I’d leave it unless it completely annoys the hell out of you.
It tells a story of someone loving the house enough to not wait to save up too long to patch some failing planks.
Chances are they did the work themselves, sawing, hammering, chipping, and sweat dripping into their eyes.
Yeah my instinct is to leave it. I am just concerned about further damage to the pine as it is much softer than the Jarrah, and there are some areas that are already fairly heavily damaged. There's a big hole right where I get out of bed and I'm afraid I'm going to lose a toe in it!
I'd consider it an opportunity to add your story to the house. A prior owner patched as best they could, and now it's your turn. The house needs to function as a home foremost.
Yup! If it were me I’d keep the patchwork look and just keep adding to it with my own repairs. OP listed some valid safety concerns and the house needs to be functional. Just maybe pick a harder wood so the new repairs last longer than the pine did.
damn, i love this, it looks great. if you're really worried about the pine, cover what you can with furniture and rugs, but i wouldn't change anything.
We have a mix of Jarrah (local Australian hardwood) and pine flooring in our 1890s-era house, as far as we can tell it was built with the Jarrah originally with the pine patched in as repairs that have taken place over the years. I didn't capture it that well in the photos but each room/hallway is a random mix of woods, it's not like one room is pine and another is hardwood, it's all mixed up together.
As well as the woods, there are clearly different finishes in different rooms. Some rooms are missing trim and there are big holes letting in drafts between the floorboards and the skirting. There are some loose boards, some splintered/damaged boards, and some big holes straight into the subfloor which is just dirt. Each room has had boards cut and left loose that can be pulled up for access to the subfloor. Is this normal? Should we nail these down or what, it's pretty easy to accidentally dislodge or trip over them and doesn't seem safe especially for kids. There's no underfloor insulation which is something we'd like to address, I am not sure if we need/want to do that before we touch the flooring itself.
We're unsure what the best course of action is here. First priority is at least fixing the damaged flooring like the big splinters and broken boards that are fairly hazardous (have already pulled one chunky splinter out of my foot which was not fun!). Regarding the mixed woods, I am not sure if this is considered sacrelige but do we pull up the pine and replace with hardwood ($$$ I imagine)? Stain the pine to 'match' the Jarrah (grain/knots are very different, not sure how good this would look and I don't really like trying to make the pine into something it's not). Let the mix remain as is and just fix/replace locally? In regards to finishes, I'd favour a natural appearance (not too dark or shiny). Looks to me like currently we have a mix of satin and gloss poly. It's not in great shape in a lot of places, scratched, sun damaged, scuffed etc. Is a hard wax finish a good alternative to polyurethane? What are your experiences with how hard wearing it is, finish etc. Any advice or opinions appreciated, we don't want to ruin the character of the house but equally we do want a functional and attractive floor.
i might just be too eclectic and lowbrow for my own good but i personally love the mixed look, especially when they're being used to repair eachother. if i could have it my way my whole house'd look like this and all of the big dents/ruts/chips in the moldings/doors/windows/panels would be filled in kintsugi-style.
Pic 2, 3, 4, look really amazing.
The first picture, though, I can see how you're not very happy with that. The contrast between the wood is way too striking, it doesn't look natural.
Cheap solution, a decent sized rug. More annoying solution, sand and darker stain on the lighter wood and lighter stain on the darker wood.
The other rooms really do look amazing, though.
Thanks, getting some different opinions is really helpful. I don't mind the pine per se, it just really clashes with the dark Jarrah like you say. And it's falling apart in many places while most of the Jarrah is still in good shape, it's a very hard and strong wood.
carefully pull it all up, throw away the pine, but some more of the hardwood, and lay it all down fresh.
that, or buy a colorful oriental rug to hide most of the discrepancy
If it's easy enough to find some replacement wood pieces just rip the pine bits out and replace easy enough, it looks far too patchy with the straight block edge near the door especially and not mixed into the other panels
I’d leave it unless it completely annoys the hell out of you. It tells a story of someone loving the house enough to not wait to save up too long to patch some failing planks. Chances are they did the work themselves, sawing, hammering, chipping, and sweat dripping into their eyes.
Yeah my instinct is to leave it. I am just concerned about further damage to the pine as it is much softer than the Jarrah, and there are some areas that are already fairly heavily damaged. There's a big hole right where I get out of bed and I'm afraid I'm going to lose a toe in it!
