Sand / Stain / Oil / Wax / Paint Floorboards? - Help

nubsj

Hello

This is the first of 143,000 questions I am going to have over the next few months - we're buying our first home - yay

So downstairs, the sitting and dining rooms have no carpet, but the floorboards don't appear to have been treated at all. They are in fairly good nick, so prior to moving all our stuff in we are going to do something to them.

The house is 1920's so I assume they are pine

We will hire a sander, and from my extensive research I think we shall treat them using Osmo Polyx Hardwax Oil

So... do we stain them? is it usual to want to match the colour to ones furniture? Is that what you do? or do you just pick a colour you like? Or do you wait to see if the boards are a nice colour themselves once sanded (are sort of greyish at the mo) and then decide if they need staining?

Our dining room furniture is (predominantly) light oak. Our couch is goldish, other sitting room furniture lightish wood (mango). walls are currently neutral, and we don't plan on repainting until we've been there a while, had DC2, due immenently, and done some other bits and bobs that will need doing, in time.

So do we keep the floor light too? I have the fear of orangey pine

Secondly, upstairs, the big bedroom I think we'll just do the same as whatever we decide for downstairs but I think the other two, which are a nice big room for DS and little tiny room for DC2, who is due 2 weeks after we move I want to paint - any paint recommendatio for floors? And what colour, I think white would be too stark, creamy is a bit meh or perhaps something quite dark? Like f&b Downpipe, would that be madness?

abankerbutnotafatcat

Hi, we've just bought our first house (1901) too so understand your excitement and worries but I did have a flat with pine boards before so this is o a job I've done. I've actually got up close and personal with it as I couldn't even afford to hire a sander so did the upstairs rooms by hand!! Anyway, there are no rules but personally I'd stick with neutral and lighter unless I had extremely strong ideas about something as not only are you less likely to change your opinion in a few years but also they will be easier to change if you do decide to.

In the hallway, which doesn't get the sun, I left natural and used a varnish designed to prevent wood yellowing - they still look good 14 years later. In one bedroom I watered down white emulsion to get the effect I was after. This also still looks good and hasn't needed work. On the stairs I used a paint designed for wooden floors in a neutral colour (latte)- it provided a matt, slip resistant and durable finish that I thought was ideal for stairs. This recently began to look quite worn and needed to be updated but still pretty good going on this high wear area (especially with tenants!!).

Hope this has helped a bit - good luck and have fun!!