The saga continues of renovating the front entryway of my 1927 Arts & Craft bungalow, aiming for the best reproduction of the original era possible. Following Part 1 – walls and ceiling, Part 2 is the floor plan, err, the plan for the floor.
The existing floor (layers visible at the top of the stairs from the basement) consisted of, from the bottom up, the original subfloor of 3/4″ diagonally laid planks, 8 to 12″ wide. A few of these are not in great condition (i.e. missing brick-sized chunks) but otherwise, are solid, old growth wood. Next is 1/2″ of chip board (OSB). Then 1/4″ of a plywood-ish underlay. It’s some kind of engineered product laid to make an even surface to put a top finish on, not as dense as most plywood. And finally, vinyl plank pretending to be wood.
Plan A was to put 3 1/4″ wide groove and tongue pine boards down. I like how they look and feel in the upstairs hall, and the argument that it’s close to original flooring stands. I’d bet a lot that there was 1″ wide strip hardwood (also groove and tongue) originally, but not gonna happen as a replacement. There must be an engineered thing that looks like it, although I can’t recall it as a stock item in the flooring stores.
The height of the floor is a consideration. Two reasons: (1) the front door opens in so the floor cannot be any higher that it currently is or the door won’t open, and (2) the height of the top stair to the basement needs to be within tolerance (Looking forward to tidying up the bullnose.) Actually, the top step is already higher than the others. The rise of the stairs is 7″, except the top step, which currently sits at 8″. And except the bottom step, which is about 4″ from the concrete floor (guessing the basement floor level has changed over the years, could have been dirt originally, then cement added later).
Installing a new 3/4″ thick floor requires taking close to 3/4″ off the existing floor. The vinyl plank is only about 3/16″, so another layer has to go. Doing a bit of excavating with an oscillating tool suggests that the 1/4″ underlay will come up easily, if easily includes pulling a lot of 1 1/2″ common nails. At least it’s not glued down.
Not thrilled about the situation, so thinking about Plan B, or C. Something thinner than the 3/4″ planks in front of the door could solve the door opening challenge. Laying an area of tile would be ok, and keep snowy boots from melting the wood finish. Matching the tile to other tiled areas in the house would look good, so it’s appealing. However, it doesn’t solve the stair height problem.
The thinner the new floor, the better it would be for the stair rise issue. The thinnest options for floor replacement by increasing thickness:
- sheet vinyl
- vinyl plank
- laminate
- engineered wood
- pre-finished hardwood or pine planks.
But I wanted pine planks. If I took the top three layers off the existing floor (OSB, plywood underlay and vinyl planks), then the height issue goes away completely at the front door and improves at the stair top. In fact, if the original floor was 3/4″, the original top step from the basement would have been 7 3/4″, which is where it would end up with all the layers other than the original subfloor replaced with 3/4″ planks.
While contemplating next steps, Layer 1 – vinyl plank – was removed. No surprises. Everywhere underneath is plywood underlay. Like the kitchen, it has a one foot square grid drawn on it, and the remnants of grey cement-ish stuff, suggesting there were tiles at some point previously. Gave it a good scrub which is a bit silly since plan A is to tear it out. But it will take a while to get it all out and in the mean time we will continue to walk through the hall, so best to minimize the eras-gone-by building material contact1.
The joy of removing vinyl flooring was damped by the number of nails holding the plywood to the next layers. They’re every four inches. Perhaps this was originally to stop the floor from creaking, which hasn’t worked. Or maybe for the joy of pounding in nails. Each one is countersunk and perfectly spaced. And this layer of plywood precisely covers the entire floor. The joints are tight, to each other and the wall. It is going to be a lot of work to pull all these nails up.
Hah! Another DIY break-through. By cutting out 2″ squares from the top underlay at various points in the floor, it appears that 1″ wide hardwood strips are beneath for the majority of the floor. For the six feet closest to the front door, the next layer down is plywood, after that, hardwood. Plan B emerges:
- in the area by the front door, lay tile directly on the existing plywood overlay. With 1/4″ tile, this will leave plenty of space for the front door to swing over.
- in the rest of the hall area, remove the 1/4″ plywood overlay, exposing the original floor. It will need a bit of work, as there are a considerable number of nail holes, but it can be refinished.
This I’m sure will be updated with more drama as the plywood comes off2.
This Plan fits perfectly with what I am trying to do with the area – separate the entryway from a sitting area. Now the two spaces will have different floors. And tiling the area by the front door is practical!
Three quarters of the underlay came up with only minor surprises: lots of spattered paint, a few gouges, and an area with construction screws that go through to the subfloor (can see them sticking in the unfinished basement). Also, an era update – there is newspaper under the hardwood strips. I can just make out a date of July XX, 195X. So, not original floor because the house was built in 1927. Also, the strips aren’t 3/4″ thick, more like 3/8″.
The big surprise : In the more hallway-like area of the hallway that leads to the diningroom and kitchen, there is a point where the hardwood strip have been cut off and there’s more plywood, with black goop on top. Maybe fire damage, maybe wax or adhesive from some other project. Whatever it is, it won’t buff up into nice flooring, so I put the underlay back down (had only pried enough up to peak under and will tile over). This will work aesthetically, as there is one type of floor in ‘hall’ areas and another in ‘sitting’ areas. Getting a bit concerned about floor-plethora, or a new kind of floor ever 10 feet, but will dry lay tiles to see how it looks.
The Plan is laid.
1 It seems to me, more than any other category of product, building materials are abandoned, and even outlawed, often. Every few years, insulation, paint, wall coverings, floor coverings, fasteners, adhesives etc are found to have some toxic profile, or other failing, so the old need to make way for the more benevolent new.
2 In another house, I pulled up the corner of a carpet, exposing a few square feet, and was delighted to find hardwood. Little did I know that once all the carpet was removed, it would reveal a hardwood border to a wide plank (8″ wide) softwood floor. I actually yelped when the entire carpet was pulled back. I’ve never seen or heard of such a floor finish before or after, but the moral of the story is certainly that you don’t have the whole picture until you have the whole picture. So I’m warned.