Refinishing old oak floor, color suggestion needed

[UnklSnappy]

Looking at your latest pics I think they may be oak. You can use either type of stain if so. A wiping stain will give a denser more uniform color than a penetrating.
I wouldn't bother filling any of the gaps.

 

[edro]

Those gaps are large, but I still wouldn't fill them. Dark walnut stain would hide them.
I know you don't want dark stain though.

Looks like oak to me too. Could be red oak. That is a common flooring.

We installed ~1600 sqft of unfinished 3/4" red oak in our house. It was #3 common grade. Lots of imperfections.
Since it was a new install, we didn't have gaps that large, but we did have a handful near that size.
After staining dark walnut and 3 coats of poly, you can't see them at all.
Our house was built in 1880, so it added to the character.

Do the worst gaps happen to be where an area rug will lie?

 

[Qacer]

I did a floor refurbishing project 2 years ago. This thread has some tips from other floor pros with regard to the project:

http://www.thefloorpro.com/communit...finishing-old-floors-part-2-a.html#post134327

The link above is close to the finish product. Basically, my floor had large gaps. I ended up using Timbermate wood filler, and it works great. The only downside is that it smells like a chemical bomb, so you have to air it out for a day.

 

[NetWareHead]

Ok the floor is done! 1 Mishap though. We put the first and second coat on. 15 minutes after the second coat was applied, I opened the kitchen door to show off the gleaming new floor to our neighbor. As I'm elaborating about what we did and how hard it was, the damn cat rushes inside and WALKS ACROSS the freshly polyed floor. Paw prints everywhere. The cat wouldn't come back to me and sat down in the middle of the floor curiously examining his paws. It had to be done, no amount of coaxing would get the cat to walk back to us so I flung off my shoes and walked barefoot across the floor and retrieved the cat. The floor now has paw prints and my barefoot prints in it. Rushing, I grabbed the lambswool applicator and tried to smooth out the spots but to no avail, it had already begun to set. Wearily we took the cat to the bathroom where he protested loudly to being washed with mineral spirits while we tried to loosen the hardening poly from between his paws and fur. We then had to wash him AGAIN multiple times with soap and water to get the spirits off.

Next morning, we took a depressing look at the once beautiful floor and the paw and footprints were permanently in there. Sanding seemed like our only option. FGot out the random orbit sander with 220 grit and made a few light passes, to our surprise the footprints came out! Of course the floor was scuffed up. Vacuumed it up followed by a tack cloth and then the last coat of poly. After letting it dry for approximately 20 hours, here is the floor as of this morning: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/...lbums/5866700865606242161/5869351365406740898 and here too: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/...lbums/5866700865606242161/5869353063433743090. Here is the floor as the first coat is going on: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/...lbums/5866700865606242161/5869352516421441362 What do you guys think? Does it need a 4th coat? This is satin finish poly with no stain underneath.

 

[lupi]

I've pulled up most of the carpet in the house, exposing the original wood flooring throughout. At some point I've got to start the painful process of refinishing them all. All sport that looks troublesome is the top of the stairs where the floor has settled a bit giving a gap between the end board and first one in. Otherwise it mostly looks like very dirty old wood.

 

[DrPizza]

Looks great! I've done that job twice - huge satisfaction when you're finished. And, though it might be too late, I'll point out the most important part of that job: USE GOOD POLYURETHANE!!! I used the cheap $20 a gallon stuff to try to save a few bucks. That's why I did it twice. It only lasted a couple years.

Also, it takes a good month to completely harden - it's still a little more vulnerable to scratches during that time.

So, if you used cheap polyurethane, it might be possible to give it an extra coat or two of $40 a gallon stuff, though I really don't know if that would make it last longer.

 

[NetWareHead]

Looks great! I've done that job twice - huge satisfaction when you're finished. And, though it might be too late, I'll point out the most important part of that job: USE GOOD POLYURETHANE!!! I used the cheap $20 a gallon stuff to try to save a few bucks. That's why I did it twice. It only lasted a couple years.

Also, it takes a good month to completely harden - it's still a little more vulnerable to scratches during that time.

