Real Hardwood floor experts, need help. Pulled up carpet to find Hardwood floors underneith

[funboy6942]

They had stuck a gas heating unit in the hall way that was not being used anymore and the wife, her mother, and I decided to pull it out, all the duct work, and open the hallway up a bit and get rid of the thing since it will never be used again for the home had a new HVAC installed in the basement. In doing so we discovered under it there was a hardwood floor. So the wife pulled up some of the carpet in the living room, dining room, and the bedrooms to find out they had covered real hard wood floors under the carpets, As seen here of the floor in the livingroom.

Well we were happy. pulled the one in the dining room and the living room and it didnt look all that bad, Id rather have it then carpet and can live with its slight faults any day over carpet. The bad was in the hallway though. Where the heater was not at and under the carpet they glued down outdoor/indoor carpet to the wood leaving THIS HERE, AND THIS HERE, stuck to the floor.

I have tried to sand it with my sander and not coming off, though about a wire bush, then thought it would really do more damage to the floor, I know they make some chemicals I could prolly put down, but we still live in the house with pets so having the fumes in the home for us all to breath is out, the wife wants to tile over it and I am getting close to giving up and saying go for it, but damn, to tile over real hardwood floors to me is a crime.

So anyone out there have any ideas? I called a rental place thinking of getting a huge industrial type floor sander but was told the glue would heat up and wipe out the sanding pads left and right making one hell of a mess. Also on the first picture in the living room, what to do with that floor for the sun fade, and to bring the shine back to it?

Thanks for the help, truly appreciated, and especially so if you can come up with an idea so save the hardwood floor in the hallway from being tiled over.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Are you sure that they didn't score the wood for a better seal with the glue? If you can find out what kind of wood that is, why not just replace those planks? Wouldn't that be cheaper than tiling over the whole thing anyway? Imagine how nice it would look if it were all sanded and re-stained.

 

[Safeway]

Sand and varnish with polyurethane.

 

[nwfsnake]

I am sure Xylene would remove that glue, but you will want to wear a respirator and open up the windows so you have good ventillation. Keep the pets clear of it also.

 

[broon]

I wouldn't tile over the wood. If you want tile, cut the wood out. If you want to stay with the wood, replace the bad spots and refinish the whole floor.

 

[WHAMPOM]

Heat gun and scraper.

 

[funboy6942]

Originally posted by: broon
I wouldn't tile over the wood. If you want tile, cut the wood out. If you want to stay with the wood, replace the bad spots and refinish the whole floor.

Unfortunately, my budget wouldn't allow me to afford one sq foot of the wood and its a good size hallway.

As for the Chemicals, I don't want to do that, again we live here, rooms are right off the hallway, don't want to do that at all.

As for the glue itself, it is just placed on top. I have removed some with my sander after many many minutes of sanding, you can see the spot in the pic if you look close enough, and it is not gouged into the wood, just placed on top of it, then they put the carpet down.

So far from the responses I have been getting, replacing the wood, out cant afford, chemicals out, don't want to kill the family or pets, and looks like we will be tiling over it.

Unless someone else has a better solution.

Originally posted by: broon
I wouldn't tile over the wood. If you want tile, cut the wood out. If you want to stay with the wood, replace the bad spots and refinish the whole floor.

If I did this and tiled onto the subfloor, then I have to extend the baseboard throughout the hall way to make up for the lower floor, and it would be weird that all room leading into the hallway would be higher then it. Why would I want to remove the wood and do this?

 

[brandonbull]

Check into having the wood floor refinished. I would guess you will need one of those floor sanders to remove the glue and damage from the carpet.

Why would you carpet or tile over real hardwood flooring?

 

[broon]

If you are going to tile, cut the wood out first. FYI tile will cost as much as wood and will be more work.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Well maybe you should use a big sander anyway? If it's old glue wouldn't it be more likely to break and chip away instead of melt? I don't know much about flooring and glues. What's your budget BTW? If you can't afford to replace just the bad planks, how are you going to afford to tile the whole room?

