Hardwood Floors (was GE FIlter-Flo)

[mixergal]

This discussion started in the Imperial forum as a discussion on a GE Filter Flo. I mentioned that I was discovering some wonderful hardwood floors in my house, and a sugestion was made that I not sand and refinish them, but I just give them a good wash and wax. There - I think that brings you up to date

Our house was built in the 1930's and updated in the 1960's - so all of that beautiful hardwood got covered by turquoise carpeting in the heady days of wall-to-wall. A little old lady lived here before we did, and - being a little old lady - wasn't hard on the carpeting in any of the rooms, so the funky wall-to-wall was in pretty good shape when we moved in.

There is a short hall in front of my bathroom leading from the livingroom. Facing the bathroom door there is a door to the left that is the master bedroom, and a door to the right that leads into a smaller room we presently use as a sitting room. This hallway was a mish-mash of carpeting. Our house had been heavily renovated at one point, and some of the doorways have been re-oriented. The turquoise carpeting was in this hallway up to what had once been a doorway, and from there it was the orange shag from the sitting room. Not a pretty sight - and our new kitty decided the shag carpeting made a wonderful litter box. So, we decided it would be best to just tear up the carpeting and put down some vinyl tile so the whole hallway would have one continuous look and feel. Lo and behold what did we find lurking beneath all of that carpeting but hardwood floors! We were thrilled! I should have known - I grew up in a house with old hardwood and was familliar with the creaks and groans. I guess I was so used to it I didn't even question the feel and sound of the floors when we moved in here.

So, I have been slowly tearing up the old carpeting. The livingroom and diningroom are one large greatroom, but once upon a time there was an archway of some sort separating the two rooms from each other. This has proven to be a problem because there is plywood on the floor in place of where the archway would have been. I don't really know what to do about it - I just discovered it yesterday. Also, as I uncover the floor, it is getting darker as I move toward the livingroom. - noticably so. I'm not sure if this is due to sun fading or what - there are no architectural markers past or present that I can find that would lead to why there is such a change in color. Also, there is a high traffic area from the kitchen to the dining area that has no finish on it at all anymore. Right now I have it covered with an area rug to protect it, but it will need to be dealt with.

I've been working hard on my hands and knees to pull up this old carpet and not damage the finish on the floor. The ancient carpet padding is stuck to the floor quite badly in places (most of it is crumbly, brittle, and just vacuums up) and I've tried all a manner of things to clean it up. Murphy's does nothing. Mineral spirits softens it a bit, but I've found that WD-40 softens the old material up enough so I can clean it off - but it has been so bad in parts that I have had to lightly sand with 200 grit sandpaper to get the worst up. This has caused light spots here and there on the wood. I haven't sanded past the finish, but I have lightened it noticably in a few spots no larger than a quarter. I bought a stain pen so I can go back through and darken up the lighter spots. So far that has worked pretty well, and I have been able to blend the light spots in with the rest. I've also used the pen to disguise bad scratches in the finish et. al.

Now, hubby and I are not in a financial position to have the floors professionally refinished - or to refinish them ourselves. We had hoped to do exactly as you had described - clean them up, wax them up and live with them as is. I don't even mind the few scratches here and there - to me that's part of the charm of hardwood. However, I don't know what to do about the problems I described above.

As a Historic Preservationist, do you have any recommendations on what I should do about the issues I am having? Specifically I am wondering what I should do about the strange floor coloration, and the plywood patches in the floor where architecture is no more. I wish the owners that did it would have left the architecture alone - I would have loved to have the original archway!

I'll post some pictures so you can see what I am dealing with. It's kind of fun doing this work - I get to see what our house originally looked like - it's like rediscovering it all over again!

-Sherri

By the way - we did put vinyl tile down in part of the hallway in front of the bathroom. The orange shag didn't have padding, but instead was installed over plywood that had a layer of felt between it and the hardwood. We got the plywood up, but the felt was glued down quite thoroughly. So, we installed the tile over the felt, and continued the same tile into the bathroom for a continuous look. We used vinyl tile with the idea that over time they will separate from the felt so the floor underneath can still be preserved.

Hopefully some of this made sense

 

[58limited]

I have refinished all of the hardwood floors in my house. I recommend this because modern polyurethane coatings are much easier to deal with and keep clean and shiny than the old wax system. There was some water damage to my house from Hurricane Ike, and other floors had the same carpet issues you have. To get the carpet pad off takes a lot of hand work with a putty knife and razor blade. I was unable to find any solvents to get the pad up without damaging the wood.

I would strongly recommend having a professional redo the floors - I learned the hard way that controlling a floor sander is not easy and you can gouge the floors pretty badly. Average cost in my area is about $3.00 per square foot. I did the house in two stages: half four years ago, and the rest after Hurricane Ike (which, fortunately, only damaged the unrefinished areas).

As far as the plywood areas, you can pull the wood up in a closet and use it to replace the plywood. That way the wood should match the rest of the floors. I had this problem, new red oak was lighter than the 60 year old original red oak, even after refinishing. Using the old wood in the closets helped to keep everything matching. New wood can be installed in the closet.