So, if you used cheap polyurethane, it might be possible to give it an extra coat or two of $40 a gallon stuff, though I really don't know if that would make it last longer.

Thanks and thats funny you mentioned price. I was floored when I went to pick up a can of poly from Home Depot. Almost $50 for satin finish Minwax poly!!! Some employee I spoke to thought it was because today's poly needs to comply with low VOC standards so they need to use a different (read: more expensive) oil base which doesn't off-gas like the old stuff. Even from the outside of the house you could STILL smell it.

 

[edro]

Looks great. 3 coats is plenty from what I've read.

We drove to Kentucky to get high VOC oil based poly. They didn't sell it in Ohio anymore.

 

[Zargon]

I would do 4 in the kitchen for added moisture resistance personally

its looking great


the new gallon sized stuff actually SUCKS

its LOW VOC and it takes 2-3 times as long dry, its way more finicky about humidity and temp

it builds higher, but its harder to get a good even coat, because of that I usually use it for coats 1-2 and then open a quart which is a different formula and do that for 3-4



you may to get some tubes of ground up red oak....to pushs into those cracks before yo udo the last coat

I can check the brand of what I have

I got from the guy who did my floors, for when I redid my stairs


you can use the miniwax tubes of filler.......but if you do, do it AFTER the last coat, and get an artist brush and use that to poly it once

it will expand/contract different than the oak will....so you dont want it part of the main coat of poly

 

[zephyrprime]

Looks like maple and not oak as others have already said. Also, I have maple floors and have redone them myself. The only stain that looks decent on maple is colonial maple. Don't use the solids, just use the liquid portion of it. Also, I recommend not staining at all because simply applying stain to it will darken it. oils based polyurethane will darken it much more than water based poly.

 

[Squisher]

Looks like maple and not oak as others have already said. Also, I have maple floors and have redone them myself. The only stain that looks decent on maple is colonial maple. Don't use the solids, just use the liquid portion of it. Also, I recommend not staining at all because simply applying stain to it will darken it. oils based polyurethane will darken it much more than water based poly.

Did you see this pic the OP took?:

https://plus.google.com/photos/115736731636406090285/albums/5866700865606242161/5867052021666340594

Maple doesn't have all those little pore lines in it. Maple is almost pine/poplar like, but with a much finer grain and without any dark streaks of grain, that is unless you're talking curly maple or zebra maple.


btw OP-LOOKING GREAT!

 

[NetWareHead]

Thanks everyone for the compliments. Now, the wainscotting (btw real tongue in groove wainscotting!!, not the milled single sheets of wood) stands out in comparison to the newly finished floor. I have some Howards wood restorer that will add color and condition old wood. I'm hoping that some of the nicks and gouges the wainscotting has accumulated since the 1920s will come out.

Cabinets were installed last night and we have granite countertop installers coming this morning. Tomorrow (give the floor some more time to fully cure) the stove, kitchen island and fridge are moving back into the kitchen

 

[Zargon]

Looks like maple and not oak as others have already said. Also, I have maple floors and have redone them myself. The only stain that looks decent on maple is colonial maple. Don't use the solids, just use the liquid portion of it. Also, I recommend not staining at all because simply applying stain to it will darken it. oils based polyurethane will darken it much more than water based poly.

didnt catch that


though it looks very similar to my naturally finished oak, though less grain-y


also...with no stain...when it gets damaged its easy to fix, vs having to restain and repoly

 

[alangf56]

Hey I have a question, since you guys are talking about colors. We also need new oak wood flooring and we were wondering if flooring companies in UK offer any kind of samples so we know exactly what hue and color to expect when ordering ?

And I have seen the pictures... it looks shiny great!

 

[alangf56]

Hey guys,

I am glad I stumbled upon this post since we also need to "demolish" our house and install new hardwood flooring, oak or maple.. still not sure. However, my question would be: Are there companies in UK where we could get samples of floors sent to our address?

We want to avoid such issues..

Also I have seen the pictures. Looks shiny great!

 

[mizzou]

yellow pine is one of the most common floorboards in original flooring. http://www.countryplank.com/products/ar_yellowpine/grades.html

if anyone has a "historic" home, you can usually track down the original building permit through public records and find out what kind of supplies they used