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Restoring wood floors

iamwiz82

iamwiz82

Lifer
I was in the process of replacing a small portion of my carpet with laminate when I pulled up the carpet and realized that the floor was originally hardwood. It's parque and looks like it's nee better days. Is there a way to revive the aging (about 60 years old, if it's original) floor. It's been nailed, chipped, cracked, etc, but I think that a worn look would be more interesting.


Just remove the nails, get a floor sander, and then restain and seal?
 
Be careful with the floor sander... The courser grits can remove way more material than you think, in a very short amount of time.
It's a very satisfying project to finish... you never know how long it's going to take though. But, it'll take longer than you expect.
 
I just did all of the floors in my house. They had tile over them, so I first had to get up all of the tiles and then get up the tile adhesive. After that, I rented a random orbital floor sander. I started with 24 grit in the very rough areas and worked up through 36, 40, 80, and 120 grit. I sanded with 80 and 120 grit three times each. Then I vacuumed everything and then wiped the floors two times with mineral spirits. After that, I put on four coats of polyurethane. I used the Minwax Ultra-Fast drying because it does not require sanding between coats.

If your floors are in good shape (no major damage or rough areas) you can probably start with 40 grit.

PM me if you want more details or have any questions.
 
Nothin that old
Prob like bugs in them now :disgust: 😀

Edit: You can prob tell im not the best person at home depot stuff
 
Oh, if you have any holes left from pulling nails, you can use wood filler, but make sure that it matches your wood. I found a really good brand, but I don't have the name in front of me now. It was much better than minwax and the other brands.

Some nails can be hammered down into the floor. (This is probably much easier than trying to pull up every nail.)
 
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Originally posted by: Yzzim
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
http://www.infinitemile.com/wha/IMG_2321.jpg

This is what I have to work with.
Click to expand...

Are you sure that's wood flooring and not the sub floor? Looks like the grain is going different directions.
Click to expand...

That's parquet.

http://thumb.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/224/224,1100194677,1.jpg
Click to expand...

ah, missed that in the OP.

How big is the area you are trying to redo? If it's a small area wouldn't it just be cheaper/easier to buy new?
 
Originally posted by: Yzzim
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Originally posted by: Yzzim
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
http://www.infinitemile.com/wha/IMG_2321.jpg

This is what I have to work with.
Click to expand...

Are you sure that's wood flooring and not the sub floor? Looks like the grain is going different directions.
Click to expand...

That's parquet.

http://thumb.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/224/224,1100194677,1.jpg
Click to expand...

ah, missed that in the OP.

How big is the area you are trying to redo? If it's a small area wouldn't it just be cheaper/easier to buy new?
Click to expand...

I doubt cheaper, but probably easier. The thing I really want to do is save some history of the house.
 
Originally posted by: Yzzim
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Originally posted by: Yzzim
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
http://www.infinitemile.com/wha/IMG_2321.jpg

This is what I have to work with.
Click to expand...

Are you sure that's wood flooring and not the sub floor? Looks like the grain is going different directions.
Click to expand...

That's parquet.

http://thumb.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/224/224,1100194677,1.jpg
Click to expand...

ah, missed that in the OP.

How big is the area you are trying to redo? If it's a small area wouldn't it just be cheaper/easier to buy new?
Click to expand...


It might be cheaper or easier to buy new, but no new floors are going to have the same look that old, refinished hard wood does, in my opinion.
 
Bah that pretty much the norm for carpeted hardwood floors. Just pull all that crap up and leave the holes alone. You won't notice them much and what you do will just add character. I had to rip the junk up at my parents house, my friend's house, and my own. Its not hard work but it sucks and don't miss any of the staples or nails or it will rip up the sandpaper. I haven't even bothered to sand my floors yet. Kind of like the scratch up stained worn look.

Just need a prybar(the flatter wide kind work better), hammer, and plyers to pull up the staples.
 
A portion just to the left of that photo is fairly cracked, looks like water damage. I expected that though, as it is right in front of the front door.
 
Originally posted by: DrPizza
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
I guess the first thing I should do is insulate the crawl space. Oh how I dread that.
Click to expand...


Spiders!!
Click to expand...

The bugs I can deal with. It's the lack of space in which to work. At the tightest point, I cannot roll over as my shoulder will hit the joists above.
 
Originally posted by: timswim78
I just did all of the floors in my house. They had tile over them, so I first had to get up all of the tiles and then get up the tile adhesive. After that, I rented a random orbital floor sander. I started with 24 grit in the very rough areas and worked up through 36, 40, 80, and 120 grit. I sanded with 80 and 120 grit three times each. Then I vacuumed everything and then wiped the floors two times with mineral spirits. After that, I put on four coats of polyurethane. I used the Minwax Ultra-Fast drying because it does not require sanding between coats.

If your floors are in good shape (no major damage or rough areas) you can probably start with 40 grit.

PM me if you want more details or have any questions.
Click to expand...

nice... did u use a hepa vac? did your finished floor still have some dust specs?

how did you map out the 4 poly coats, 1 coat ea. day, 4 days?

Minwax? r u sure this is hard enough? this is a consumer grade polyu, people have said u can use to for cabinets, furniture, but it's not durable and resistant to scuffs as the commercial 5gal drum stuff used in like indoor basketball courts.

 
Do it ... we bought our house, ripped up all the nasty-ass carpet and went to town on the floors. We figured the floors to be anywhere from 60-80 years old. We went through the whole refinishing project, and yes, the sander can rip through that stuff in no time. A week later of ball-busting work, and we were finally done. The polyurethane we used wasn't the best IMO, but it still looks good. Not a bulletproof (or dogproof) finish, but still looks great.

I was a whiny ah heck the whole way through, but I'm pretty proud of the work we did. Show us after pics once you do it 🙂
 
I worked for a Hardwood Flooring company for about 5 yrs. Depending on how rough the floors looked our standard sand on a refinish was once with a 50 grit and twice with an 80. It is harder than you think. If you want to do it right you will need to rent an edger and a 220 drum sander. You can probably sand it once with a 50 grit and hit it twice with an 80. Rent a buffer and use an 80-100 steel wool pad to buff it and make sure you get it very clean. I would use the drum sander once with 50 grit sand the edges with 80. Hit it again with the drum using 80 and run a hand sander around the edges to remove edger scratches use an 80 grit. Hit it again with the drum using 80 and buff with the steel wool.
 
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