Hi folks. I started a simple little remodel on our older second home a few years ago. This little fix up evolved into a complete remodel of kitchen, baths, cabinets, roof, fence, porch additon, appliances, plumbing fixtures etc. Our smashed budget makes Congress look positively thrifty.

Now I am on the floors and may have really fouled up this time. This home was built in 1962 and had 1-1/2" No. 1 comman red oak over diagonally planked 1x6 pine. The majority of the house is floored this way. The living area had an additon added at some time. This "area" was roughly a 24 x 24 room divided into 4 quarters by walls. I removed the walls.

The oak flooring ran north south. The northeast and southwest sections were carpet and linloleum respectively. I pulled that up, laid tar paper and installed new 1-1/2" red oak. I cut out and removed strips of the old wood so I could lace in the new wood. I now realize that a nice border divider planking would have been so much easier but I blindly pressed on (being a glutton for punishment). You can guess were this is going now.

The southeast section looks like it was unstained and finished with an oil based poly. It is nicely amber and very worn. The northwest section looks like it was stained to a middle tone before finishing and is also nicely worn. The new wood is the 2 other quarters. The old wood doesn't have too many stains but plenty of wax and grime from all the years. Of course now it's one big room and ready for sanding and finishing. (This is where the pros begin to snicker I think).

I now have multiple challedges ahead and would really appreciate some advice and insight.
My first question is will sanding the floors get the old wood reasonable close to the new wood color or has the old wood changed color all the way through? Sorry for the long post but I wanted you to be able to visualize the issues.

I am going to make a couple assumptions here. If you have selected the same grade and species of oak, and if you are planning to apply a stain, and if you did a nice job of weaving the floors together; then the floor should all reasonably match. The oxidation of the wood (colour change) will not be completely through the wood, but there COULD be some colour differences. A medium toned stain will conceal this.

Hi Dennis. I believe the old wood was No. 1 comman red. It took a little looking to find 1-1/2" flooring but I found a great outfit in Port Richey, FL that sold 1-1/2" Red Oak in select, no. 1 and no. 2. The No. 1 comman I bought matched up nicely in grain and variation with the original from what I can see at this point. The weave I did I would grade as pretty good.

Let me rephrase that as pretty good for a 1st time DIYer and add another issue. The new wood measured at exactly 9" over 6 nailed planks, the old wood measured in the field was between 9-1/16" to 9-1/8" over 6 planks. I had to cut some long tapered planks to swing the new field back into line with the old. I did that twice, Once at 48" and then again at 96".
This also created some gaps in the weave. I could hold 5 boards tight in the weave and let the 6th gap. I cut slivers of wood, glued one side and dropped them in the gap and taped tight (leaving them slighlty proud). After the glue set I used a spoke plane to shave the splinters flush with the surrounding wood.

There are still a few feather gaps (1/32") in the old field and a few face nails.

After reading many many post on this forum I am thinking of heading off in this direction.
All warnings will be greatly apreciated. This is a terrific site and I appreciate the help.

Fill the last few gaps in the weave (1/32ish) with Elmers Probond wood filler.
There are some gaps in the old wood field - (finger nail size to razor blade size).....trowel fill or ignore??

HD Rental Center nearby so-
Sand with U-Sand machine (noobie approved method)
I have access to plenty of 3M paper so..

Old floors 3M Regalite E weight 36, 40, 60, 80
New floors 40, 60, 80

Screen with square boff sander from HD to 100

Stain with Bona Drifast Stain (early american or medium brown) to blend new and old wood

3 coats of Bona Traffic. Abrade with pole sander between coats.

Do I abrade between Stain and first coat of Traffic? I am not clear on this from reading the Bona site.

Just re-read Gary's response in "finish questions-I think I got it" thread.
Lightly abrdae between Bona stain and 1st coat of Traffic...right?

NO! If using BONA stain and BONA Traffic finish, all one needs to do is apply the stain, allow to dry well ( overnight is best ) then vacuum and tack the floor using slightly water dampened lint free towels/cloths. Then when the floor is free of dust and any particles, apply Traffic as described on the bottle's instructions.



