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In January we had the carpet in our home replaced with hardwoods (four rooms). The new and older hardwoods were then all sanded and finished with an oil-base finish. Now, 6 months later, the new woods are cupping, not only in the rooms where there had been carpet, but also in the kitchen where new wood was used to patch a small area under a cabinet peninsula that we removed. Our first thought was that the cupping was caused by a moisture problem in the crawl space (we live in an area that is humid during the summer), but if that were true, wouldn’t all the hardwoods on the first floor be cupping, and not just the new wood? Does this have something to do with the installation? Acclimation? Finishing? What do you suggest we do to fix the floors? And can this be done without re-sanding and refinishing?

My recently purchased home has oak flooring underneath the carpeting in my living room. I was able to remove the carpeting, padding, and tack board easily enough. They also put down linoleum glued to plywood in the entry way of the living room. This also came up easily enough (with a little extra effort). My problem is this: They used heavy 3/4″ staples to secure the plywood to my oak floors, and every method we’ve tried to remove the staples has been mostly unsuccessful. The staples are in so far that one of my boards nearly came our with part of the staple! For the most part, the staples just snap off leaving me with two prongs sticking out of the floor. Any suggestions on how I can get these out without ruining the floor?

We recently refinished our floor and when I put the second coat on there were a lot of lap marks all over the room. Is there anyway to fix these? I have not put the cleat coat on yet- just the stain.

We live in the UK and have recently had oak floor planks laid. The wood settled in the house for 6 weeks before being fitted. A latex was laid to level the floor and then the wood was glued to the floor. The problem we have is that after 1 month of being down the floor has now risen in one part and created a big bow in the centre of the room. How can we correct this?

My husband and I are planning on refinishing our oak hardwood floors this weekend. Have you heard of saving the dust from sanding and mixing with the varathane for the first finish coat? We were told that this would fill in any gaps or holes in the wood. Is this a good idea or would it create more problems for us?

I took on the project of refinishing my red oak hardwood floors and I’ve came to a standstill. I rented a belt sander and vibrating sander to sand the floors down. After this, I applied an oil-based stain and let it dry for a couple of days. The next step I applied a coat of minwax satin polyurethane (oil-based). It looked great applying it. The next day the floor had places that were grey in colour in spots and other places that looked like the poly really soaked into the wood. I haven’t light sanded or applied a second coat without consulting someone about this. I’m in the process of having my house remodeled and a new central heating/air unit installed. I have no air and I’ve been opening windows and using fans to help dry the polyurethane. The weather had been real humid the last week.

We are remodelling our kitchen and considering putting a Beech floor down. Is this a good wood for wear and tear? We have two grandchildren and they tend to play in the kitchen. Will the beech show all the dents and scratches easily? What would be the best wood to use? The flooring person said that beech is just as hard as red oak- Is this true?

The company I used filled most of the nail holes (they missed some) and also filled in between some of the wood strips. Someone told me that they should have filled in between all of the pieces of wood. Is that true? That seems like a lot of filling.

My wife and I just bought a new house which has hardwood floors throughout. Overall the floors are gorgeous but there are some high traffic areas which you can tell the urethane is getting worn. I would like to sand the top of the urethane and then apply two more coats to hopefully last another 10 or 15 years. I’ve been reading around the Internet about how ******* Oil soap is leaves a residue on hardwood floors which makes it difficult if you want to refinish the urethane. That is all the previous owners used to clean the floors and I was wondering if you could recommend to me a way that I could recoat my floors without having to sand down own to the wood.

What steps need to be taken when installing hardwood to stained concrete, glue down method? It won’t adhere.

We have stained our hardwood floors and really did a terrible job. Is there a way to correct this? Is it possible to remove the stain?

I just had engineered hardwood flooring put in. The workers first put a sealer on my concrete floors once carpet was removed. In four days it still had not completely dried but they started work anyway to lay the new hardwood flooring. The problem now is that the imprint of their work boots are all over the place! They have cleaned it twice now with paint thinner and the imprints are still there.

We are installing a new hardwood floor, and chose a dark stain on birch. We’ve snapped a few pieces together to see how it looks and noticed that the edges are not as darkly stained (like the bevelled edges didn’t take the stain as well as the top of the wood). Our room is very large with lots of light. We’re concerned that we may have light lines running all around the room. Is this common with dark stains on light wood?

I just removed the carpeting off my hardwood floors, and under the padding was this clay like material that I had to scrape off. It left a terrible film on the hardwood floors. I don’t want to sand and refinish the floors. How can I get the film off of it?

I am removing carpet due to asthma. What has worse fumes, Pergo or prefinished hardwood?

We are replacing carpeted stairs with oak stair treads. We ripped up the carpet and pulled up the existing pine boards. My husband says we have to put plywood under the 1 ½ inch oak treads we purchased. I say we just have to replace the risers and glue and nail the treads to the stringers, The treads are 41″ across, and there are three stringers, left, middle, and right.

We have a few areas in our hallway that the large, industrial floor sander could not reach. When these edges are sanded with a heavy-duty hand sander, the surface appears to ‘melt’ and causes the sander disk to burn and circular burn marks appears on the floor. I think the substance is tar, which I cannot seem to remove through sanding by hand. Can you suggest any cleaning products that will help dissolve the tar or any other way to remove it?

Is it better to have hardwood floors refinished before you re-paint or after you paint?

I would like to change/darken the stained color of the stairs. Which product could I use over polyurethane without sanding or stripping existing coats? Would a stained polyurethane product work over the clear polyurethane as sort of a top-coat?

…what’s the best way to make a transition?