We live in an old 1880s farm house but the kitchen was added on in the '70s onto a cement slab foundation. The cement had carpeting on top when we moved in 5 years ago. Who in thier right mind puts carpeting in a kitchen??? Any ways... we were shopping around for flooring and just could not find flooring which matched the rest of the houses "character" (imperfections)
Everything was way to perfect looking to go into a house which is near 130 years old. Plus with the cement slab a plywood subfloor would need to be installed. We got a couple of quotes form places to come in and do the job but we were shocked at the cost. Plus the wood they would of used would of been random lengths from 1 foot to 6 feet wich didn't appeal to me.
My wife and I decided to tackle the job ourselves.
The game plan;
1) Pull base boards and tri,
2) rip up carpet and pad
3) grind down the uneven areas in the concrete
4) pour self leveling compound on floor
5) lay down vapor barrier and a 3-in-1 pad which was about 1/32" thick
6) attach the 3/4" plywood to concrete by using threaded inserts inserted into the concrete and stainless steel lag bolts going through the plywood and into the inserts in the concrete
7) Attach 3/4" thick X 8" wide solid Red Oak plank in lenghts from 12 feet, 10 feet, 6 feet and 3 feet. They were attached by countersinking holes about 1/4" and running the screws through the board and going into the plywood. each board had 3 screws across the width of the board, and every 24" in length. The holes were then plugged with Oak dowels.
Here is a pic of the floor before varnish.
After sanding the floor it was finished using a Tung Oil finish called Waterlox. This finish has been used to do some rooms in the White House at D.C. Thie finish soaked into the floor much better than the Polyurathane I used on the second story bedrooms.
Here is a pic of the floor with 4 coats of finish.
We have 3 months of use on it so far and the finish is holding up well. When the floor does need to be recoated there is no need to sand before applying a new coat of finish.
Speedy