 

[funboy6942]

Originally posted by: brandonbull
Check into having the wood floor refinished. I would guess you will need one of those floor sanders to remove the glue and damage from the carpet.

Why would you carpet or tile over real hardwood flooring?

I was going to rent a sander and was told the glue would heat up, chrystalize, and just chew up the sanding pads leaving a bunt mess on the wood.

Originally posted by: broon
If you are going to tile, cut the wood out first. FYI tile will cost as much as wood and will be more work.

I guess I should mention that the tile we will be laying is cheap ass self sticking tile. We cant afford the good stuff here, Im disabled and not working

And see my reply few up, if I removed the wood, Im in for one hell of a mess with uneven hallway floor from the rest of the floors and having to lower trim and plaster walls, no thanks, much much much more work then my wife and MIL could ever handle.

 

[funboy6942]

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2
Well maybe you should use a big sander anyway? If it's old glue wouldn't it be more likely to break and chip away instead of melt? I don't know much about flooring and glues. What's your budget BTW? If you can't afford to replace just the bad planks, how are you going to afford to tile the whole room?

My MIL was going to buy the til, its just going to be the cheap stuff, around $40.

With my portable sander the glue was sticking to the pad on it so the big sander Im sure the rental guy was telling me the truth, lucky me to find one to not want my money and be honest.

Im sure the hardwood will cost a lot more then $40 to replace.

 

[KillerCharlie]

The house I grew up in (over 100 years old now) had carpet in the dining room and living room when we bought it... we finally pulled it up and found a beautiful hardwood floor. Not too long ago carpet was much more desirable than hardwood floor. Supposedly these older hardwood floors are so valuable that if anyone ever decides to tear the house down, they could make a lot of money salvaging the floor and selling it.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: funboy42

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2
Well maybe you should use a big sander anyway? If it's old glue wouldn't it be more likely to break and chip away instead of melt? I don't know much about flooring and glues. What's your budget BTW? If you can't afford to replace just the bad planks, how are you going to afford to tile the whole room?

My MIL was going to buy the til, its just going to be the cheap stuff, around $40.

With my portable sander the glue was sticking to the pad on it so the big sander Im sure the rental guy was telling me the truth, lucky me to find one to not want my money and be honest.

Im sure the hardwood will cost a lot more then $40 to replace.

Maybe, but it's certainly something worth checking out. I used to do apartment maintenance and we used that crappy self-stick leno all the time. It was really easy to shift around as you walk on it, and I don't think it will seal as well on wood as it would on concrete.

How many square feet of just the bad area would you need to replace?

 

[lightpants]

If you put those self stick tiles on your wood floor:

a. it will look horrible in 6 months
b. the next person that owns your house will pull one of them up and post a thread somewhere titled "Real Hardwood floor experts, need help. Pulled up stick-on tile to find Hardwood floors underneith"

You can fix it, it will take some chemicals and sanding, but the inconvenience will be worth it.
You need some solvent to soften and remove most of the glue, and then rent that sander and go to town! You will have bare wood floors ready for refinishing in no time.

If the fumes bother you that much, wait for a nice weekend, open all the windows while you work on it, and pitch a tent outside and go camping for a night or two.

 

[SampSon]

So far from the responses I have been getting, replacing the wood, out cant afford, chemicals out, don't want to kill the family or pets, and looks like we will be tiling over it.

Unless someone else has a better solution.

There is no better solution. Professional refinishing will use chemicals and extensive sanding to refinish the floor. If you don't want to do that, then you don't want the hardwood to look good again.

You know what you have to do, and you have very little options. I would suggest putting some throw rugs over thoes damaged areas while you save money to do it properly. I can guarantee you WILL be SORRY if you don't refinish the floors properly.

 

[mooglekit]

Originally posted by: SampSon

So far from the responses I have been getting, replacing the wood, out cant afford, chemicals out, don't want to kill the family or pets, and looks like we will be tiling over it.
Unless someone else has a better solution.

