Suggestions please for a 300 year old oak floor.

[MikeG.]

I am after ideas on finishing a rough old bit of oak flooring which is going to be in a bathroom for the first time. I'll grab some better photos later, but here is an idea of the issue:

Most of the floor is raw unfinished and quite crude floorboards. You can see I have patched in some new oak boards. Some of the floor is black, where it abutted a patch that was covered with lino. I am not sure whether this is a varnish, a stain, or a tanin reaction. Frankly, I'm not much bothered what this ends up looking like, but I want a practical useable bathroom floor, and I think that means it will need sealing with something. What do you suggest?

I also have a variety of gaps and splits which need filling, and I was wondering about using putty. I know it dries a bit too hard, and something flexible would be better, but I can't think of anything else. Again, I'm open to suggestions (and indeed, suggestions as to where to buy putty these days!).

 

[custard]

The new Oak looks really red, even redder than American Red Oak, or is it just the lighting?

Anyhow, I'd dig deep and buy reclaimed boards that are a reasonable match, I know they're pricey but you don't need a huge amount. Antique restorers often say it's more difficult to blend in unpolished surfaces like cupboard backs than it is to blend in polished surfaces like a table top. There are techniques to oxidise and age unpolished surfaces, but it's a noxious and time consuming process that might well end up being more expensive.

 

[MikeG.]

No, it's the lighting. They've got a year old coat of Osmo on them. And no, I'm not going to be replacing them with old boards. This is an authentic repair, and I'm not trying to disguise that. It's the finish on the old boards that I'm interested in, and blending in the new is unimportant.

 

[MikeG.]

Here are some better photos. The floor is still slightly damp from cleaning down after plastering the room, so misleadingly dark:

As an aside, I've got to bend a skirting around the 550-radius curve of that shower! Could be a giggle.

 

[Jacob]

We did an old floor by first doing full repairs, patches, pulled out or hammered in old nails, etc, finished.
Then scrubbed with sugar soap and domestic floor scrubber over old and new - followed by mop and bucket to take up excess.
Then sanded with ROS. Anything bigger would not follow the changes in level, dips and hollows.
Then Osmo or linseed.
Looks good!
No chance you'd get any new to match your old floor (unless you paint it) but the floor washing helped blend it in and make new look less glaring.

 

[MikeG.]

I'll certainly be scrubbing and re-scrubbing with sugar soap, and there will be a number of Dutchmen to go in. I'll also take a scraper, carefully, to the carpet adhesive and splodges of paint, but I shan't be sanding. Is the Osmo protective enough for a bathroom, do you think?

 

[topchippyles]

You could lightly sand blast them clean and use a nice fiddes wax applying 3 courts and then finish with a shellac sealer.

 

[MikeG.]

Wax then a shellac? That sounds counter-intuitive. Is that standard practise?

Old buildings should never be sandblasted.

 

[Jacob]

.....I shan't be sanding.,,,,

Splinters, raised grain, sharp edges, you'd have to sand - not sand flat, just smooth, with ROS small footprint following any unevenness.

 

[MikeG.]

It's been a floor for 300 years, Jacob. There are no nasties, it's just worn. I'm not sanding the character away, which is what I'd do if all the raised grain were removed. This is going to be minimum intervention.