This old house, check out what I found.

[Twofingerlou]

Well my work is slow due to winter and I’ve been working on the house. Getting a new furnace in a couple weeks and I started messing around in the kitchen. It was built in the early/mid 50’s from my findings. There’s legit hardwood throughout the house which I’ve un earthed most of it but it needs work. There’s a hardwood patch in the living room floor where it appears there was a floor furnace at some point so I’d imagine dating the house is right.

I started tearing out the floor in the kitchen which had linoleum, then there was a layer of OSB under that. Now I discovered this vintage gem of a floor and there’s one more layer of BS under this before I find hardwood smh. So a total of four layers of crap before I’m said and done. I’m a gear head before a handyman but who keeps stacking layers of flooring on top of flooring??

And for the purists the wood paneling is going away as well, sorry! Lol

 

[David Barnett]

Is that paneling going away too?

 

[Twofingerlou]

Is that paneling going away too?

Read above lol

 

[teleman1]

As best toes.

 

[Vibroluxer]

As best toes.

That's a valid point but I wonder when the other layers of flooring were laid vs. knowledge of the as best toes dangers were found.

 

[teleman1]

That's a valid point but I wonder when the other layers of flooring were laid vs. knowledge of the as best toes dangers were found.

Once you go past 1970, odds are one of those layers has it. It is also why it may have layers. If it was known it had it it, the cheap way is to add a new layer of flooring.

 

[Milspec]

Asbestos is very likely by the age and pattern. It is important to remember that the asbestos fibers was in the adhesive backing instead of the top layer, so removal is not difficult as long as you use the right tools and precaution.

It was common practice (still is) to just encapsualte that stuff with another layment over top of it. The funny thing is that a contractor has to set up containment, air sampling, etc. to remove that stuff, but the homeowner isn't restricted and can just toss it into the dumpster....but don't do that.

I removed asbestos tiles from my kitchen (10x12) to get down to the original wood flooring. I wish I never did though as the floor had been patched several times with plywood. There was no way to save the original as the patches were too large to fill with wood from neighboring closets. I ended up laying down another layer and vinyl.

It was a pain from the beginning and I ended up with basically what I already had...minus a fair amount of cash.

The living area and bedrooms might have very good wood flooring though and is often worth the excavation.

 

[Bendyha]

I stripped wall-paper off a room in my house, six or seven layers deep in some places, and it looks like the bottom layer, glued on to the lime on mud plastering of the mud-brick walls, is the original hand printed paper from when the house was built in 1802. I still have a few samples of it stored somewhere.

 

[Telekarster]

Buddy of mine bought a 1950's home, and it had carpet laid in it from those days.... nasty. He pulled the carpet up and found pristine condition hardwood flooring underneath it! After all those years, somehow that carpet managed to protect the flooring. Outside of a few places like the foyer area and kitchen area, the floors remain with their original finish to this day. Good luck on your project man! Be mindful of asbestos, use caution!

 

[gimmeatele]

Nice, I like discoveries like this.

 

[Harry Styron]

That last layer of linoleum is likely glued down with black asphalt adhesive, which is very difficult to remove and which may have penetrated the wood to such a depth that even heavy sanding won’t be enough. There are solvents for the adhesive, but they are expensive and still entail many hours of scraping.

 

[littlebadboy]

My family also recently moved into a 50s built home. It is interesting how code was didferent back then compared to the present. Thank you for the asbestos mention. I will be mindful when I do my DIYs in the coming months and years.

A problem we had so far was qith the sewer lines as they were clay wherein nearby vegetation roots pryed into the joints causing blockage. We had a portion excavated as it was backing up our showers.

 

[johnnylaw]

No asbestos in this here wallpaper, so it stays!

 

[stormsedge]

Our little(ish) 1929 Craftsman had a hard pine floor under the ratty old carpets and other flooring attempts. It was pine cut from the very old/big early generation pines...turned out pretty and as hard as any oak floor we've ever had. The upper story floors were oak. The Mrs oversaw the reno's of that one as I was occupied elsewhere. ((also a lot of junk that needed abatement--flooring and insulation)).

 

[Preacher]

we had a reno we did on a house that said on the title it was built 1956. While doing the remodel we found newspapers stuck in the crawl spaces for insulation that dated 1901 with news about the Philippines War.
That location also had some old pine or fir flooring that was beautiful other than the big hole in the center for the floor furnace.

 

[Killing Floor]

My God! That is gorgeous! I assume you're going to clean that up and build a room around it. It has all the colors of baby food.

 

[fishermike]

Since you mention wallpaper, also keep in mind that anywhere that there's paint, older layers will contain lead. Careful about sanding/scraping. Bad news.

 

[Twofingerlou]

Asbestos is very likely by the age and pattern. It is important to remember that the asbestos fibers was in the adhesive backing instead of the top layer, so removal is not difficult as long as you use the right tools and precaution.

It was common practice (still is) to just encapsualte that stuff with another layment over top of it. The funny thing is that a contractor has to set up containment, air sampling, etc. to remove that stuff, but the homeowner isn't restricted and can just toss it into the dumpster....but don't do that.

I removed asbestos tiles from my kitchen (10x12) to get down to the original wood flooring. I wish I never did though as the floor had been patched several times with plywood. There was no way to save the original as the patches were too large to fill with wood from neighboring closets. I ended up laying down another layer and vinyl.

It was a pain from the beginning and I ended up with basically what I already had...minus a fair amount of cash.

The living area and bedrooms might have very good wood flooring though and is often worth the excavation.

So how do you tell if they’re asbestos or not?

 

[Twofingerlou]

That last layer of linoleum is likely glued down with black asphalt adhesive, which is very difficult to remove and which may have penetrated the wood to such a depth that even heavy sanding won’t be enough. There are solvents for the adhesive, but they are expensive and still entail many hours of scraping.

Well if that’s the case that sucks, there was carpet through the rest of the house. The kitchen is the only room with this many layers. Guess I might just have to do a alternate option for the kitchen.

 

[Twofingerlou]

Since you mention wallpaper, also keep in mind that anywhere that there's paint, older layers will contain lead. Careful about sanding/scraping. Bad news.

There’s no wallpaper just some old wood paneling. But yea there’s different layers of paint here and there.