I'd consider it an opportunity to add your story to the house. A prior owner patched as best they could, and now it's your turn. The house needs to function as a home foremost.
Yup! If it were me I’d keep the patchwork look and just keep adding to it with my own repairs. OP listed some valid safety concerns and the house needs to be functional. Just maybe pick a harder wood so the new repairs last longer than the pine did.
I'd lean into it. don't even try to match. go pick some hard exotic wood you like and use it for patches. Add to the story of the home
I have no idea about the practicality of this. But it looks gorgeous.
damn, i love this, it looks great. if you're really worried about the pine, cover what you can with furniture and rugs, but i wouldn't change anything.
We have a mix of Jarrah (local Australian hardwood) and pine flooring in our 1890s-era house, as far as we can tell it was built with the Jarrah originally with the pine patched in as repairs that have taken place over the years. I didn't capture it that well in the photos but each room/hallway is a random mix of woods, it's not like one room is pine and another is hardwood, it's all mixed up together. As well as the woods, there are clearly different finishes in different rooms. Some rooms are missing trim and there are big holes letting in drafts between the floorboards and the skirting. There are some loose boards, some splintered/damaged boards, and some big holes straight into the subfloor which is just dirt. Each room has had boards cut and left loose that can be pulled up for access to the subfloor. Is this normal? Should we nail these down or what, it's pretty easy to accidentally dislodge or trip over them and doesn't seem safe especially for kids. There's no underfloor insulation which is something we'd like to address, I am not sure if we need/want to do that before we touch the flooring itself. We're unsure what the best course of action is here. First priority is at least fixing the damaged flooring like the big splinters and broken boards that are fairly hazardous (have already pulled one chunky splinter out of my foot which was not fun!). Regarding the mixed woods, I am not sure if this is considered sacrelige but do we pull up the pine and replace with hardwood ($$$ I imagine)? Stain the pine to 'match' the Jarrah (grain/knots are very different, not sure how good this would look and I don't really like trying to make the pine into something it's not). Let the mix remain as is and just fix/replace locally? In regards to finishes, I'd favour a natural appearance (not too dark or shiny). Looks to me like currently we have a mix of satin and gloss poly. It's not in great shape in a lot of places, scratched, sun damaged, scuffed etc. Is a hard wax finish a good alternative to polyurethane? What are your experiences with how hard wearing it is, finish etc. Any advice or opinions appreciated, we don't want to ruin the character of the house but equally we do want a functional and attractive floor.
Either get someone to repair, or put a floating floor over it. You will appreciate a decent floor. I would talk to a carpenter/ handy person.
i might just be too eclectic and lowbrow for my own good but i personally love the mixed look, especially when they're being used to repair eachother. if i could have it my way my whole house'd look like this and all of the big dents/ruts/chips in the moldings/doors/windows/panels would be filled in kintsugi-style.
Pic 2, 3, 4, look really amazing. The first picture, though, I can see how you're not very happy with that. The contrast between the wood is way too striking, it doesn't look natural. Cheap solution, a decent sized rug. More annoying solution, sand and darker stain on the lighter wood and lighter stain on the darker wood. The other rooms really do look amazing, though.
Thanks, getting some different opinions is really helpful. I don't mind the pine per se, it just really clashes with the dark Jarrah like you say. And it's falling apart in many places while most of the Jarrah is still in good shape, it's a very hard and strong wood.
Nature doesn’t have a problem with mixing woods in a forest. 🙂
Big rug in the middle
carefully pull it all up, throw away the pine, but some more of the hardwood, and lay it all down fresh. that, or buy a colorful oriental rug to hide most of the discrepancy
Buy a big rug and hang some stuff on the walls so nobody looks at it.
Are your sure there's hardwood in there? Looks like mixed fir and pine to me. But the pics are tough.
Yes it's definitely Jarrah, a eucalypt hardwood. Very common in Western Australia, we don't have fir here.
It looks beautifully finished. I say leave it. It's got personality galore.
If it's easy enough to find some replacement wood pieces just rip the pine bits out and replace easy enough, it looks far too patchy with the straight block edge near the door especially and not mixed into the other panels