Hello. We just bought a house and will be getting possession of it this Friday evening. The inspector told us that there are fir floors under the carpet, but couldn't tell their shape without ripping the carpet up. Being that the house is almost 100 years old we're guessing that the floors will need refinishing. Since we have our apartment for another week and the place will be vacant, would it be possible to refinish the floors ourselves and be ready to move in within 5 days (as long as boards don't need replaced or anything major like that)?

There would be 3 people available to put a considerable amount of time into the project for 3 days for about 800 square feet of refinishing.

From reading refinishing tutorials our thoughts are that we could remove all the old carpeting, staples (if it is staples they're using), and punch all the nails in extra on Saturday. Sand the floors completely all in one day Sunday. Then cleaning/staining/finishing through the next couple of days with a water-based finish to move in that quickly.

We don't want to compromise on quality, but don't have the finances to pay a contractor to take care of it either, so an additional question is what's the approximate cost to do such a project ourselves?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give,
Ira

Fir flooring can be beautiful but when it is that old, it typically does not refinish well unless one stains it dark. Old fir flooring develops a mottled appearance that cannot be sanded out. And more than likely, you are looking at the subfloor. It will probably be a little creaky and have gaps between the boards. Plus, these floors can be a little more difficult to sand evenly. All that being said, I suppose one could do as you suggested but plan on working longer than 8 hours a day. The cost? Figure about $150.00 for sander rentals ( drum, edger and buffer ) and sandpaper. (3) coats of Park's waterbased poly @ $40.00 per gallon (you'll need 1.5 gals per coat minimum ) = 5 gallons x $40.00= $200.00 for floor finish. That's about as cheap as one could do it. Personally, I think you're getting in over your head and would allow some extra time in case things do not turn out the way you planned.

Thank you for the advice.

When you say mottled, are you saying so in an antiquish way, or in a bad & unrepairable way?

If it doesn't refinish well, what is the recommended course of action if it's pretty scratched up? Some scratching & stuff is okay by us, being that it gives the place some character. Or are you talking about replacement being the best option?

If it's not in too bad of shape should we just clean it really well and put another layer of the poly?

Also we're in Portland, Oregon. Being that it rains alot here, is cooler and a higher humidity, does the whole process take longer for drying of the stain and finish?

Very subjective. It depends on what it looks like before you sand it. Dark stains help to disguise the uneven appearance but require more care in sanding.

I would bet that the fir flooring is nailed directly to the floor joists and actually is a type of subfloor, so removal is NOT practical. For best results, consider installing a new floor over the top of the fir floor.

At 100 yrs. old, I'm sure it does not have ANY poly on it now. It may have been painted or stained and waxed. Or it could be just raw wood with no coating at all. One cannot expect to determine exactly what to do until one can see the entire floor. Sometimes, you'll have a diamond in the rough. And other times, a lump of coal.

High humidity and low temperatures will delay dry times considerably.

Thanks again.

If we can do a refinish on it, would you recommend that we go with a drum sander or orbital. I just found the Varathane EZV that looks a bit more novice-friendly?

I ask because I've heard many horror stories about novices ruining floors with drum sanders.

Orbital, but it will take much longer to remove (sand properly) the wood. They are not as aggressive or as fast but are safer to operate without mishap.

Okay...

As I mentioned before that we were going to, we got the house this evening. We pulled the carpet up and the floors really don't look all that bad. There is a finish on it (water beads on it, but I don't know how to tell what type), but LOTS of paint drips on top. Obviously they painted just before carpeting, and planning for the carpeting they didn't lay dropcloths.

Looking it over, we don't want to resand the floors - there is some scratching, mini staple-holes and that sort of thing, but in a antiquish way, not in a bad way (in our opinion). There are also small gaps between the boards, but evenly spaced (not wide enough to want to fill them). Having an old finish on the floor, the paint doesn't look like it will be too hard to remove either.

So what's our best option at this point?

1) How do we clean the old floors - from another post I saw to use "Trewax Wood Cleaner". Will that work to get rid of the paint?

2) I recently saw the Verathane Renewal No-Sand Wood Floor Restoring System - would that be a good thing for us to use? (step one=abrasial formula, step two=bonding to condition the abraded finish to bond permanently with the topcoat, step three=catalyzed diamond wood finish, normal use of floors back within just 72 hours)

3) I was also told recently that waxing is a good way to reseal floors - is that better?

4) Should we rent a buffer to do whatever that does to a floor?

We're still on the same timeline as I mentioned before, and MUCH more encouraged being that we don't want to completely resand to refinish.

Please respond soon, as we need to make a decision which direction to go by this afternoon.

Thanks again for all the advice you've given - keep it coming

5) And what tool works best to remove nail strips? Everything I try either shreds the strips or looks like it's going to damage the floors (back of hammer & screwdriver).

Use a wide 6" putty knife. Try and wedge it under the strip. at the nail. Use it now as a floor protector to pry against, in the fulcrum action.

Thanks - any comments from the previous question about refinishing without sanding?

Tykote

For long term maintenance, there's nothing else like Basic's Tykote Dustless Recoating System for the periodic recoating of wood floors!

The Basic TyKote Dustless Recoating System requires no special equipment and can be used to recoat wood flooring overnight without creating dust or mess! When wood floors start showing signs of wear, use the Basic TyKote Dustless Recoating System to recoat wood flooring. Avoid the dust, mess, additional downtime and higher costs of sanding wood floors!

* Recoat in less time - no dust or downtime!
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* Only Basic's TyKote Dustless Recoating System and StreetShoe can offer these advantages to your project!


http://www.basiccoatings.com/asp/arch_d ... oducts.asp

Thanks! And will Tycote clean off the paint too, or do we need to get a special cleaner for that?

There is a cleaning an prep process before the Tykote goes down.

Basic, has the proceedure on their website, I believe.

Anything that will remove the paint will remove the floor finish. With 100 year old floors, most likely they have been waxed. If so, NOTHING will stick to them but more wax. No cleaner can remove all the wax. You are in for a big mess unless you determine that no wax has been used on these floors. It is possible that someone in the past did exactly as you are considering. Resanded the floors and put a floor finish of some type on the floors.

Ugh, then sanding it is. We just rented the Ezv orbital sander this evening and will get to work first thing in the morning. Today (day 1) was spent removing all the staples & nail strips.

The Verathane (waterbase finish) directions gave instructions to use 4 coats, and that it would take about 8 gallons to get the 800 square feet that we have. Even with my unexperienced eye, that sounds like alot more than what will be needed. Is that right that 4 layers are needed? And should that really use up 8 gallons?

Under the carpet of one room (about 140 sq ft) we found what one person told us is pergo (what looks to me really fancy hardwoodish looking linoleum squares), which was in bad shape. We spent a few hours chiseling it off today only to get a small amount of the floor cleaned of it, while it's glue and bottom layer of paper remain. Are there any shortcuts to that? At Lowe's we were told to use Acetone to remove the pergot and it's glue, went back and it didn't do a thing. Will a sander remove the glue and bottom layer of the pergot after scraping off the majority? If so we can probably get the rest of the top layer after another 3-4 hours of chiseling. Otherwise how do we get that stuff off???