The areas that are darker can either be water damage or they might have had more wear than the other floors. Also, maybe some were refinished in the past with a different stain.

 

[polkanut]

When my wife and I bought our house in 1998, the old carpeting had already been ripped out. When we looked at the house we were told that they were going to re-carpet, and we told them not to. We had the floors professionally redone, and it cost us almost the same as what carpeting would have. Our floors had the old dark varnish on them, and they are a beautiful light maple now. There is one small area in our living room where the previous owners dog had accidents, but we have an area rug over it, and no one is any the wiser. I think your color problem will resolve itself with refinishing. By the way, our house was built in 1925.

 

[mixergal]

Pic of floor repair

This one isn't such an issue as we have a chest we keep over it, but it gives you an idea of what the floor looks like in these areas. We have closets that have the same hardwood floors, so down the road we could have the boards replaced - but any suggestions on what to do in the meantime? Again, I'm not so worried about this spot - more where the arch used to be.

 

[mixergal]

The amazing color-shifting floor

Three colors, one floor. The pic says it all.

 

[mixergal]

Am I doomed?

This is probably the worst spot - the finish is just plain worn away here to bare wood. I keep it covered with an area rug to protect it and keep it from getting damaged.

Am I doomed to refinishing? I know that's the obvious answer - but the fact is we just can't afford it for quite a while - at least until I get through grad school. Any other suggestions? I thought I might try and re-stain this section and go over the lighter sections to try and match them up with the darker flooring.

-Sherri

 

[polkanut]

We had the same problems as what you have. Our refinisher replaced the missing strips of flooring, and the color issue was resolved when they sanded the flooring.

 

[volvoguy87]

Sunlight and wear.

Sunlight affects finishes in interesting ways. UV light will often darken finishes. This makes it easy to spot where there were area rugs for many years. Preservationists refer to this sort of thing (and any evidence of previous changes) as "ghost Marks." The easy solution is to get area rugs roughly the size of the ghost marks or a little larger. As for patching where the arch and furnace intake used to be, a good floor contractor should be able to install new hardwood planks where the plywood is. You can try to have it matched with stain but because it will not be the same wood and it will lack the patina of the old, it will likely always be able to to be picked out as a little different. This is not a bad thing, just a minor ghost mark to remind you of your house's history.

As for areas with no finish, you can try using some Bruce tinted floor wax as a temporary measure. Eventually you will want to apply some sort of oil based varnish. Waxing wood floors is a good way to protect them, and it can be buffed to a nice shine from time to time. Just be careful cleaning waxed floors so you don't strip the wax. Murphy's will strip the wax! IF your wax wears, that's ok because wax is a sacrificial material. In other words, the wax will wear but the varnish beneath will not, as long as there is a coating of wax on top of it. If your was wears, just clean the floor with a detergent that will strip the wax and apply a fresh coat. You can also apply wax in small patches over worn areas without stripping the rest.

Polyurethane is fast easy and cheap. It is very hard to damage, looks great when new, and will stand up to tremendous abuse. It just won't age gracefully. The debate over poly vs. traditional oil varnish boils down to what you want to do: With traditional varnish and wax, you have to do some periodic maintenance (cleaning, buffing, and sometimes stripping and reapplying the wax). With poly, you don't have to do periodic maintenance but you will have to completely redo it every 10-20 years depending on abuse, quality of application, and exposure to UV light. All poly is is a plastic coating over the wood. As I wrote in a previous thread, traditional varnishes and wax coatings can be repaired if they become worn or damaged relatively easily and cheaply. Poly cannot be repaired and must be removed, which is extremely difficult because it is immune to most strippers. Poly is best removed with sanding, but each time you sand, your floor gets thinner. A bad sanding job will also make your floors look terrible and the only way to fix it is with even more sanding. Also, sanding removes the patina built up over the decades. I like traditional varnish because I can maintain it easily and cheaply myself and visitors can't tell the difference between a new finish and a maintained old one.

Clear as mud?
Dave

 

[mixergal]

Thanks again Dave

That was very helpful. I've been covering trouble spots with throw rugs, but I do dream of the day when my floor is one, uniform color I love having an older house, though. It's fun to tear up carpet and strip woodwork - I feel more connected to the house somehow.

I like that term "ghost marks" - very romantic in a way!

-Sherri

Oh and fast, easy and cheap? My sister would say that fits me to a "t" Truth is though, I do everything on my own time schedule, always end up finding the hardest way to do something, and well...we won't go there with the cheap

 

[stainfighter]

Restore-a-Finish

Mixergal - I have not personally tried this product but have heard from Gary Sullivan radio show (garysullivanonline.com) that this stuff has been around for years and he has said this is a no-brainer, does a great job restoring color to wood. Worth a $10 try, perhaps? Claims it does not destroy existing finish, but restores color to wood, hmm...need to get us a bottle now that I think of it!

At Home With Gary Sullivan - America's Most Listened To Home Improvement Radio Show

At Home With Gary Sullivan is America's Most Listened To Home Improvement Radio Show

www.garysullivanonline.com