No, I wouldn't do it. To remove it later for restoration-pain. It gums up the sander a lot quicker. Plus you can see dirt easier with black. A good stain, triple coats of polyurethane.

Exceptions? If you are in an area that is cheap and do not foresee much growth in the next few years where you would want to do a restoration. Or if the floors are badly damaged where stains have sunk deep into the wood.

When ever I see anything related to FLOORING I say ALLURE!!

Your old flooring is maybe Tongue & Groove. Do you know what this means in relation to your floor thickness? Well this is the most important factor when deciding if you can salvage your old flooring.

Most old wood flooring from the turn of the century (1900) is only half an inch thick. The floor, tongue and groove, allows the flooring planks to fit together. But the floor has 1/3 above the groove. The groove is 1/3 of of the total thickness and 1/3 under the groove -- 100% of the thickness.

This means that about 1/3 of half an inch is 0.165" is of usable surface. Not too many sanding's and refreshing.

Someone needs to test the thickness of the floor and determine if the floor has any life left. If it can not be sanded and refinished two or more times, then it's time to put a laminate over it as opposed to refinishing it.

Black paint on top of flooring is a poor design....Not that popular....Sometimes it will work in hallways but not in units...

OK...I'm going to be the different one here. In several of our older (100 year old) houses I've painted the floors black.

Why?

The hardwoods were in poor condition for refinishing; cupped which meant I'd be sanding them down so much there might not be much left of the wood.

One coat of black floor paint followed by three coats of oil based polyurethane in high gloss.

I remember posting pictures of the some of the rooms under gailk a long time ago.

Area rugs in neutral colors that cover most of the floor and leave the better preserved flooring around the edges, visible. The house has value as a Victorian and someday it may pay off for you with the floors the way they are. Let the person who will live in it eventually as their own house, change it or refinish it.

Our primary residence is a 1920's house with its original hardwoods, plus a later addition. When we were doing our renovation prior to move-in, we had our floor guy re-finish the floors. The original floors required refinishing, which required sanding down to fresh wood, but the addition only required screening, which is a much lighter sanding.

I have used Glidden longhorn brown to paint uneven old wood floors both inside the apt and hallways. Tenants are in low-income area and rough on the floor.. It is easier to touch up, or fill with Durham's rockhard and paint over..

I never put polyurethane on top of it. I wonder if the extra $200 poly makes a difference to the longevity of the floor..

Also, when it is time to paint over, is the paint gonna stick with poly?