cleaning and protecting (not sanding) old wooden flooring

[bodgerthebadger]

Hi all

I'm sure this is an easy question:

The Edwardian house I've just bought has ancient, pine I assume, wooden flooring throughout under the grotty 70s carpets. The boards have lots of marks and history to them, which I think could look quite nice.

I'd like to expose them in the top floor, I don't really mind the gaps (unless it's easy to fill them) and I'll just tap in any exposed nails and screws and / or fill them with something. In time we may either stain them, wash them or carpet them but for the time being we're skint so want to do as little as possible.

So, I want to CLEAN, not sand, this floor and I want to do the minimum amount of work but don't want to do anything I may regret later (i.e. reck them by exposing them and not protecting them properly).

SO::

a) what do I clean them with?
b) what do I then protect them with?
c) what do I fill the gaps and screws and nails with (if I bother)?

It looks like the floorboards in some areas have been stained, others haven't been.

Cheers everyone

Sam

EDIT: Sorry guys 'flooring' is probably the wrong word. They're just the standard floorboards that presumably were put in when the house was built.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Have a look here: 3 easy steps to clean/maintain your parquet floor - one of our wood guides.
Most steps can be used for standard floorboards too

 

[bodgerthebadger]

Thanks for that

I'll try and work out what the finish is of the wood. It all looks very matt so I wonder if it's probably not varnished, in which case I should be looking at wax?

I'm afraid I'm still a little bit confused about the products I should be using:

If I just clean it and do nothing more then am I going to reck the floor?

If I do need ro do somehinf more then should I wax it and do I also need to seal it and if so do I seal it first then wax it?

Finally, could I just cover it all with hard wax oil as an easier way of looking after it? Again, without sanding it?

Many thanks

Sam

 

[WoodYouLike]

First see if cleaning brings back the old lustre of your floor (if you use white spirit, try this out in a little corner first).
If successful, clean the whole floor this way (ventilate!). Let it dry and then apply a maintenance product to feed both the wood and the wear and tear layer.

You CANNOT apply hardwaxoil or varnish when the floor is not sanded first to remove all the old layers of finish.