A pine floor brought back to new, joint by joint

A floor that has lived, in a flat full of character

In the heart of Arreau, in an old flat with plastered walls and exposed beams, the pine floor had seen a lot of life: sound boards, but wide-open joints, old fillings crumbling away, a finish worn right down to the wood. The owner wanted to keep it, and she was right: a solid wood floor of that age is worth saving.

Step 1: sanding, and clearing out all the old joints

Sanding removes the old finish and gets back to bare wood. But on this floor, the real work is between the boards: every joint was scraped along its full length to get the old filling products out, then cleared and vacuumed. You never fill over old material: a clean joint is the only base that holds.

Step 2: filling in four passes, then lacquering

The filling is done with a filler binderFiller binder (liant de rebouchage in French): a liquid product mixed with the sanding dust from the floor itself, to make a paste exactly the colour of the wood, which is spread over the whole surface to fill the joints. mixed with the sanding dust from the floor itself: the paste takes on the exact colour of the wood. On openings this wide, a single pass is not enough, the paste shrinks back into the joint. It took four, with a sanding between each one, before the surface was even and the joints full. Then a final sanding, a base coatBase coat (fond dur in French): the first sealing coat applied to bare wood before the floor lacquer. It fills the pores, evens out the colour and lets the lacquer bond without soaking in too much., and two coats of matt floor lacquerFloor lacquer (vitrificateur in French): a floor varnish that forms a hard, clear film on the wood to protect it from foot traffic and stains. Here in a matt finish, to keep the natural look of the pine.. In the hallway, drag the gold line to see the joints cleared, then filled:

And the bedroom, before and after:

Where there was no floor left: starting again from the subfloor

Part of the flat no longer had any floorboards: lino, laid on old fibreboard panels, and underneath an old, bumpy self-levelling compoundSelf-levelling compound (ragréage in French): a floor screed poured over an uneven base to get a flat, hard surface before laying a floor covering., impossible to cover over as it was. Everything was taken up down to the timber, then a new self-levelling compound was poured to get a flat floor back. With the owner, and at her request, we went for two coverings: click-fit flooring in the two cupboards under the eaves, and vinyl tiles (PVC) on the central part.

One of the two cupboards under the eaves, before and after:

The questions I often get asked

Is an old pine floor worth renovating rather than covering over? Do filled joints last over time? Lacquer or oil a floor you have just sanded?

I have practical answers to all of that, and two articles to dig deeper: renovating an old wood floor, what can be saved and what gets replaced and lacquer, oil or wax your wood floor. For your own project, call me: the quote (the French devis) is free. I speak English, so feel free to call or write in English.