Back before the mid 60's most houses in USA were built as pier and beam homes. That means that a house did NOT sit on the ground. First the plumbing, sewer, gas lines were laid and then some piers were put up throughout the area where the house would sit and around the edges of where the house would sit they would sometimes pour concrete footings. If you see a house with a porch that you have to go up 3 or 4 steps to, then it's probably pier and beam. Those houses can be picked up and moved.
Here in Amarillo back in the late 40's and 50's there was a builder who had an assembly line for building a house. They were assembled at the fair grounds and then taken by truck out to a lot where the piers and footings were waiting. Since it was assembly line, almost all houses had pretty much the same floor plan. You came into the living room from the front door, and if you walked straight through, there was a kitchen. If you turned to the right down a hallway, there was the bedrooms and bath. This builder always had doors for the bedrooms that slid into the wall. He felt it left more options for placement of furniture if you didn't have to make room for an open door. You might turn left rather than right (that's how he changed it so not all floorplans were identical, but pretty much every house was the same. I happen to have lived in one of these homes when I first got married back in 1973.
My ex father in law who was a dear dear man, had worked on the assembly line, and one day he marked his name on a house, and later he bought it and my first husband was raised in that house. After his dad built a new house in the country and the house came up for rent, we rented it. By then he had built on a step down den and another bedroom and half bath. It had 1200 sq ft. Most of those houses on the assembly line were about 850 to 950 sq. ft.
So where is the beam portion. Its wood beams running under the house attached to the piers. If a beam breaks the floor sinks in that area. If a pier sinks, then they can come in and "shim" them higher, or even raise with jacks, like you use on your car, kind of. If you ever watch the HGTV show about Texas Flippers you will see the Snow girls' father moving houses, and you will see them run boards under the house, and also jacking them up.
So the cool thing about pier and beam houses: 1. They can be moved. 2. You can get under them to hide from tornados (no kidding, my ex did that when a boy, 3. The constructions of the floor was usually WOOD. I understand that back in those days they used a certain wood and used it all up, so wood floors that are put down now, are not like those of old, and I love those of old I have both in my present house, old and new. The integrity of the old is so cool, whereas new wood floors, they say if you sand them 3 times, that's about all and they'll be too thin. 4. If you get a plumbing leak, or gas leak, they can go under house and fix much, much cheaper than a foundation of concrete. 5. If the soil moves and the house slips or moves around, it is much, much cheaper to fix those piers and beam than slab. I'll write a blog on lifting a slab house sometime, as I have pictures from a house I had listed. However, they squeak if any boards are loose, and you hear footsteps. If you see the concrete broken on a pier and beam, that is not the foundation. Piers and beams form the foundation. Footings add balance and keep animals out. I see tons of houses in San Antonio that have no footings, the house just setting up on concrete blocks and you could crawl under the house.
A slab house is how most new homes are built, which is concrete poured and then the walls go up over it. Plumbing issues such as slab leaks occur, and plumbers usually have to beat out the concrete, fix the problem, and then re-pour new concrete. If they have to dig UNDER the slab, they can charge like $200 a ft. which adds up very, very fast. On slab houses, I suggest floating floors if you are in an area that the ground moves a lot, as tile will crack and break if the house moves. Laminate is a good floor for slab. The porches on slab houses are ground level, not 3 or 4 steps.
So today I want to dwell on MY redoing old 1923 wood floors and 1950 wood floors. Yes, I, a woman, have refinished wood floors - all by myself on one of the projects. With the 1950 house, I had some great young men who helped me sand the floors.
The first house I will tell you about is a house in a historical district in Amarillo that I bought for my son. I remodeled the house to be a BACHELOR PAD, while he was in Dallas training new hires of his restaurant. After he got back to town, he bought the house from me and moved in. He has since married and moved out of town to teach and coach, and he rents the house out. He says his favorite thing about the house was the original 1923 wood floors: once I re-varnished them.
I will have pictures posted of before sanding, during the 3 passes of sanding and then during the poly application and afterward when dry. Some of them will show blue tape on them, because I took the pictures while working on the walls and taped off the floors to protect them from paint, but let me tell you that the sander you use, will take off any paint that is on the floor, and most stains, such as doggie stains. However, it can NEVER get out the smell of cat pee, so I don't suggest cats that are not box trained in a wood floor house.
