I should also mention that approx 1000 sq feet of flooring needs to be replaced. The original hardwood laminate flooring is disintegrating beyond repair over much of the house.
Since I'm taking down the old drywall, I got to thinking...why not take down the wood planks from the walls and the ceiling, plane them and use them for floors? I believe the wood is pine...many strips are 15+ feet long...and surely over 80 years the wood is warp-proof. There are knots and nail holes. It seems like the holes could be filled with something (what would work best?)
I would have to buy a planer (never used one before). I'm willing to buy a good one since I'll be saving a ton on flooring!
If I had a good planer...Couldn't I remove all the nails, plain the planks to a uniform thickness, sand 'em (some planers can take sander attachments, I believe), stain 'em and nail 'em down?
Surely I'm missing something. It sounds too easy. What think ye?
I believe you're missing much and much of it may be structural. Houses of that era commonly had 1X10 shiplap on the interior side of walls. I suspect you will find there is not a header in the house over any door or window. That's because structural support was provided by that shiplap in addition to the exterior siding on exterior walls and shiplap on both sides on interior walls. You can remove the shiplap though you should be prepared to reframe doors and windows with proper headers on load-bearing walls. That shiplap also served to help the walls resist racking and removing it will lessen that resistance. You could use the boards for flooring. Unlike the pine grown today whose primary function is fast growth, old growth loblolly (?) pine was denser and thus harder. Purchase a metal detector before planing; you'll want to find any metal in the wood before you run it through your planer blades. Floor refinishing suppliers will have filler by the bucket that will sand very well. You should consider laying a plywood subfloor though that could present issues relative to existing floor height and surrounding rooms. It was common practice to have but a single layer floor. Apply generous amounts of Liquid Nails between the subfloor and your pine finish floor. It's a monumental task that, in the end, may cost you more in labor and replacement materials for the walls you rob than you save on the flooring. Now you're going to need new door jambs, baseboards, and door and window casing. You'll be changing the wall thickness which means your windows and doors will no longer be the correct depth.