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Re-do for very old hardwood flooring

1K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  oh'mike 
#1 ·
We had someone come and quote us $200 plus supplies to refinish the hardwood floors in our greatroom. Thought about calling him but then decided to give it a whirl myself.

They're extremely old. They think they're around 80 years old. Said they were probably milled by one of the old mills here where we live and put in when the house was built. They're not tongue and groove floors, just the boards right up against each other.

While I love them, they are VERY dull and I hate that. The guy wanted to sand them down to the original wood and then put on the new coat of poly. I want to preserve the look they have, old nail holes and burn marks and all. You can't make history and to me those floors speak volumes.

So I decided to go for it. If I goof it, I'll just have the guy come in and sand them down and refinish them. Lose the history, but I guess the world won't end. Just hoping they come out nice enough with me doing them that it doesn't come to that.

I've lightly sanded them and put on the first coat. I'll leave it to dry tonight and give it another light sanding tomorrow and then two final coats at the very least. We've got dogs that use it as a racetrack so I may give it a dozen coats! LOL

Attaching the before photo with a small two foot by three foot on the right side of the picture that I put the poly on just to see how it would look. I'd not sanded the floors yet. Yes, they're THAT dull!

Forgive the unfinished trim work and such. We're going to sell and I'll repaint before we do so I figured there's no point in finishing now just to repaint it in a month. We're in a very ugly period of refinishing, redoing, ripping out and replacing, etc. The poor house looks God awful!

Any suggestions to help it come out better are always welcome. So far I've only done the living area of the great room. Still have to do the dining room and foyer. Just have to figure out how I can move us to the other side of the house for a couple days when I do the last couple coats or so..... :huh:
 

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#2 ·
You had better do a test before you make a mess-----Many (most) old floors were waxed some time in their life----

If so all wax--every bit---every tiny bit of wax must be removed or the new finish will not bond to the old.

Finish a small section---and see if the finish bonds to the old----standard practice is to use a strong tape (duct tape) press it on very well---then pull it off----if the new finish comes off with the tape--

Sand it.
 
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