floored

I realized today that there is only one spot in this house where you can see all four types of floors that have been used in this house over the last 117 years. If you stand at the top of the stairs on the third floor and look down, you'll see the original 1899 old-growth yellow pine stairs leading up to the third floor (which also has it's original floors), the 1x4 yellow pine boards that a previous owner installed and called a floor in the early 90's, the circa 1920's oak veneer steps leading to the second floor and the Red Oak floors we installed on the first floor before moving in.

When we looked at the house, the whole first floor was the thin Oak veneer floor laid over the original pine floor. It was in terrible shape and unrepairable (in many places it was as thin as cardboard) which is why we replaced it.

Original 1899 heartwood pine floors

1920's oak veneer floor

From what I gather, oak was a sign of wealth. And in the early part of the last century, oak veneer floors became widely available. The veneer boards were roughly 1/4-1/2 the thickness of a standard floor plank, half the price and were installed directly on top of the old floors. People who had pine floors who could afford a small upgrade but not an entire new floor (but wanted to appear like they could) installed the veneer in their house.

Many people wrongly assume that the oak is original and the boards below it are just subfloor. But in houses this age and this size, wood floors did not have a subfloor. They were nailed directly to the floor joists and the seams always met directly over the middle of one of the joists. The quickest way to tell, in this neighborhood, if your floor is original is to look at the direction the boards are laid. If they run from front to back, they could be original. If they run side to side, they're definitely not original.