wooden floor - restore??

[iesugrist]

Old council house (1917) - usptairs has wooden floors under carpets.... border area seems to be blackened with some stuff (tried taking off with hand sander but it almost rubberises onto sandpaper)...

Question???

1. What is this stuff? How's best to get rid of it?
2. Hoping to save this floor and make beautiful (!!) but has cracks, some holes and loose boards........... how do I go about all this then?
3. Should I hire one of those large circular sanders - somebody said this would ruin the grain...?
4. What do I fill the gaps / holes between planks with?
5. What's best to 'paint' it with to keep natural(ish)???

sorry for all questions but I'm hoping to do the room at 1/2 term! Arghhhhhhhh!

Thanks

 

[handychris]

1. It is varnish. In the old days when we did not carpet wall to wall people used to varnish round the edge.
In answer to your other questions:
Hire a sanding machine. But get a belt sander (not circluar) and follow the line of the planks - that way you will not damage the grain. You will normally get a little sander (although much bigger than a normal one), to do the edges.
You MUST make sure you nail down any loose boards AND that there are NO protuding heads - this will rip the sanding belts to shreads - ITS REALLY ANNOYING.
Hmm - gaps - if they are not too large - the answer is - small rug! If some boards are REALLY bad - you might consider replacing the individual ones.
Paints: There are waxes, varnishes to suit all tastes - try a decorators merchant for advice and you can see what colours there are.
I did my last house with the sander - it looked fantastic - well worth the effort.
The trick to get the most out of the sanders is not to work them too hard over one spot. Go over and over the room with the machine rather than concentrating in a particular area - it wears the belts down really quickly.

I hope this helps.

[Edited by handychris on 14-10-2002 at 22:45 PM GMT]

 

[AnonymousImport]

I used denatured alcohol to remove varnish.

 

[AnonymousImport]

Go to the National hardwood flooring mfg. assoc. web site ( NOFMA ) and order their book on sanding and finishing. You may also want the one on installing. Both books are excellent and a super value.
For the cracks ..... you may want to use a crack filler. One good brand the professionals use is Woodwise. They have a web site under their name.
For wider cracks you could use wedges and glue on one side only ...... trim off with a knife before sanding.
Good luck on your project.

 

[iesugrist]

thought I'd update you on my progress... (gulp)....... maybe should be on diy disaster page though!! Nobody mentioned I should be wary of.......... oh let me explain....

decided to cut off part of old tatty carpet and try 3 methods (2 chemical and 1 sandpaperish)...

that went well..........

decided to go to B+Q to find some nails for loose floor boards (oh oh you say)........ those cute special ones... found them!!

hammered one in.............. ok

hammered second one in.......... !! ARGH!! hissssssssssss - water pipe ..........

water everywhere... couldn't find mains cut-off for ages....... but at least I remmebered to make a hole in the ceiling (I have prior experience of this!) so water (hot) dripped nicely donwstairs into pots.... altho my thumb was getting pained from holding it against hot water...

eventually my dad came over from 10 miles away and sorted it for us.........

so... in conclusion....... never again! I'm now going for laminated!! arghhhhhhhhh

 

[Graeme]

you have to watch with old houses, water pipes are attached to the floor beams. My friend done the same thing last week

 

[DAZB]

Murphy's Law -- If you had taken a bag of nails and actually tried to find a pipe you would have run out of nails.