I am attempting to refinish the old hardwood floors in our house. They were covered with carpeting and I wanted to restore them to their original glory. They have taken abuse over the years and this leaves me with a few problems (it should be noted that I'm very new to this sort of thing). The room is very small but there are a number of various flooring "situations" I need to deal with in the stripping process:
- Bare wood floor that has never been stained, painted, or finished (this is the easiest to deal with obviously.
- Bare wood floor that has never been stained or finished but has been painted over with latex based paint (a travesty, I know).
- Wood floor that has been stained, finished, and then painted over with latex based paint (my current nightmare).
Here's how I initially attacked this. Using a heat gun I was able to quickly and quite effortlessly remove the latex paint from the areas of the floor that had been stained and finished. I tried this same approach with the bare wood floor that had been painted but not previously stained and finished and the work was a bit more difficult. To remove the stain and finish from the parts of the floor that are like this, I have attempted to use a chemical stripper (Zip Strip, and another product by Klean Strip).
This is where I am having a huge problem. I apply the stripper with no problem, let it sit for the 30 mins. it requires, and the attempt to scrape up the mess. This is the problem, when I try to scrape it up, the substance gets so goopy that my scrapper has virtually no effect. I can get up some of the stuff and manage to get rid of it, but for the most part it just smears the stuff around which makes it dry faster and then I can't get anything up at all. So I tried using clean rags to wipe up the stuff but that smears it even worse.
Does anyone have a method that will work to get the stripper and subsequent stain/finish/latex paint off the floor so it won't smear all over the place? I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I tried a paint stripping "block" (those wirey looking sponge sized blocks that take paint off) but that doesn't do very much at all.
Can someone please help? Any advice is appreciated.
(I know it's a simple question, but I went through the trouble of telling the back story of the floor and its issues so you know where I'm coming from).
Thanks so much in advance. I'm really at a loss at this point.
Thanks again!
Eric
- Bare wood floor that has never been stained, painted, or finished (this is the easiest to deal with obviously.
- Bare wood floor that has never been stained or finished but has been painted over with latex based paint (a travesty, I know).
- Wood floor that has been stained, finished, and then painted over with latex based paint (my current nightmare).
Here's how I initially attacked this. Using a heat gun I was able to quickly and quite effortlessly remove the latex paint from the areas of the floor that had been stained and finished. I tried this same approach with the bare wood floor that had been painted but not previously stained and finished and the work was a bit more difficult. To remove the stain and finish from the parts of the floor that are like this, I have attempted to use a chemical stripper (Zip Strip, and another product by Klean Strip).
This is where I am having a huge problem. I apply the stripper with no problem, let it sit for the 30 mins. it requires, and the attempt to scrape up the mess. This is the problem, when I try to scrape it up, the substance gets so goopy that my scrapper has virtually no effect. I can get up some of the stuff and manage to get rid of it, but for the most part it just smears the stuff around which makes it dry faster and then I can't get anything up at all. So I tried using clean rags to wipe up the stuff but that smears it even worse.
Does anyone have a method that will work to get the stripper and subsequent stain/finish/latex paint off the floor so it won't smear all over the place? I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I tried a paint stripping "block" (those wirey looking sponge sized blocks that take paint off) but that doesn't do very much at all.
Can someone please help? Any advice is appreciated.
(I know it's a simple question, but I went through the trouble of telling the back story of the floor and its issues so you know where I'm coming from).
Thanks so much in advance. I'm really at a loss at this point.
Thanks again!
Eric