Our circa 1895 loft has a pine floor that got soaked when Hurricane Rita hit last year. This was originally a warehouse, so the floors were never beautiful, but we were happy with the old warehouse look. We finished them with a water based polyurethane. We are finally!! to the point that we are ready to restore the floors. They've turned greyish in some areas, and in other areas the finish is gone. We would appreciate advice on where to go from here. Because I live in a hurricane prone area, I would like to know what finishes would be best in the event we get wet again. We live on the top floor so flooding isn't the problem....we lost our roof! Thanks in advance!

"WATERLOX" is the answer.

https://www.waterlox.com/default.aspx

Thank you! I've been looking into tung oil finishes, and ran across the Waterlox website earlier tonight. I really appreciate the info!

Have the grey areas tested for mold. It starts as a faint grey cast, and slowly gets darker as it reaches the surface.

Oh great! That's all I need! If it is mold, how do I treat it without calling out a remediation service?

Board replacement.

Can a remediation service restore without replacing the boards? I think the grey looks more like effervescence. Could that be possible?

It may very well be where the finish is wore off and the wood is getting soiled???


Everything you have said about your situation, reeks mold. But I don't want to scare you,, but just so your aware of the potential concerns, so you don't put a lot of work into it only to find out you have a growning concern, later.

We had some mold in our sheetrock, though we have very little sheetrock because the building is mainly brick and plaster, but I guess we need to have this checked out. I sanded a couple of areas that were grey looking (before I knew it could possibly be mold) and it sands to a nice clean wood. Is it possible that the water based polyurethane (Minwax) that we put on the floors just have turned grey from the water and soil from the storm?

If it sands out it may just be soiling, and topical.

Under good finish the grey would concern me

Oh great! I was afraid I was going to have to rip up 3000 sf of heart pine!

Another question, does this need to be totally stripped to bare wood to use the Waterlox?

Yes, sanding to bare wood is required, in order to acheive a uniform look.


Makes for a good starting base.