WoodFlooringGuy.com

I recently bought a 115 year-old house, remodelled within past 10 years, with wall to wall carpet. I ripped up the carpet on the second floor, with the intention on re-carpeting, only to find old 2 3/8″ wide strip pine floors in relatively decent condition. The carpet caused some yellow and oranging of the wood. I am now faced with needing to sand and stain (or not) these floors. This room is the TV room with floor to ceiling windows and access to the deck, so it gets sun and traffic. My hope is to put area rugs in the sitting area and at the door going outside. My questions are: Is sanding the best approach to this style pine floor? Also, is it better to leave the pine natural or attempt to stain? (I realised staining pine is a careful chore). My primary concerns are best looks for the resale of the house and durability in a high traffic and constantly sunlit room. I will be using a professional for this work.

My solid golden oak floor recently got scratched, a screw from a chair caused surface scratches, also some small gouges. How do I repair these areas without having to remove the boards? The scratches appear to be mostly in the factory varathane finish.

We refinished our floors in September and they came out pretty nice. However, it is now January and all around the floor you can start to see separation between the polyurethane and each plank joint. Basically, the polyurethane is pulling away from the floor where each plank meets. Again, the finish is not pulling away anywhere but at each plank seam and only slightly. What could be causing this? Is there anything we can do about it?

I had to install hardwood flooring in my hall and connect it to an existing hardwood floor in the foyer area. I matched wood grains as close as possible. I still notice the difference, even though is very small. Is there a way to hid it?

After returning the stain to the stores, the store manager shook, stirred all the cans of stain (in our colour) along with the remaining cans, and we discovered that each can varies dramatically from a brown yellow cast, red cast and orange cast. Is it possible for me to remove the stain in the orange areas without re-sanding the floors? I have tried mineral sprits but this is not working.

We want a non-yellowing non-glossy finish for our hardwood floors that will keep the wood’s natural colour as best as possible. What is the difference between our two choices “Swedish finish” and water-soluble?

Two years ago we had our 30+ year old oak living room floor refinished. The results were excellent! We had the same guys install a new site finished oak floor in another room this year. The new wood was allowed to sit in the room for about 3 weeks this fall to adjust to the temperature and humidity characteristics of the house. A product that they referred to as liquid oak was used during finishing. I understand completely ( from the old floor refinishing ) that during the cooler months, separations will appear between planks and subsequently close with warmer conditions. My concern is that some of the separations in the new floor have a very jagged appearance. Both the finisher and I agree that this resulted from the liquid oak separating alternately on each side of the boards as the wood contracted. In a small ” test ” area, he used a putty type product intended to fill such openings. Would you advise applying this ” putty ” along all of the openings? Do you have any suggestions? Am I better off to see this through for a year of expansion and contraction?

We have pre-finished floors and they told us that the floors would never need to be (and couldn’t be) sanded and refinished. The floors are only about 6 months old but we have a few spots where things have been dropped and small nicks and chinks and scratches have been left. How can we fix these areas without damaging the rest of the floor or without making the damaged area worse?

We have recently installed laminate on our main floor. We are at a standstill however, as we are not sure what to do with the bullnose. Our stairs leading to the basement are carpeted, but I do not know if I have the right kind of bullnose. Are there different kinds? How do I install it? I assumed it was similar to the transition piece I got for the transition from laminate to ceramic.

We recently bought a 60 year old house. We have never owned hardwood floors. The hardwoods look good, but old. There doesn’t seem to be any major damage and we love the medium to dark color and natural looking finish (is possible the finish is worn off?) We have removed the trim around the edges and can tell that the exposed floor is considerably shorter than the edges covered by the trim. I am not sure it can take another sanding. We do not want to gloss them up, but want to protect them. Do we need to refinish them? Can we leave them alone and just keep them clean? What is good to use on a weekly basis?

My kitchen had ceramic tile with a subbase of 3/4 in plywood. How do I remove the sub floor which extends under the cabinets?

…….Do you have experience with a satin clear coat that has low, or no VOC’s, that you would recommend?

My home was build just 5 year old and now I want to install a hardwood floor in our kitchen. Do I need to removed the laminate floor or can I just cover it with the red rosin paper before I install the wood flooring?

My living room is about 12′ x 13′ with a slanting wood floor that varies over an inch from one side of the room to the next. Is there anyway of levelling this without destroying my downstairs neighbours ceiling and without spending gobs of money? I am also interested in laying down some sort of soundproofing underlayment such as cork which I would then top with a glueless wood flooring. Is all of this too heavy and too difficult for such an old building apartment?

My home is split level with open-backed stairs (treads but no risers). The treads are 2x Douglas Fir and are presently wrapped by carpeting. The stringers are also Douglas Fir and have been painted dark brown. Whoever painted the stringers got paint on the top of the treads where they intersect the stringers. I am re-flooring the home with Santos Mahogany and need to get the carpeting off the treads for aesthetic reasons. What is my best course of action - sand the paint off the stringers and treads and then stain them; or just paint the treads to match the stringers; or veneer the treads with Santos Mahogany? I’m having a heck of a time figuring out what to do on a limited budget.

I would like to install hardwood in my basement. I understand the moisture problems with basements, is there not a product out there that would seal the cement making it water proof? I was thinking of an epoxy paint, like the one they use on garage floors. Would this stop ground moisture from penetrating the concrete? I would then use a plywood subfloor prior to installing the hardwood.

We recently bought and renovated our first house. We had the hardwood floors refinished using polyurethane stain. It has been about 11/2 weeks since the floors have been finished they are all dry and our furniture is moved in. I am 8 months pregnant and concerned with the lingering smell from the floors. How long is the polyurethane considered toxic for? Is it safe to be living there even though the floors still have an odour?

Our stairs are made of 4X10in rough cut pine planed and sanded. Is there a textured finish I can apply to cut down on being too slippery?

We just had red oak hardwood floors installed in two rooms and the adjoining rooms were all sanded and refinished. Our installer applied three coats of oil-based Duraseal and I would like an additional coat. Our installer did an awesome job but he thinks I am crazy to want another coat of polyurethane. I can see the small indentations in the finish where it has soaked into the grain of the wood. It is my experience that dirt collects in the grain and does not come out until the floors are refinished. It was quite an ordeal to refinish and install these floors and I would not like to do it again for as long as possible. In addition, we have 3 young boys and realistically they will be rough on the floors. What are the drawbacks to applying enough layers of finish until the surface is smooth?

I’m going to refinish risers in oak veneer. You can buy veneer that is pre-glued that you iron on or veneer that has no glue. I have also seen on an American do it yourself show, veneer that had a peel and stick backing. What would you recommend and where can you buy it in the Toronto area?