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Anyone here ever restore wood floors? - ho'ard - 12-01-2006
Would appreciate random thoughts on the following:
I started pulling up the tiles. They're two layers deep and pretty much matched square over square (not sure why). The bottom layer is glued to the floor with some sort of dark adhesive (I don't know if it's the original stickyback stuff) which is hard and almost non-tacky to the touch. Haven't tried a heat gun yet.
This area was underneath the refrigerator and has some deep gouges-- hopefully the rest is a bit better.
Would be interested to hear some thoughts on how bad this floor looks, whether it's sandable, tricks for removing this adhesive . . .
Thanks.
PS If I decide to give up and just re-tile-- is there such a thing as tasteful, attractive, modern looking floor tile? Or some other treatment I haven't thought of that would work in a craftsman era space like this?
Re: Anyone here ever restore wood floors? - mikebw - 12-01-2006
Haven't had an occasion to do any serious refinishing, but I have cleaned and waxed a couple hardwood floors that turned out beautifully. You may want to withhold judgement until you have the whole floor cleared off first, and whatever you end up doing you'll need to scrape down the surface of what you've got enough to make for a flat underlayment, but-
I would think that as long as the wood isn't rotted or water-damaged, and that there is enough thickness to it to allow for a 1/10" to be sanded off, then you should be fine. Deep gouges aside, as long as the majoritry of the wood is ok I would go the refinishing route.
There are all kinds of flooring options out there, ceramic tile, regular tile, stone, cement, lenoleum, vinyl. I'm sure you could find something else suitable if the wood turns out to be a problem.
Re: Anyone here ever restore wood floors? - The UnDoug - 12-01-2006
I have nothing to base this on, but I bet it'll turn out beautiful.
When you restore wood floors, do you do it from a backup or the original disks. ;-)
Re: Anyone here ever restore wood floors? - Z - 12-01-2006
I didn't personally do the work, but I did refinish my floors - commercial carpet had been glued down ontop of it. They used MANY sanding wheels to get the wood prepped, but it turned out beautifully. This small sample doesn't look bad - but you won't know the full state until all the vinyl is up. It wouldn't hurt to get a quote from a wood floor refinisher / feasibility thoughts.
If the wood is beyond salvaging (relatively unlikely), there are a number of interesting alternatives that mikebw listed. Cork tiles? Perhaps a return to natural (sans-petroleum) linoleum?
Good luck,
Z
Re: Anyone here ever restore wood floors? - ho'ard - 12-01-2006
Thanks for the encouragement!
The front room doesn't look s0 bad (was only carpeted) and should restore perfectly (camera battery was dead).
That leaves the large kitchen and hallway . . .300 sf? Shouldn't bee too brutal if I decide to go with cork. The bedrooms have the same tile-- thinking of leaving it, although chances are I'll suddenly start pulling it up in a moment of idle recklessness.
Re: Anyone here ever restore wood floors? - olnacl - 12-01-2006
I did a kitchen and a hallway. Several layers of sheet linoleum under carpet. Getting the black goo you describe off was the biggest problem. I scraped with the grain to get most of it off and then paid handsomely to the floor refinisher for multiple sanding disks, The result after a few coats of polyurethane varnish was awesome. I used one of those wax furniture touchup sticks to fill the holes left by the carpet tacks - that took more than a little while but with careful color selection, it wasn't noticible.
Re: Anyone here ever restore wood floors? - tuqqer - 12-01-2006
Go to a rental place that rents the *square* orbital floor sanders. They're much better that the circular round sanders that can easily sand off too much of one part of the floor. The square also allows you to get into the corners. Also, the rental place will help you understand the process, and what sand paper you'll need in what order.
You may end up with a killer floor there, h'. If it's your home, be ready for an increase in value
Re: Anyone here ever restore wood floors? - ho'ard - 12-01-2006
It's a rental unit . . . I'll be improving it beyond the neighborhood and shooting myself in the foot if I think it's going to pay for itself in a rent increase . . . but it's the right thing to do.
I've taken my standard from my previous landlord-- "could I live there myself?"
Re: Anyone here ever restore wood floors? - lafinfil - 12-01-2006
Yes I have and it is hard dirty work with a good chance of causing permanent damage.
My floor was similar - old kitchen, several layers of vinyl, black goo etc ...
First thing is get the old stuff off with a good flat scraper. I would avoid heat
except as a last resort - the tile will come up but the black goo will soak in to the wood.
I had good results with hot water and TSP and a cabinet scraper.
You don't want to sand untill all the gunk is off or you will just spread it around
and make a bigger mess.
If you get the floor cleaned it might be worth getting an estimate fro a pro
because by the time you rent a sander, plus an edging sander and buy all
the paper you will need it might not be a much more to leave it to a pro.
If you proceed - an orbital is better if you can rent one. If you use a drum sander
start in a place that will be hidden - under cabinets of fridge because chances are
you are going to put some grooves in it until you get used to running the sander.
You actually have to drop the drum while you are in motion and keep moving at all times.
You can do a a small area with a belt sander to see if it's worth doing and determine wood type.
Even though the rest is oak thee is a chance that the kitchen is different as it was
normally not meant to be a finish surface but a sub floor for the vinyl
My house had all oak but the kitchen was southern long leaf pine. It finished out beautiful
but there was always a dark shadow line where the two sheets of vinyl met.
Nothing would remove it - bleaching etc ...
Thats part of an old house - it gave it personality.
3 coats of satin finish water based polyurethane an it wore like iron
Would I do it again ? ..... hmmmm
Re: Anyone here ever restore wood floors? - OWC Jamie - 12-01-2006
I've taken tile like that up off a kitchen floor that had linoleum under it with some kind of black glue.
Getting i t super cold with dry ice rather than heat got <
It was a bit of work (freeze, whack and scrape, repeat) but heat just made a mess.
I was puting sheet vinyl down after seeing all the patches and repairs from water damaged wood once everything was up, so I was only concerned with flat rather than the wood loking nice.