Firstly...are you sure they are jarrah and not som other more exotic timber? If you are fortunate enough to have a genuine 1932 built cottage I say "Don't Do it!" Just look at the beautiful timber in that floor! It would be sinful to paint it. I have a 1924 cottage with beautiful hoop pine floorboards all from the day it was built. My suggestion is to have the boards sanded and polished. I would not even dare go near them with polyurethane. I have turned back the clock and used the methods of the period of the house...a mix of pale boiled linseed oil and kero. Put it on with a mop or a deck mop or a wool mop leave it soak in. Re-do and leave it soak in,,,( you won't get patches...the floors will just soak it up.) Third coat, add a bit of turps to the mix as a white ant deterrent. Then, when the floors look like they've soaked up enough, get a big old fashioned string mop...if you can find one...or use a deck scrubber and old towels...or even a wad of new ones...100% cotton...its worth it, and rub off as much of the surplus as possible...wear sox so you will notice when the sox do not get oil stained anymore. First go is a long process but you will be really pleased when the floors have had several "drinks". After that you could get just an ordinary floor varnish or oil or just a sealant. Some of the modern wood treatments are really good. Then, every so often do the boards over with your "Oil Mop". You will never find timber like that again and, in my experience, it adds to the value of the house big time. Do what you like to any gyprock and plastered walls but PLEASE love your floorboards and any natural timber...especially from that era. I've been in this old cottage for 32 years. Everyone wants to know where I sourced the "new" floorboards", and who did I get to make my silky oak windows! Hope that helps.

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For what it's worth we have a cottage with one hundred years old timber floors – mainly not tongue and groove just beautiful boards that we pulled up, re-trimmed and relaid. The boards are just beautiful – and they are probably mainly spotted gum as we live amongst them and when the cottage was built they would have used the timber from the local mill. We chose a satin finish for them and they just glow – everyone who walks in exclaims about how lovely they are. When we built a modern extension a couple of years ago we were lucky enough to find some more old (maybe 60-70 years) floor boards that came out of an old shed that was being demolished – they looked beyond retrieval but they were lovely big, heavy boards so they had plenty of meat on them so once they had been re-trimmed and thicknessed they have been finished with the same satin finish and also look amazing. I love that they look like timber (once part of a tree, a living, growing, imperfect but wonderful organism) rather than looking timber-like.

You could distress it yourself to make it look reclaimed. Is there anyone there that likes bashing things with a hammer?