In this audio episode The Handyguys address a listener question about how to rejuvenate the hardwood floors in his new old house.
The question from Jeremy:
Hi guys, just found your podcast and I love it. working through the archives right now. I’m planning to refinish the original hardwood floors in the 1950s ranch house that I just bought as my first home. I will be pulling all the base trim off and want to go to a dark color to help hide any flaws in the flooring as well as future dirt. Can you please give me any advise regarding: proper prep work, proper tools, recommend a good stain (from what I read product quality can vary significantly), as well as any tips to make the job go smoothly. Lastly, could you please go over any basic wood repair techniques that would be helpful. i.e. filling gaps with stainable wood filler, patching gouges, etc. There are many projects I’m planning and I’m sure I’ll get some great tips in the archives! Thanks Guys.
The Handyguys respond:
Changing hardwood floors to a dark color
I wouldn’t go dark for the reasons you mentioned. Go dark if you like the look. Flaws can usually be fixed, dirt can be cleaned and dark stained hardwood may actually look dirtier faster than a neutral color.
Preparation of hardwood floors
Prep work will vary depending on the current condition of the floor. If they are in bad shape then all the old finish is usually sanded off, the floors repaired and cleaned before staining and finishing.
Tools for hardwood floor finishing
Again, this will vary based upon what the condition is. Sometimes a floor only needs a light sanding and then a fresh coat of poly. In a case like that a vibrating sander is ideal. If many heavy coats of old finish and some wood need to be removed then a drum sander is called for. Drum sanders can do a lot of damage if not used properly. You may want to hire that part out unless you are super careful and maybe have an inconspicuous place to practice. Your True Value may have a rental store attached that can guide you on sanders.
Hardwood Floor Stains
Tips for hardwood floor finishing
Jeremy sent us this picture in a follow-up email
Floor rejuvenation steps
The Handyguys recommend the following steps to Jeremy and anyone else who wants to rejuvenate their floors without completely removing the old finish.
Jeremy – Those floors do not look like they are in that bad of shape. As you do your other projects take care to not damage them.
- Sand lightly with a vibrating type floor sander. Don’t expect this to remove all the old finish. You are just touching up scuffs in the existing finish.
- Do not apply a stain – You cant stain without completely removing the old finish.
- Clean, clean, clean. You want to remove any dust. Use a damp rag or a tack cloth to make sure you do not leave any dust on the floor.
- Apply 3 or 4 coats of water based poly floor finish. Sand with a fine grit paper between coats. Follow the manufactures recommendations here. You could sand in one day and if your water based poly drys fast enough you could get your 3 or 4 coats on in another day.
As always, listen to the podcast for all the discussion.
We were one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. We have been compensated for our time commitment to the program as well as our writing and productions about our experience. We have also been compensated for the materials needed for our DIY project. However, as always, our opinions are entirely our own and we have not been paid to publish positive comments.
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{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
If this wood finish is done how, how long can the floor finish hold? Is it good for 5 years or less? I can you please suggest some brands of floor finish so that I can start with my wood floor. Thanks. =)
If you do multiple coats of the water based poly floor finish you can expect many years of service. My old house they floors looked good 5 years after refinishing as described in the podcast. I then sold the house. Of course it will depend on how much traffic the floors get and also how well they are kept clean. If you track dirt and sand on the wood floors it can grind the finish like sandpaper. Dogs and cats can also scratch the finish. I used a product called Fabulon, Varathane is highly regarded as is Minwax.
My OLD hardwood floors are dull and need to clean and finish myself. What would you recommend?
First try some soap and water and a scrub brush. Murphy’s oil soap is commonly used. If that doesn’t get them looking like you want then listen to this podcast and try some of the tips mentioned.
I know you mention there is no need to go from light to dark wood – but I have been in many homes where the dark wood is actually quite pleasant looking.
Nice! I refinish hardwood floors< for a living and just found your site. Pretty cool place you have here.
