In the beginning......

cocojen

Hello, I am at the very beginning of redoing the hard wood floors in our house. The house is about 40-50 years old. I am starting in the hallway. Upon tearing out the carpet there is one spot that is black (most likely where the cat has gone. the center of the hall wall seems to have been worn down to the bare wood. the sides of the hallway near the base boards look as if there is some sort of varnish or protective layering still there. So the carpet and padding are gone now.
So where do I go from here???
How does one go about removing the small staples successfully??
What will I need to do to get the ordor out of the wood from the Umm CAT!
How can I turn this black spot back to the color of orginal floor color that still looks good of what i can see. Thanks for your help in advance. K

SM1

for the staples a pair of plyers will do...if your resanding the floors you can use a spud hoe to quickly scrape all the staples off. it scratches the floor but you'll be sanding it anyways so no worries there. the smell will go away when you reseal the floor with finish....and the spot....the age old question. sometimes it'll sand out depending on how deep it is...some have used a commercial grade two part bleach(wear rubber gloves and do not i repeat do not get it in your eyes) and have had success. the other options are stain the whole floor black....rob some wood from a closet or area you are covering with carpet or tile and replace the offending boards..or call the spot "patina" and live with it hehe. good luck!!

cocojen

Thanks jimmy z iou1,
The staples broke in half so we ended up driving them deeper into the floor. Have you heard of Wood Bleach? It has a contains OXALIC ACID in it. Is this the Commercial grade that you spoke of? So I am guessing I should bleach then allow to dry and then sand using a coarse to fine grit paper.