Vintage Oak Floor with Pegs and French Bleed Edge

9 years ago

I'm getting ready for a kitchen renovation. The current floor is travertine. Previous owner installed the floor. It has a hairline crack all the way down the length of the floor. I've consulted with two flooring guys so far. They both said the reason for the failure was bad installation practices.

The 60 year old Cape Cod is somewhat open concept. The keeping room and dining room are located at each respective end of the kitchen. The Keeping Room opens on to a casual living area. The casual living area is natural black slate. The Keeping Room and Dining Room are 7",6" and 3" patterned white oak boards with holes drilled into the boards. These holes are filled with dowels. The boards are edged with a French Bleed edge.

The easiest route is to replace the travertine with black slate. But, the room is dark due to a porch adjacent to the kitchen window. I would like to install this form of wood flooring in the kitchen. The kitchen is 21' x 10', or 210 square feet.

The first flooring guy said that he could replicate the look. But, upon closer questioning he couldn't get the French Bleed edge. The second said that he could do it, but it would require custom milling.

Has anyone gone the custom milling route? What's involved? Most importantly, how much more is it going to cost than the natural slate floor?

I'm providing a sample picture of the Keeping Room floor. Has anyone embarked upon such a journey. Am I crazy?

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Comments (4)

GreenDesigns
9 years ago
The person's input that you need here is Casey. Posting name, Sombreuil_mongrel. Posting in the Old House Forum here will surely attract his attention. He's a specialist in old home restoration.
User
9 years ago
Your floor does not look like the what I've seen that is called French bleed. Google French bleed and let us know if your floor matches the pictures you see.
Your floor looks like a standard plank with beveled edges. Perhaps the bevels were bigger at one time and have gotten smaller with sanding. This wood would have to be milled specifically with a beveled edge. When this is done, you can specify what size bevel you want to duplicate what you have.
Depending on the age of the existing floor, the new wood may very well be lighter in color. There's also a decent chance that under those wood plugs are screws holding the wood down. This is typical of wider plank floors.
To get price quotes you'll need to have the amount of flooring needed in each width. If they don't pre-bore the floor you'll have to drill, bore on site, screw the floor down then put in plugs. Figure 2 to 3 plugs per square foot.
Sounds pricey.
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HomeChef59
Original Author
9 years ago
Yes, they are screwed in. I have to periodically replace a peg with a dowel. Old English Scratch Cover does a good job with ageing the new dowel/peg. If this was heart pine, it would be easier to get the product. Oak, not so much.

Yes, I'm afraid it's going to be big bucks. Natural slate would be easier. I'll let you know how it goes.
User
9 years ago
Wide random width heart Pine here costs way more than comparable Oak but when I use Pine, it's usually clear grade.
You can probably figure out that wood is my trade but I have 16" x 16" multi color gauged slate in parts of my own house. We don't fret over spills, dog slobber or water carried in from the pool in the part of the house we use most often.
I'm wondering if there's a way you could use a lighter slate and incorporate accents of the black slate in the kitchen.
Be wary of what the installers told you. Is it a concrete or a wood subfloor? Either way, there might be a structural reason the current floor cracked. There might be methods that can keep it from recurring but they may not be foolproof.That's one advantage of wood floor. It doesn't crack like stone due to a concrete crack or house settling.
Good luck!