Some pros fill all gaps. Others ignore them, saying the filler will pop out anyway. Well, my opinion is this. I am hired to restore the floor to a like new condition as much as possible. So I fill all cracks and gaps in a floor being refinished. Using the argument that it will eventually come out does not make sense to me. That's like saying, why refinish it? It's going to get worn again. See my point? If it makes it look better now, will please the customer, does not hurt the floor or job, then I do it. I realize some old floors are loose and some of the filler may come out at a later date. Odds are, the floor will get dented and/or scratched too. Should I worry about that as well? No, my opinion is make the floor look as good as it can now. Many other pros disagree and that is fine. It also depends on the floor as well. Strip floors should be filled. Plank flooring can go either way.

Thanks Gary. I was leaning towards filling and your thoughts pushed me over the line. I suppose I will use Bona's filler as well, unless there are other products you think are better.

As an observation on this project so far. If I had bought approx. $600 more wood, I could have floored the entire area and avoided all the time and aggravation of the weave, the old wood field gaps, the gaps in the weave, gluing in splinters etc. In fact, after I finished nailing the last board, my wife/helper says "gee..wouldn't have been easier and prettier to just buy more wood?" Collective head slap.

Posting an update.
The U-Sand machine is a nice machine and would probably be ok for a floor that was in reasonably good shape.
But these old floors are heavily scratched and gouged and have decades of "floor care products" over the old varnish.
Half a day and 40 disk of 24 grit paper and I was barely to wood. Serious almost instant gumming of the paper.
Just rented a Clark EZ-8 drum sander. Wow...what a difference.
I suppose the lesson is if you have heavy sanding to do - go with drum sander.
Of course I made a nice divet on the first pass but going smoothly now.
Incidentally, Clark has some nice videos on YouTube that helped with my first time jitters

You're preaching to the choir here my friend. We have said this very thing many times. Glad to hear it has worked out for you.

Hi Gary...yes sir I am a believer now. A drum sander is a wonderful machine and I really enjoy running it.
And an edger is some sort of purgatory....that is a real chore.
I reverted to the sanding schedule you posted in
http://www.hardwoodflooringtalk.com/forum/sanding-schedule-t914.html?hilit=sand%20schedule

I varied a little with a pass of 36 on the big machine on the +/- 45 bias to get out all the deep gouges, water stains and god knows what else. The drum gives you time to think and wonder "how the heck did my renters do that?" and "looks like some kid got a pen knife for Christmas"

I trowel filled the first bedroom after 60 drum with Bona red oak filler and then sanded with 100 drum. Used the U-Sand machine (since I haven't returned it yet) to screen to 100. Looks darn nice.

While I was at the supply house picking up the Bona Nutmeg stain, red oak filler, and Traffic; the clerk suggested applying the stain with a thin white pad on the Clark FM1700 buffer. I am not familiar with using a pad in a machine to apply stain. Is this a comman pratice? a good practice? or am I opening a huge can of worms and slinged stain. I can see this as being a really terrific way to foul up.

There are many pros who apply stains with a buffer. I do from time to time. But I prefer the control I have by applying and wiping by hand. I sometimes will buff the stain off with towels under the buffer. But applying it, I use a 10" Padco pad on a pole. It paints it on nice and even without saturating the floor. You can try it, applying the stain with the thin white pad on a buffer. The nice thing about BONA stain is it's easy to repair.

Our company also uses a buffer during the application of the stain. Our process is to have one guy applying the stain (usually on his knees and using a rag), while a second guy buffs it into the wood. We use a 15 inch polisher and buffing pads made out of old carpet removed from other jobs.
This tends to eliminate any over-lap of the stain and is quite miserly in the amount of stain needed.

I like the idea of the 10" padco on a pole for the stain application. At this point I will go with anything that is standing up. My old knees and back are really protesting this grand adventure. I think I will try the towels under the buffer for pick up..might just toss that nice white pad I bought on as the cushion..it is 1/2" and feels like a stitched cotton material.

This brings up another concern. I am refinishing 852 sq.ft. of which 257 sq.ft. is the new install and 595 sq.ft. is the old wood. The Bono wood filler instructions said it covers 600 to 800 sq.ft. I thinned the material slightly with water and applied with a 12" drywall trowel and I really knifed it down hard. It lasted for 420 sq.ft. of old wood. No problem..I will get another gallon. But when it comes to the staining I sure do not want to stop midstream. Bona says 800 to 100 sq.ft. per gallon of stain. I bought one gallon, but based on my experience with the filler I wonder if I should have a spare gallon of stain. Your thoughts?

1 gallon of stain should cover 1000 sq.ft. easily. If it does not, you're flooding the floor! 125 sq.ft. per quart has been the industry average for many years. I usually get a little more coverage, about 150 to 175 sq.ft. per quart.