The Historic District

thought I'd share pics after taking my carpets out. I ave been planning to uncover and sand the floor but I thought I'd just get rid of the carpet and assess what's there. I'm pretty sure the house was sold with the typical fitr floor and that it was covered , well a long time ago but I dont' even know the decade.
If I pull up this cork, I dont' think I could easily lay it again. maybe it would do a smaller room. it seems to be glued a bit with paper under. If Its like in the adjoining hall it just needed a wet scrub.

the thing Im now stuck on is it feels destructive to remove the cork. I kind of like it , but if I put all the baseboards back I'd need to remove them to sand and refinish the floor.

when I just saw a corner I thought someone had painted flowers around the edges but now I think it came like that, as the pattern repeats and never intersects the joints. the worst damage is that spot in the bottom pic. A couple of the joints have some gap, a few little discoloration spots but I think maybe a coat of blopentine might help a little. Its fairly fragile so Im not sure how it will wear but this stuff is nice quality , with a jute backing.

I think I like the way the orange and yellow go together and Ive been trying to sort out the color combination for the exterior. the house is already the orange color so I thought the yellow would do well for the sashes.

can anyone date the lyno by the pattern?

what would you do?
Phil

My vote is to keep... You would not need to remove the baseboards if you change your mind later. You would just need to lower the shoe molding....

edit: I think they would look fantastic with a couple of area rugs in complimentary colors

Same here, keep the floors. You kinda like them (I do too, they are a natural substance that give feeling of warmth to the room, like wood does.) and besides, they serve the purpose of protecting your original fir floor underneath.... which would get dented and dinged from use, being more of a soft wood. On the other hand - who's to say if they are in very good condition - if the cork is a recent addition I would wonder why they covered up the wood? My fir floors have been sanded so much from previious PO that she went thru the tongue and groove in some places and would never take another sanding.

Does the cat approve? That's what really matters!

If you're comfortable with the colors, I'd say keep. I think someone stenciled it by hand.

I've tried to look up stenciled cork flooring images, and so far have come up empty as to older floors. I'll keep digging, because I am really interested in this and think it must have happened more often than I'm finding so far. There's one famous stencil lady that has some cork examples, but she's of our times.

Have you tried to use an iron on steam to see if you can puff the dents?

Lily left the valley wrote:

Have you tried to use an iron on steam to see if you can puff the dents?

I will give it a try. certainly nothing to loose in trying that. It could be a stencil someone did.. I think you can still get cork like this so I guess anyone could do it with a pattern they like and that would not be hard to do at all.

as far as house resale value, the original wood might be better ? .. I think I will ponder over it some more and at least I can leave it for now and work more on the windows and trim.
I think it was sanded once, perhaps when installed. of course I'd have to sacrifice the stuff to really see but I'm pretty sure I could refinish the fir. Ive refinished all the other floors except the bathroom so there is something to be said for finishing that but maybe I dont' need to make the floor priority. It would be a good time to sand right now as it's not always easy to monopolize the living room like this. I cant' decide.. better think it over. Thanks for the opinions..
I'll plan to have a good long conversation with Kitty this weekend over it all.. pretty sure she will give it the Meeooow

Phil, as Kasha-Kat said, if anything, leaving the cork may protect the fir from similar dings and dents you'd have to refinish anyhoo for resale value. Cork is making a comeback, but it's a small crowd so far. Not sure how the market bears for such up your way.

I definitely think living with it for the bit you have left to work on the windows and trim will help both of you decide. I totally understand not wanting to have to clean out the room again later to do an entire floor! So take advantage of what time you have to decide.

Because you stated, "Its fairly fragile so I'm not sure how it will wear..." and because the design is not a "work of art" or required any sort of craftsmanship, I'd support any decision you make that removes it. If it can be removed in reusable condition I'd consider a less conspicuous use for it.

The last thing one should ever consider, in making a current choice, is future resale value. People tend to compromise on what would make themselves happy now when they consider what might make some future home buyer happy later. Life is too short and one can't predict (or imagine) the fickleness of others.

Olson185 wrote:{snip} Life is too short and one can't predict (or imagine) the fickleness of others.

This is so very true. It took a bit for our realtor to remember we wanted all original wood windows and such--not vinyl everything. When he got it, though...he never forgot it. Our inspector had the same issue--he'd have to stop himself when he'd start talking marketeese about what such and such expected update costs would run. Then he'd sort of grin and we'd both chuckle and he'd move on to the next bit.

I think cork flooring is the wrong search term, although these floors might well contain cork. It's probably linoleum with a printed pattern and likely pre-WWI or 1950s at latest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linoleum

If you decide to keep it you could ask a linoleum installer to have a look at it, maybe re-seal the joints nd fill in the worst dents to protect the floor from moisture.

colored wax might work to hide the obvious spots. Yes I guess linoleum might be a better description. this stuff does have the jute backing. we have an area at work with battleship linoleum and that is a pretty similar product. the battleship stuff might be a bit heavier but the backing is similar. they had some tested for asbestos and it wasn't asbestos so they left it alone.
At some point I picked up a bundle of scraps of newer cork flooring. I stashed it away thinkin git's good stuff for heavy gaskets. that stuff is thicker and it doesn't' have a backing. it also doesn't have the sheen this stuff has.
I might tackle the windows first and then maybe try to move it to some basement location. I think I like it but I think I'd like to see the original fir even more. either will need some sort of area rug.

one thing I will say though is that this flooring does give a look of "old" whereas I have found when I have done the work of finishing floors and seen younger peoples reactions they think it's just laminate and dont' stop to realize it is actually a 100 year old floor. Of course anyone into old houses would know the difference but i guess younger people are so used to seeing woodgrain patterns that they don't immediately realize it's real wood. Maybe there is something to leaving some patina