Hi Everyone,

My wife and I just bought a house and discovered an oak floor under the carpet. We will be refinishing the floor in a couple weeks but I have a few questions.

We will be staining the floor a medium-dark brown color (Minwax English Chestnut). I saw a neighbor who refinished thier floors who left it a natural blonde color. The one thing I really didn't like about thier floor was the very obvious rows of nail holes caused by counter-sinking the nails going across the whole room. To me, it really distracted from the woods beauty.

I'm assuming that staining the wood darker will mask these holes caused by counter sinking the nails anyway, but would filling the holes with filler provide additional masking? Or would that just cause little rows of dots across the floor because it won't take the stain the same as the wood?

I understand that if I use wood filler that I perform that step before the final sanding. However, should I "spot-fill" those holes or trowel fill the entire floor.

Using wood filler as a step for finishing hardwood floors is the one process I have been unable to find adequate information on. So any detailed info you could offer regarding this step would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Some people choose to spot fill only large gaps and nailholes and others trowel the entire floor either way is acceptable practice. Trowel filling will get everthing and it also does a good job of filling in some of the softer grain that is often torn out during rough sanding. One thing also to consider it is it's winter and if your floors have large gaps I would shy away from filling those, large gaps filled during the winter often get pushed back out come summer as the wood naturally starts to expand. Nailholes should be fairly limited to the perimiter of the rooms, if you buddy has nailholes all down the middle of the floor I would wonder why, but I know why and just flat think it's crappy so I answered my own question. Anyway, with filler try to push it down into the void, dont use more than you have to and if you go that dark of a color you will have a real tough time seeing those nailholes anyway. One side note, that Eng. chestnut color is available from Duraseal which is the proper stain to put on a wood floor, the same folks make it (sherwin williams) you might have to go to a Hardwood Flooring store to buy it but while your there you can pick out a decent finish to put on as well.

Thanks a lot,

It is rather disappointing that the builder just nailed several rows of nails straight down the middle of the room.

There aren't any gaps that are big enough for me to want to fill them (which is surprising since it is winter now). It's really just the nails. Do you think it would be a waste of time to fill them? Would the wood fillers really do a convincing job in hiding them?

And on your side note. I was planning to do 2-3 coats of polyurethane on top of the stain. Given that, do you still feel the Minwax stain is not the right product for the job?

If the floor is nice and tight I would probally only fill the nails holes and other small voids. The stain will hide the filler much better than it does on a natural floor. MInwax stain is used a bunch in the flooring industry but it's well known for being a slow slow drying stain especially in the darker and red tones (heavy pigment). If you let it dry throughly it will work under most oil based polys but If the stain is not completly dry prior to putting on the poly you run a chance of the finish coats peeling. I had a customer of mine let his floor sit for a week after staining with minwax before he top caoted it with Traffic, needless to say it caused the finish to peel. Dry times are extremly important when staining a floor probally the number one reason for finish failure when staining.

Thank you very much for your advice. It is very helpful. I'll look into those duraseal stains that you recommend.

What product would you recommend for spot filling all these nail holes?