Can you put new flooring over old pine boards without a subfloor?
Old pine boards can sometimes serve as a base, but when sections are damaged with splinters, holes, and discoloration, homeowners face a tough choice between laying hardwood or LVP directly over the pine or ripping it out to install a proper subfloor. Lacking experience makes it difficult to judge whether extra plywood is needed first.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1sanding down minor buckles to level before installing new flooring
- 2running a circular saw down between boards, screwing them down, and filling the holes
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I've moved into a new house and the floorboards are large ply sheets, I'm planning on laying LVT click flooring on top but do I need to put more ply down first?”source ↗
“first-time homeowners, so we have basically no barometer for what's normal and no BS meter. Hoping for a second opinion.”source ↗
“Roughly 25% of it is in rough shape: splinters, discoloration, and holes from old screws and drilling.”source ↗
“We're trying to decide between (a) using the existing pine as a subfloor and installing hardwood or LVP over it, or (b) ripping it all out and putting down a proper subfloor first.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 7How to remove old dried adhesive before laying LVP flooring
- 2How to tell if flooring installation is wrong
- 3Should I glue down engineered herringbone flooring or float it?
- 2Should I add plywood to a flexing subfloor or replace it?