A 1930s Semi by the Sea: What Happened to the Floors?

Our move down to Hove has come and gone in a flurry of activity and super-human packing sessions. The week before we were due to move in, there was a large list of things to be done by the building company – finish the floors, hang the radiators, finish painting, install bathroom and much, much more. Even with 2 days to go, it was still hard to picture how the house would look as there were up to 15 people in there rushing around trying to get things done. I decided that the only way to maintain my sanity was to have blind faith – at that point there was little else I could do, except get in the way.

We moved in on a rainy Sunday to a house that still needed a lot of work but had a working kitchen, working plumbing, working electrics and doors that closed. All of the necessities. We sat amongst our boxes in front of the large, curtainless windows and took it all in. The house was transformed in to the light and beachy feeling property we wanted, that was for sure. And even though the windows were splattered in (fresh) paint and covered in (old) mildew, we could still see the English Channel churning down the road.

Another far less charming thing we could see was that the original floorboards (that had been in good shape when we took up the carpets) had been mauled by a sander in inexperienced hands. The natural Treatex hard oil we had used gave a beautiful colour to the wood, but the boards were actually wavy in areas with huge gashes here and there. And they were very coarse and gritty to the touch. We had reviewed the floors after the first round of sanding, and told the manager they were very rough, and had been reassured they would receive a final sand and clean before the varnish went down. This had not happened. And about 30 of the boards had not been nailed back down so there was clonking and creaking with every 3rd step we took.

This floor botch job was a small disaster, because it meant we could not let our son crawl on it – the floor was just too scratchy.   He was not happy about being under house arrest (i.e. carried everywhere) for the two weeks it took to get a carpet down in his room, and a grizzly baby makes for a grizzly mom. So when Paul No. 1 came around the day after we moved in and I pointed out the floors, I expressed my shock that no one had bothered to a) check for the smoothness required before varnishing or b) clean them before varnishing. They had loads of dirt and hair stuck to the finish. I was trying to stay calm and cool, but that lasted about 2 minutes. He immediately offered to re-do them but I was not convinced that they would come out right a second time around unless he brought in a floor specialist company which he didn’t seem keen on. So we agreed to take the price off the bill. We are now weighing up whether to hire a floor restoration company (specialists only is my new rule) or lay sustainable and hard-wearing bamboo. We’ve retained almost all of the houses original features, so we’re not sure which way to go.

Now that we’re in the house, and the major work has been done, we can  take more time with decisions like the floors, the wardrobes, the wooden windows that need to be replaced, the garden, the exterior… and have more control over the work being done.

If you are considering restoring your floorboards, and want to avoid the headaches we had, read the 4Homes guide on Restoring Period Features. I wish our builders had.

And then there is what we found under the floorboards, but I’ll save that for next time.

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