Dents, gouges, and scratches that are less than 1/8 inch deep can usually be repaired by sanding and refinishing. If any of these are deeper than this, the board/s will have to be replaced and the whole floor sanded and finished. A professional hardwood floor installer< can help you determine the best course of action.
Hi – I’m looking for information on how to repair the wood flooring in my 112-year-old farmhouse. They are suffering from decades of paint, old linoleum, scratches, dents, and expansion/contraction cycles. I’d like to save the floor rather than replace it because it is original to the house and finding replacement flooring of the same quality seems to be impossible. The boards are vertical-grained, old-growth (tight-grained) Douglas fir, 4″ wide, 12′ to 20′ long, and are a full 1″ thick, laid over diagonal 2″ x 10″ decking. We pulled some rotted boards that were under the old kitchen sink, revealing the old diagonal decking, and found that the boards were not “relieved” on the undersides, which may explain why some of the boards have cracks and gaps. We are working on adding more supports under the joists to stiffen up and level the subfloor. I’m wondering if we can just sand down the old flooring, replace the damaged boards with some we removed from a storage room (we tiled it), or if we should pull up all the boards and re-lay them after repairing the subfloors.
I wouldn’t try to remove and re-install them. You will need to scrape up any linoleum, glue, etc. Remove any glue, etc. And then sand the floors and re-finish. Patch sections that are too far gone.
Make sure you take some before and after pictures. We would love to see how it comes out.
Thanks – it would be a whole lot less work to just repair, sand and refinish the floor! I sanded some of the boards free of paint and glue just to see how they look, and, even unfinished, they have a beautiful deep golden-red patina of age, in addition to having nice tight grain – totally unlike the Doug-fir trim and flooring you see today. Any tips on how to blend in any new replacement boards we might need (the old boards from the storage room blend in just fine) to patch damaged areas?
I’ll definitely send some pics!
If you have to use new wood when patching. First off, try to avoid it as much as possible. Even a split board, refinished, will look okay when refinished. Just replace the worst pieces. Next, try and find old wood at salvage yards, from neighbors doing major remodels, etc. Lastly if you must use new wood – First try specialty wood suppliers. You are more likely to find older growth wood (tighter grain heartwood). Also, try to make sure the wood is sawn the same way as the old (quarter sawn, flat sawn, riftsawn)
Our friend Marc, The Wood Whisperer, has a video describing the different cuts of wood. http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/a-lumbering-feeling/ (the cuts part is about 5 minutes and 20 seconds in)
Okay, once you have the wood that best matches what you have your next step will be to test your final finish. Take a new board and and a scrap of your old. Apply the new floor finish and see how well they match. If they are too far off you will have to apply a stain. Stains will add color and darken the wood. You could apply stain to the entire floor (old and new) or just to the new. You will need to experiment and try different combinations of stains and finishes to get the best blends.
We are refinishing our hardwood floors a darker color. We’ve alreay sanded but when we started to stain the old color is showing through in some spots. It doesn’t look good but we’ve gon over it soooo many times with the sander. Is there another solution? The old color follows the seams.
What kind of stain are you using? Perhaps something called a “Gell Stain” would work better.
We are using oil based Minwax. It is apparent now that there is just more poly that hasn’t come off. We have resolved to go over it again, but this time we are using a belt sander. Do you have any suggestions for using one? We used a drum sander last time, but obviously it wasn’t tough enough for the job.
Perhaps try a sharp scraper along the edges. Be careful sanding you don’t go too deep.
A section of this 64 yr old hardwood floor we want to fix is just black with dirt.This floor has never been refinished and is pretty worn down. I figure we should clean it before seeing what needs to be done. What do we use to clean it?
I am planning on redoing my hardwood floors in my attic and from what I can tell they are in immaculate shape with only plaster drops here and there. Can I skip the sanding step? Or should I do a light sanding then apply the floor finish?
Its up to you. Light sanding will help remove the plaster drips and other dirt and grime. I assume they have previously been finished.
From what I can tell, these are bare hardwood floors that have never been finished. It appears they were sanded because they are smooth, but nothing further has been done to them.
