I'm trying to find some info for a friend who just bought a house built
sometime around the turn of the last century. The floors in the old part
of the house look like oak from a distance but, when seen up close, the
look of oak is achieved by something (stain? varnish? paint?) over a white
coat of paint.

From what we can tell, the white paint isn't pickling since the boards
under that don't look like they were finished in any way and it's
definitely a pretty solid layer of white paint.

We were wondering if this is some type of floor treatment used in older
houses to give the look of better wood flooring to cheaper wood floors or
whether this whole visual effect was just pure dumb luck and many decades
of being covered by old, disintigrating carpeting.

Any info anyone can provide will be appreciated.

FragileWarrior wrote:
I'm trying to find some info for a friend who just bought a house built
sometime around the turn of the last century. The floors in the old part
of the house look like oak from a distance but, when seen up close, the
look of oak is achieved by something (stain? varnish? paint?) over a white
coat of paint.

From what we can tell, the white paint isn't pickling since the boards
under that don't look like they were finished in any way and it's
definitely a pretty solid layer of white paint.

We were wondering if this is some type of floor treatment used in older
houses to give the look of better wood flooring to cheaper wood floors or
whether this whole visual effect was just pure dumb luck and many decades
of being covered by old, disintigrating carpeting.

Any info anyone can provide will be appreciated.


Different people have different thoughts but "turn of last century" was
some six years ago, not very old. Am assuming you meant in the early
1900's. Many floors back then were probably pine and may have been
painted over later by someone to attain a grain effect which was a
popular thing in the 40's.. If wood is accually pine it can become a
beautiful floor if prepared correctly. Not a job for an amateur.

"Jack" wrote in
oups.com:


FragileWarrior wrote:
I'm trying to find some info for a friend who just bought a house
built sometime around the turn of the last century. The floors in
the old part of the house look like oak from a distance but, when
seen up close, the look of oak is achieved by something (stain?
varnish? paint?) over a white coat of paint.

From what we can tell, the white paint isn't pickling since the
boards under that don't look like they were finished in any way and
it's definitely a pretty solid layer of white paint.

We were wondering if this is some type of floor treatment used in
older houses to give the look of better wood flooring to cheaper wood
floors or whether this whole visual effect was just pure dumb luck
and many decades of being covered by old, disintigrating carpeting.

Any info anyone can provide will be appreciated.


Different people have different thoughts but "turn of last century"
was some six years ago, not very old. Am assuming you meant in the
early 1900's.

Yes. Sorry. I figure I'm IN this century so that was the last one. I
should have clarified better.

Many floors back then were probably pine and may have
been painted over later by someone to attain a grain effect which was
a popular thing in the 40's.. If wood is accually pine it can become a
beautiful floor if prepared correctly. Not a job for an amateur.

Do you have any idea what might be over the white paint to give it the
oak color? Is it possible that is stain or maybe just effects of aging
paint?

I think he is going to get someone to come in and do the work for him but
we were just curious if this was an intentional effect or not.

Thanks for the help!

In article ,
says...
We were wondering if this is some type of floor treatment used in older
houses to give the look of better wood flooring to cheaper wood floors or
whether this whole visual effect was just pure dumb luck and many decades
of being covered by old, disintigrating carpeting.

Faux finishes were very popular for making inexpensive materials look
better. I've seen similar fake wood grain paint jobs on furniture, too.

--
is Joshua Putnam
http://www.phred.org/~josh/
Braze your own bicycle frames. See
http://www.phred.org/~josh/build/build.html

FragileWarrior wrote:
I'm trying to find some info for a friend who just bought a house built
sometime around the turn of the last century. The floors in the old part
of the house look like oak from a distance but, when seen up close, the
look of oak is achieved by something (stain? varnish? paint?) over a white
coat of paint.

From what we can tell, the white paint isn't pickling since the boards
under that don't look like they were finished in any way and it's
definitely a pretty solid layer of white paint.

We were wondering if this is some type of floor treatment used in older
houses to give the look of better wood flooring to cheaper wood floors or
whether this whole visual effect was just pure dumb luck and many decades
of being covered by old, disintigrating carpeting.

Any info anyone can provide will be appreciated.

I've seen houses of that era with painted wood grain on trim, but never
noticed it on floors. If painted, the floors I recall had kind of a
creamy brown color paint on them, probably over old pine (wider)
flooring. There are probably pictures of the woodgraining and/or the
technique on the net, if you google. The wood trim I am thinking of is
wide, molded, with the concentric circle motifs at upper corners.
Woodgraining also used on built in cabinets.

"Faux bois" (false wood) is an old technique and popular lately (again).
In the '60's, they called it "antiquing". Glazes used probably would
not stand up to wear on floors. Different colors of paint would.

I had to paint on oak wood grain once, when I refinished kitchen
cabinets for a friend. Discovered after I slathered on paint remover
that the end panels weren't wood, but mdf with printed grain. Whew!
Closest I've come to nervous breakdown )

I found one link to show you what they do:
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/tvpr...265550,00.html

You can make a glaze with some paint, mineral spirits, varnish, touch of
linseed to slow drying. I've done it a number of times - no particular
recipe.

Joshua Putnam wrote in
:

In article ,
says...
We were wondering if this is some type of floor treatment used in
older houses to give the look of better wood flooring to cheaper wood
floors or whether this whole visual effect was just pure dumb luck
and many decades of being covered by old, disintigrating carpeting.

Faux finishes were very popular for making inexpensive materials look
better. I've seen similar fake wood grain paint jobs on furniture,
too.


Yep, I know what you mean and I went and looked at it really well. It
hasn't been raked with a woodgrain tool or anything. There's nothing that
looks like it was done intentionally to look like oak -- it just happened
to turn out that way. Maybe it was just the way whatever was on the wood
wore away under the rug. The rug was probably put down 40 years ago. The
rubber padding actually turned to dust when you touched it. Ugh.

Thanks for the help!