Ancient hard wood floor care : Help ?

Theres a few different water based low smelling finishes out there. Verathane is good, so is the tried and true quick dry polyeurothane by minwax. However, those floors don't look original, not a big deal, also I think in order to put anything on them, you will at least need to light sand them. Give the new finish something to stick to. A light sanding would be easy with a rental from Home Depot, just wear a mask, you'll be fine. good luck.

 

MICHAEL

GET A HOLD OF J GRANDE IN THE CANADA SECTION

HES THE MAN WHEN IT COMES TO HARD WOOD FLOOR QUESTIONS, TRUST ME

GOOD LUCK

BRUCE

 

Those floors look to be in great shape for originals. That's amazing. If you want something quick without spending a lot of money, just go to Home D. Rent a Random Orbital sander and use a very fine pad. All you want to do is scuff the surface. Then tack it, and put down your new finish. Buy a good finishing wool pad, and it'll be fairly easy. Since you say you are going to rent out the house I assume you don't want to spend 5k on the floors. Follow my advice above, and you'll get a good finish for under 500 rental and materials included.

 

BUMP FOR MIKE

 

I had the same situation in my house. Oak floors covered by carpet since the 1950's.
I used BRUCE deep cleaner followed by BRUCE light toned clean and wax.
My floors are honey coloured and they turned out looking new. It was a lot easier than sanding and putting poyurethane on.

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1420068

http://www.shop.com/op/aprod-p18365748?sourceid=3

 

Sand em. We did the floors in out 105-year old house. After several gazillion dollars of work, they only look 85 years old now !

 

Have 'em sanded, they will look fantastic.

Have someone work on them that knows what they're doing with hardwood. Guys can be had for like $25/hr and are WORTH IT (and I'm a DIY kinda guy too!!!)

 

Why do anything to them? Look good to me. Maybe put down some cheap carpet for the renters and then when it's time to sell the house pull it up.

 

Nope. Don't sand them.

You will loose 60 years of patina and have floors that look like the spec house down the street, who wants that? Clean them, wax them or if you feel compelled, a clear varnish.


Also, I would strongly urge you NOT to use gloss, it will show off all problems in a glaring way, why not semi-gloss?


Off the subject, but I once had a well meaning power wash guy (hired to wash the house) power wash the rock work on my front steps (he thought it would be a nice surprise), removing 100 years worth of lichens and moss.

 

If there aren't any awful stains on the hardwood, clean and wax is the way to go. And, do yourself a favor, hire a good floor guy to do it.

If you get a lot of traffic, have him use bowling alley wax. It's a little slippier, but a lot sturdier. Otherwise, good old amber butcher's wax will do the trick on those nice dark floors.

I get my floors done 2-3X a year. The guy spends all day, cleans, waxes, etc, costs about $250 each time. Of course I have pets, kids, and tons of traffic, so we get them done pretty often.

Well worth it to have them done professionally by one of those big buffing machines.

DM

 

waxing is a maintanence nightmare........who wants to go through that 2 or 3 times a year. And if your renters come in with wet boots/wet anything, it's gonna spot like crazy. A nicely waxed floor can look good, but not worth the trouble IMO.