Quick & dirty recoat of floorboards or rug?

Hi all

Our recently moved into Victorian has an open plan back area consisting of the kitchen (~8m*4m), dining (~8m*4m) & living area (~8m*4m). The kitchen & living areas have baltic pine floorboards, while the dining area (a more recent extension) is radiata pine.

All the floorboards are overdue for maintenance, however the radiata pine in particular is quite bad - the coating (acrylic?) is worn away in traffic areas, with the kids recently getting a splinter or two off them.

We are in the process of having plans made up for an extension to the dining & kitchen areas and were hoping not to do anything to the floorboards till this work got underway. With the attack of the splinters it looks like I need to do something now rather than wait for the extensions to begin (which may be up to a year away).

My question (finally) is could I get away with just giving the dining area (radiata boards) a light finishing sand & then coat with estapol now (even though the other areas all surround it) and then get a professional in to do the whole back area when the extensions are done. Or should I just get hold of a big floor rug to cover the dining area for the short term.

My concern is that with the dining area surrounded by the kitchen & living areas (& with no walls etc separating them), it will look out of place to have it recoated while the other areas are not. I also don't want to potentially damage the boards by either doing nothing or doing a substandard job.

Hope all this makes sense. Many thanks in advance for your advice.

Maybe dropping a piece of cheap lino on top would give a serviceable surface for a dining area, cover the splinters and protect the wood surface. If you can do it in one piece with minimal edging at doors etc you probably wouldn't need any glue. Perhaps it could be re-used somewhere else later on (in the garage or workshop?).

You could just slap on a couple of extra coats of water based poly as on it now,this may bind any splintering or the rug or lino thing would be another option.wait till you get the extension done then get it all done then.