Sanding them will make them look new. That may not be the look you want though. Also, the boards may actually never have been intended to be a finished floor. It may be an old subfloor from the days before plywood. Still, that’s no reason not to finish them if you like the look. Soooo, your options. Clean and varnish for that shabby chic or rustic look. Sand to fresh wood and varnish for a newer, cleaner look.
I’m going to have my hardwood floors refinished and have been thinking about not staining them at all. Would you recommend against this? Any certain drawbacks? Imperfections highly visible, dirt more noticable. Would you say this is becoming more or less common?
Thanks for your advice.
Not staining is perfectly fine. Stain is just for color, many people like the natural color of the wood.
Hi there. Im planing on redoing my 50 year or hardwood floor (fir) i beleive. I plan on sanding it down and renishing it to be nice and smooth, the problem is that there are many gaps between the boards that i fear will colect dust and dirt. My question is, what could be used to fill all these gaps so that when I go to stain and varnish that it will be gapless…. is there such a product to be used for this? Any good info on my gap filling issue would be greatly appreciated.
Ronald, there isn’t much you can do to fill those gaps. I have seen people use jute rope for really wide gaps but this still collects dirt. Any caulk, filler or epoxy will either look bad or fail over time. These gaps are part of the charm of an older home, I would just live with them. Vacuum the floor when you clean. If you want a perfect floor then consider replacement with a prefinished floor.
i have the same problem with gaps in my old floor, but the other problem i have is . what do i do in between the gaps. they are black with dirt and grime . will that effect my sanding and overall finish ? what should i do sanding and finishing? is there a special way to clean between boards? or do i just leave it ?
Sanding is the same regardless of the gaps. You will need to vacuum out the gaps of any dust and dirt before refinishing. You may also need to scrape any old finish and dirt out before finishing. At least get anything loose out. I do not know of a reliable way to fill those gaps.
When the floor was installed it was not likely intended to be seen so they didn’t worry about the gaps too much. Over time the boards shrunk and the gaps widened.
This has been a very informative site. Thanks for all the info!
We’ve been refinishing our floors for about six months now and are testing stains on the wood. I’m 90% sure the wood is Douglas Fir, and we’re set on using Red Mahogany by Minwax.
Over our first test patch, there are some darker cloudy areas the size of a quarter more or less. For a second test patch, we bought some prestain wood conditioner from Minwax. We applied with a cloth, let it soak in for 20 minutes (the directions say at least 10-15 minutes) then applied the stain. We’re still noticing the cloudy/blotchy areas. Is this normal or okay? From what I’ve researched, this happens often with softer woods.
We’re fine with the look because the whole floor is somewhat distressed from years of use, and we think it adds character. We just don’t want the end result to look amateur (even though we are amateurs) after all our work
Any thoughts or recommendations are appreciated!
You are correct about soft woods. They do take up stains at differing rates on different parts of the board. The wood conditioner does minimize the effect. All of this assumes the old finish is 100% removed. If you have some of the old finish on the fir then that can inhibit takeup of the stain.
Also, a stain like the you are using is more prone to the splotching than something called a Gel Stain. Our friends over at Wood Magazine have a good article explaining what a gel stain is.
http://www.woodmagazine.com/materials-guide/finishes/gel-stains/
Lastly – I commend you for testing your finish choices before committing to one. I’m sure your results will be great! Feel free to send us a picture and we will add it here. us@handyguyspodcast.com
Hi,
I am attempting a “screen and recoat” in a house that we just purchased. I followed some advice and mopped with a 50/50 mix of warm water and denatured alcohol to clean/strip the floors. I am left with a white substance that appears to be wax in many but not all areas. If I slide my thumbnail across the floor the white will come off, or where there is not any white, some other substance comes off – I am not sure if it is more wax or the actual old finish.
What is a good method to clean and prep this floor?
Thank you!
If it IS wax you must get it off before applying any finish. There are wax strippers in the floor care area of the home center or hardware store. Try it in an inconspicuous area first. If that doesn’t work, you may need to sand down to bare wood.
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