like a bar counter top is clear over top. If cost sounds doable, then clean, prep , stain and DO IT. CLEAR COVER. Otherwise, take photos, make a wall hanging or something as AVS suggested, tear it out, replace with real hardwood, enjoy it, and dont feel guilty about it. That's what we need to do. Right? Do it. One way or the other.

The tiles that pop up I glue back down using wood glue which is what was used to originally lay the tiles. The ones I have glued back down usually stay in place but the ones near the door (that often get moisture from snow and such) those tend to come back up. We know the area under the area rug in our living room is all loose because the previous owners had the area rug cleaned in place and the moisture made the tiles swell and grow. Once they dried up they settled back into place but were not glued back down. I love the look of the floor, it is unique and the end grains are lovely but I'm so tired of the ridiculous amount of care. It needs to be sealed or gone.

I LOVE the Parador floors but can't find them in my area. If I replace I will definitely look into that company!

No pro will tackle sanding it?

we have had 6 professional floor finishers out and they all say it needs to be hand sanded with extensive re-gluing. It would cost a LOT to have this refinished professionally. IF we kept them I would have to do the prep work and reattaching and then try to find someone to apply a clear coat. This floor covers about 1000 feet including inside several closets, it is not a job I would enjoy doing.

Oh, well. Take some photos for posterity and then out with it.

How much to refinish these compared to purchase of new wood floors?

NONE of them will do the prep work? Everybody seems to have a price besides, it's business. So how much?

They will do the work but the cost was very high. My estimates ranged from 4000-8,000 depending on how much prep work was going to be needed and IF the tiles stayed stuck down for them to get their machines to do the sanding. Every one of the guys was skeptical that the tiles would stay stuck down for them to actually sand and fill. The reason I would do the prep work is to help bring down the costs. There are two questions here, can they be reattached and filled in and if that can happen then will they swell again with the varnish/ epoxy is added to them. All the flooring guys seemed befuddled as to how to deal with this.

So long as the floor is flat and even, you can install a cork floating floor over top. The loose wood blocks can be glued back into place prior to the cork being installed over top. The biggest issue is "flat and even". If you don't think this floor ranks in flat/even, then you will need to remove them before laying a new floor.

My cork floating floors are quite forgiving when it comes to slope or unevenness. They are allowed "3mm of floor height deflection over 3 ft". Compare that to a laminate = 3mm over 10 ft.

icorkfloor.com has 50+ different flooring options that would easily fit into the $3,000 - $5000 (my MOST expensive floor = $4.59/sf) for a purchase for 1000sf of flooring. Most floors are in stock and can be shipped same day or next business day.

You can choose a pattern that is close to what you've had or you can work with something completely different.

Maintenance is costly, takes up time too much time and effort. I recommend changing the floors with hardwood. I would love to see pictures of the room

If the floor were incredibly beautiful it might be worth your effort to keep it.....too me it looks like ends of 2 x 4's. I think ripping it up and laying something that is more user friendly would make your life much easier.

Obeogirl, ultimately the choice is yours but seems if you took a poll,most all would vote to replace the floor. It's admirable of you to want to preserve it but I agree with the majority, I'd replace with real hardwood floors and don't look back ; 0

Dump it. It's not even attractive, which is probably why it would cost so much to repair! Put in hardwood,it will last forever

There has to be less expensive options than 60,000$. Don't fret. It need not be the bane of your existence for much longer. Just be smart about replacing :-)

If covering it with epoxy isn't feasible and the tiles are coming up that often, I give you my blessing to get rid of it! (Poster above is correct that it's really just ends of 2x4s, a cool architect experiment with materials but if it has truly reached the end of its life, it can be retired!) ;^)

Yes, it is the end cuts from oak 2x4's. When they are cleaned up and polished they look lovely until you try to walk on it (even in soft socks). This thread is really about feeling like Captain Ahab and dealing with my big white whale. Thank you so much to all of you helping me through this train of thought! :)

WOW! Haven't seen one of those floors in years.

Similar to what used to be semi-popular choice in 5/16" thick gluedown parquet called "Domino Pattern".
It was comprised of 1" x 1" squares assembled in 12" or 19" square panels to make the installation FAST.
Yours looks to be a 2 pc. (1" x 2") variation probably in end grain Walnut.
The reason you're always having to glue pieces back in place is because the original flooring was laid in a water-based latex adhesive that dried out & became brittle after a few years... and eventually the only thing holding the floor down was gravity & good intentions.

You must have an awfully big space being considered to be projecting a $60,000 price tag. Seems high.

If you like the look, it would be possible to reproduce and install NEW material in an updated urethane adhesive that will NEVER let a loose piece happen.

I was told that it is end grain oak stained in walnut. the 60,000 number was thrown out by one of the guys when I kind of pressured him into telling me a rough guess about how much to reproduce this floor. He said it would mostly be labor in gluing the tiles down and hand sanding each one.

If it's a PITA for you, I'd replace it with a nice plank hardwood in a flash, no matter how much work the original installer put into it.

It was probably someone's bright DIY idea and they didn't think through the consequences.

End grain cuts of most woods will shrink and expand as humidity changes, leaving gaps and often popping the adhesive loose. Having it unfinished just makes it even more vulnerable to moisture. And if the adhesive becomes brittle, the tiles start popping loose.

I would replace the floors. While, they are pretty to look at, if they are making you unhappy I would change it.

Why reproduce the same floor? Do you absolutely love it? It looks a little dated like parquet floors that belong to another decade. Update it with hardwood floors and I doubt it will cost more than half of that price you were quoted. Just because the original floors seemed expensive does not mean it remains expensive, most of the people who see it might not think so, I vote for new floors! good luck.

Today we drove to a Lumber Liquidators that is about an hour from us and looked at their hardwood floors. We found a cypress hardwood and a pecan hardwood we really liked and the prices were almost too good. I think we have pretty much decided to go ahead and replace but finding the right floor is going to be difficult. Thank you so much to all that has offered advice!

"several creative DIY features, like this floor that was hand glued by the architect and his wife"

I thought it was a DIY "bright idea" that turned out to be not so bright.

I'm thinking that if you can you could pull up your existing wood tiles and sell them to a salvage place, you would be eco friendly and it would probably pay for at least part of a new flooring that would be lower maintenance. Plus, someone else would have unique flooring that would fit their vision. Good Luck.

A floor installed and finished like this one will always be a problem. Recently we we're ask about creating and installing floor similar to this one. Each block has to be independently cut,finished,and installed so this requires a tremendous amount of labor. 60000 is not an unreasonable amount for a hand made floor of that size. There is a tremendous difference in price for hand made artisan quality products and mill run products.

Its very unique restore it

It's hard to part with such a unique piece of history but sanity has to win out here. I say pull up some of the tiles and arrange into a wall art piece, then lay down new flooring that you can live with.

[https://www.houzz.com/products/12x12-art3d-ancient-boat-wood-historic-and-weathered-wall-art-single-tile-prvw-vr~49010931[(https://www.houzz.com/products/12x12-art3d-ancient-boat-wood-historic-and-weathered-wall-art-single-tile-prvw-vr~49010931)

*** I don't know how I ended up here, but I got pulled into this saga and now it's three years later and I must know... what did you do?