I've had this vision for this house of rustic wood floors that are purposely worn looking, like so:

What I'm thinking is waterloxed pine, just cheap tongue and groove pine. Not heart pine. I want patina, I want casual, I want a beat up.

What I DON'T want is so beat up that we get splinters walking across it.

We have hardwoods in our current house, and they're scratched to hell, but the don't look like they're supposed to be that way. I want the new floors to be scratched to hell on purpose, if you catch my drift.

Is this insanity? I know people with poly-ed pine tend to hate it, but I'm thinking that oiled pine is a different beast. Am I right, or crazy?

This is mequite, btw

This is another one

I know I don't want poly, because it can't be repaired without refinishing the whole floor. It's oil or we go in another direction entirely.

Those mesquite floors are amazing!

We have oiled pine (not heart pine) in our lake house. It looks great, but we haven't used it like we use our hardwood floors at home. I can't give you a thumbs up, yet, since they're only 2-3 yrs old. One good thing is the grain is busy, and that hides a lot. One bad thing is when I mop them, it doesn't seem to have that smooth polyurethane layer that protects and glides right over. The guy that sold them to us talked us into using the oil (not Waterlox), which again is fine, so far. Our coutertop is Waterlox on the island, and it's been great, but it's oak.

What did he say to convince you to do oil (tung oil?) vs Waterlox? We were considering tung oil, but I'm reading that we'll have to put 6 coats on, and I'm not sure I'm up for that. Waterlox is 2 coats, and supposedly has better durability. This is 100% DIY, so labor matters. :)

One other thing, we did Waterlox on our white oak floors downstairs, and the look was what I wanted, but it has not held up well to traffic at all, and in order to touch up a board, I will need to sand and reapply a coat to the entire board so that the edge of the refinish won't be seen. It is not like an unmodified oil finish.

I have reclaimed barn wood (pine) upstairs, and I have to say that even though I hand picked each board, I'm not completely happy with the color overall (I used an oil emulsion finish). So don't fret over not being able to do reclaimed. I'm sure some are better than others, but it's not necessarily a given that they'll turn out the way you want.

I don't know anything about oiling floors, but find out about the odor and how long it takes to stop smelling. The few oils I've worked with have taken a long time to stop offgassing fumes

Re: for the love of a house blog...wow! Amazing place. Those floors are beautiful. Pic for those following along:
I think those floors are original to the house, probably pine, but a different beast.

I don't know why I'm so set on the light pine floors here; I've always liked dark floors but this house just feels like it needs pale ones. It's very bright and airy, and I'm going for a fun, relaxed, bright, eclectic vibe.

I'm also thinking that leaving the floors the natural color will help scratches not look bad, as even big gouges will be the same color as the rest of the floor.

I did a reclaimed fireplace. It's white oak. I coated it with 3 coats of tung oil. It's just starting to amber slightly but it has never turned dark.

Dark floors aren't my thing. I wanted bleached originally but went with natural 5" ash. These are 9 y.o. now. They were done professionally, oiled -- 4 coats of pure tung oil. If you go with that plan on at least a week because each coat of oil must stay on the floors until it is absorbed fully. Fans need to be on round the clock. So it's 5 days minimum. (We obviously weren't living in the house at the time) and then 3 more days to cure. Here's how they looked originally and they still look the same. I coat them with Sofix a German wax/cleaner for oiled floors. They get cleaned with it diluted. Stuff wipes up. The worst I can say is they get some scuff marks that I removed for the first time recently with very fine steel wool. We clean regularly with the Sofix then vacuum. They have held up perfectly even in the kitchen.

I have a reclaimed floor in the powder room. Our contractor put in remnants from another job which had been 100 y.o. chestnut oak boards done in a historic stone house right over the floor joists. These were oiled originally like the others but due to the age of the wood they dried out. I DIYd 3 coats of low sheen natural Waterlox (stink but easy -- again a fan for 24 hours between coats). We had a flood in there and the Waterlox resisted a ton of water; no cupping and we just vacuum.

We had an apartment with oak floors and parquet from 1929. These were carpeted for 20 years. When we did a reno we refinished them (professionally) with water-based Bona natural -- low odor. Floors in the other rooms were white oak parquet done years ago with oil-based poly with a sheen -- those can be seen beyond. The refinished white oak are super matte. The appearance is raw wood. The Bona can be damp mopped with their cleaner. No scuffs but they did scratch when I dragged a piece of furniture. They have a different surface quality than any other floors I've encountered -- almost nonskid. But they gave me the matte look I wanted.

Pine is a relatively soft wood for floors, at least compared to ash or oak. I've seen it stained and don't like that look at all. When it's natural, if will turn reddish over time. But it has a ton of character. If I were going with new pine, I'd likely use the Waterlox or the Bona natural though the Waterlox would be more durable IMO.

Good luck!

susan

Are people too young to remember what it takes to maintain waxed floors--and why so many people installed wall-to-wall carpet in the '60s and '70s, until poly came out?

NEVER again.

Ive used the Sofix for a decade now on my oiled floors. It's a liquid and cleaner. It goes on full strength the first time and then floors are damp mopped with it at 10% strength. It has worked well for me and isn't expensive. I'm sure someone out there will love paste-wax floors and anyone who wants that maintenance can knock themselves out (which they will).

I've also had poly, as the photos above show. If someone wants that but also wants matte floors that Bona natural is a great solution. I just don't care for shiny floors. I like a natural look which is what the OP was asking about.

Fortunately, so many products are really good now there's a big fat menu of floor finishes.

The pine is soaking up the Waterlox, but it's going to be lovely when I'm done. It will turn darker and reddish with the Waterlox and light ... exact shades depend on the species of pine you install.