Pulled up carpets, what a mess! help to stain

[disasterjustavoided]

Hello there

I've just pulled up the carpet in the hall in the hope of having bear floorboards. Trouble is the carpet seems to have been hiding a mulitude of sins. Someone has stained and varnished the floor but not under the stairs, there are splats of paint and plaster and worst of all some of the boards themselves have 20mm x 30mm gaps in them.

My question is do I sand all of this off and start again to get an even finish or is there an easier way. The boards do have the potential of looking good as long as I can match them under the stairs and get all the paint off. Also is there a product that can fill the gaps, I've heard of papier mache but I think the gaps are much too big.

Any advice will be much apprechiated.

 

[dann09]

You could sand the pre-stained, and paint stained areas, with a hired belt sander.
An Orbit sander will do tricky spots.
A pain, but doable in a hall.

Sink any face nails, snug-up any screws. Make certain that there's no bounce in any part of the floor.

Post pics of the "gaps", there are various ways of filling them.

The trap access for the underfloor is often located under the stairs?