When you decide to redo the floors, clear it of all furniture. Then you need a floor sander. There are many kinds ranging in price from 1300 to many thousands of dollars. What I do is go to a tool rental place and rent one for $75 a day. I can get it done in one day. They are VERY heavy so be sure you have a man or three women (kidding) with you to help load it in the pick up and get it into the house. Of course it will roll into the house, but if you are in a pier and beam house, you have to get it up those porch steps and it is so heavy. Also when you rent the sander, get about 5 sanding sheets per room. Get two kinds, 20 and 80 are the numbers I use, and you can tell the difference when you feel them. The one that is stiffer and scratchier is the one to use first; and the thinner, less scratchy one is a finishing sander. You will use the first one to get the old dirt, topcoat and dog pee and other stains off the top. This layer is harder to get off and might take two passes down the room to get it off. Once you get the hard stains off, then use the other paper and go back over it to smooth out any gouges and to give a really smooth finish for the stain.
Be sure the people show you HOW to get the sanding paper on. This is the tricky part. Secondly be sure there are no nails in the floor as they will TEAR up the sanding paper, and those things are NOT cheap. You will spend almost as much on paper as you do the sander for a whole house. You can always take extra back to the rental place when you return the sander if you get too many; it is better to have too many than having to stop and go get more.
Once the sanding is over, clean, clean clean. Anything like little dirt will show in your poly when dried. So clean is very important. Plan to keep the house OFF LIMITS for the next two days at least. You don't want to track in dirt between coats either, so leave the dirty shoes outside on the porch. After you get the floor clean, open the windows because the next step is stinky.
There are all kinds of products you can stain and varnish with. Some you have to wait a long time for drying and some you have to sand in between. I advise against those kinds. I use a newer product that is one step. You just roll it on with a paint roller (sheepskin) and it dries in 3 or 4 hours, and you can start early in the morning. Put a layer on, and then shut up the house, come back 3 to 4 hours later and do another coat (which will go much faster than first coat) and then shut up the house, and come back 3 to 4 hours later and put the final coat on. There is a pole you can put the roller on to stay standing as you roll on the poly, but I always break them, so I'm sorry to say I put it on with me on my knees. I have knee pads to wear, but I have ruined my right hip and walk with a limp because of all the floor crawling I've done doing this. So if you don't want that problem, buy several poles, or unscrew the mop or brooms you have now and use those. When sanding and varnishing always go with the grain of the wood, NOT across it. Also let me warn you on the poly if you overlap, it will show when dry and you'll have a line down the room. The poly will actually darken the wood by about 3 shades. If you want to stain the wood first for a darker color, you will have to rub that on with a rag or roll it and let it dry and then poly or varnish it. The three coats of varnish is so important to protect the wood floor from spills. I like gloss. Some people like satin. Also get a mask to wear; you can get HIGH on the smell.
Following are pictures of two projects I've done. First is my son's house.
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| Living room prior to painting walls or doing floors. |
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| Kitchen before I removed this backsplash painted or did floors. Notice how dark it is under cabinets. That was a hard job getting it off. |
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| Living room after I painted walls and trim. See dark spot on left of floor. That's where a sofa had sat, and the floors not worn there. |
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| Kitchen after I painted, before doing floors |
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| Living room one pass of sanding |
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| Getting these dark edges off was hard and oven had to be moved. Ouch. |
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| Final sanding before I did edges with belt sander |
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| Second pass, and I've already started with a belt sander to get close to walls, as big sander will tear up baseboards if you get too close. |
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| Final sanding |
Now I will post the pictures of the three layers of poly added. Keep these colors in mind, as you will see a deepening of the color plus shine.
Next I'll show you pictures of a floor as I was pulling up old carpet that 5 dogs had been living in the house. This was a rental and I redid this house for an elderly couple, later selling the house for about $20,000 more than it would have brought with no remodeling. We spent $7,000 on the remodel.
Sanding the edges with a belt sander
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| The finished floor in a bedroom.. |
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| Finished floor in living room; this is where we were pulling up the nasty carpet. See how beautiful they turned out. |
I hope you enjoyed these before, sanding, and after poly pictures. I'm sorry I don't have the brand I used, but I got it at Home Depot.
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