There is no better solution. Professional refinishing will use chemicals and extensive sanding to refinish the floor. If you don't want to do that, then you don't want the hardwood to look good again.=
You know what you have to do, and you have very little options. I would suggest putting some throw rugs over thoes damaged areas while you save money to do it properly. I can guarantee you WILL be SORRY if you don't refinish the floors properly.

This is a pretty good explaination...it's one of those do it right or just don't do it at all kinda things. put a couple of rugs down and live with it until you can fix it the right way so you don't regret it later.
Maybe you could even recruit some useful ATOT members to help you out when the time comes...I'm sure there are a bunch of industrious, helpful people here

 

[funboy6942]

Originally posted by: mooglekit

Originally posted by: SampSon

So far from the responses I have been getting, replacing the wood, out cant afford, chemicals out, don't want to kill the family or pets, and looks like we will be tiling over it.
Unless someone else has a better solution.

There is no better solution. Professional refinishing will use chemicals and extensive sanding to refinish the floor. If you don't want to do that, then you don't want the hardwood to look good again.=
You know what you have to do, and you have very little options. I would suggest putting some throw rugs over thoes damaged areas while you save money to do it properly. I can guarantee you WILL be SORRY if you don't refinish the floors properly.

This is a pretty good explaination...it's one of those do it right or just don't do it at all kinda things. put a couple of rugs down and live with it until you can fix it the right way so you don't regret it later.
Maybe you could even recruit some useful ATOT members to help you out when the time comes...I'm sure there are a bunch of industrious, helpful people here

I like the idea of the area rugs to put down, and I agree, it needs to be done, hardwood floors are like gold, IMO atleast. I want it done right and I think in 2 years tax season time we will have enough save up out of the taxes to have it professionaly done right and it will be so worth it in the long run.

As far as selling the house, not going to happen for many years if at all. Its paid for, dont owe a dime on her, it has everything I could ever want with tons of room, I have no reason to want to move. Maybe in 50-60 years when Im 80, but not anytime soon. Its just going to look so good with all the floors done up right, and so happy its the read deal there, not the fake stuff. Put down around 1950.

 

[brandonbull]

Originally posted by: funboy42

I like the idea of the area rugs to put down, and I agree, it needs to be done, hardwood floors are like gold, IMO atleast. I want it done right and I think in 2 years tax season time we will have enough save up out of the taxes to have it professionaly done right and it will be so worth it in the long run.

As far as selling the house, not going to happen for many years if at all. Its paid for, dont owe a dime on her, it has everything I could ever want with tons of room, I have no reason to want to move. Maybe in 50-60 years when Im 80, but not anytime soon. Its just going to look so good with all the floors done up right, and so happy its the read deal there, not the fake stuff. Put down around 1950.

I would hold off doing anymore until you can have the repairs and refinishing done right. It will be more money up front, but you will save by not needing carpet cleanings and replacements.

 

[SampSon]

I like the idea of the area rugs to put down, and I agree, it needs to be done, hardwood floors are like gold, IMO atleast. I want it done right and I think in 2 years tax season time we will have enough save up out of the taxes to have it professionaly done right and it will be so worth it in the long run.

As far as selling the house, not going to happen for many years if at all. Its paid for, dont owe a dime on her, it has everything I could ever want with tons of room, I have no reason to want to move. Maybe in 50-60 years when Im 80, but not anytime soon. Its just going to look so good with all the floors done up right, and so happy its the read deal there, not the fake stuff. Put down around 1950.

The throw run thing is what I did when I couldn't pull the resources needed to refinish the hardwood floors. I figured out which floors needed to be refinished the most and which ones I would actually use the most, then I got thoes done first. After having it done professionally and having it sealed/shlacked (sp) I could drop a tank on them.

Hardwood floors are nice, but they won't exactly sell your house. Any house built prior to the 70s that doesn't have real hardwood floors of some sort is kinda crappy in my opinion. I've seen thousands of houses of all ages. Just remember to do it properly.