Pine Flooring Is A Traditional Favorite

Are You Ready to Replace Your Old Floors with Pine?

One of the first things anyone notices when entering a home or cabin is the flooring. It can make a good or not-so-good first impression. It must also be acceptable to you because you live there. There comes a time when we must decide whether or not to replace our floors. This is more of a concern when living in an older home or preparing to sell.

One of the most economical and aesthetically pleasing flooring materials is knotty pine. If you love natural products that are rustic and beautiful, pine may be the choice for you. Let’s look into replacing your old floors with this amazing material.

When Is It Time to Replace Old Flooring?

Flooring should be replaced when it has reached the end of its lifecycle or has suffered too much damage or neglect. Generally speaking, carpet lasts about 10 years while tile and laminate last 25 years or less. These actions can cause excessive damage or wear:

Abrasive matter stuck in shoe soles
Spilling foods and liquids on floors
Pet scratching, soiling, or biting
Regular cleaning is neglected
Dropping hard objects on flooring
No floor mats inside entry doors

When it is time to replace the flooring in one or more rooms, consider installing tongue and groove/end-matching knotty pine with all its benefits. The next step is deciding whether or not to remove the old flooring material.

Should I Remove My Old Flooring Before Installation?

The answer is not always an easy one because it depends on both the existing flooring and the new flooring materials. Ultimately, you should ask a flooring expert and/or the new flooring manufacturer what to do. Here’s when it is typically OK to leave the old flooring intact:

The old flooring is well secured to the subfloor
The existing flooring is in suitable condition
Nails will securely hold down the new flooring
When adding a new floor will not raise the height enough to cause tripping problems going from one room to another
Interior doors can still open freely
The refrigerator still has room to freely slip in and out of its space

You should remove the old flooring before laying the new under these conditions:

Carpeting is the material currently on the floor
The existing flooring is severely damaged
The existing flooring is a ‘floating floor’
Adding new flooring will raise the height enough to cause tripping problems when walking through a doorway
Interior doors will not open or close freely
The refrigerator will not freely slip in and out of its space

Remove any nails, screws, or staples and thoroughly clean the old floor before installing new flooring. Learn more about removing versus retaining old floors.

Unfinished Pine Flooring and Its Benefits

Adding new knotty pine flooring will increase the value of a home or cabin. Finishing it with a stain color that is in style and protective clear coat will improve the value even more.

Homeowners are pleased with this type of flooring because it is:

Aesthetically pleasing
Rustic and beautiful
A stable wood product
A durable wood product
Easy and fast to work with
Virtually a ‘no waste’ product

Knotty pine is one of the most affordable wood flooring materials available. It costs anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 the price of native hardwoods. Exotic hardwoods can cost even more.

“One of the first things anyone notices when entering a home or cabin is the flooring.”

Pre-Finished Pine Flooring

If you want to move ahead even faster, use pre-finished knotty pine flooring. It offers some advantages you may not be aware of, including:

Professional evenly-applied finish with no runs, sags, or lumps
Finished with superior products
Save a significant amount of time
The finish is non-yellowing over time
No need to hire a painter or wait on the weather
No need to purchase finishing materials
No mess to clean up or annoying odors

Using pre-finished knotty pine flooring is a win-win situation you simply cannot argue with.

Flooring Finishes and Floor Care

After floors are sanded and cleaned well, it is time to stain them and add one or more clear coats of finish. Traditional oil-based finishes such as polyurethane look good but give off objectionable odours while drying and can turn yellow over time.

We recommend water-based transparent finishes that overcome both of these two issues. They enhance the natural beauty of wood grain and knots while covering wood with a hard-wearing and scratch-resistant surface for floors, walls, and ceilings. These are super products to use:

Stain: Sashco Transformation Stain
Clear Coat: Perma-Chink Sure-Shine Premium Acrylic Floor Finish
Clear Coat: Perma-Chink Lifeline Acrylic-Clear Interior Wood Finish
Pre-Stain: Colorfast Pre-Stain Base Coat for Wood
Stain: PPG/Proluxe Wood Stain

Your new floors will look great and withstand many years of foot traffic. Use furniture pads and place mats inside entry doors to further help protect them. Vacuum or sweep weekly to keep them clean and new looking.