Archive for the 'When to Hire A Professional' Category

Honest answer about DIY floor refinishing

Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

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?

Bad stain job

Sunday, June 11th, 2006

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?

How to refinish oak parquet

Friday, May 19th, 2006

I am refinishing an oak parquet floor which I have already sanded. I would like to achieve a dark-espresso finish and I am unsure as to whether I should use oil or water based stain. Which coats should I sand in between? Can I leave windows open for ventilation or do I run the risk of dust causing an issue?

Nails in floor

Monday, May 1st, 2006

I ripped up the carpet and want to refinish the oak floors. I’ve spent 12 hours pulling staples out and am stumped what to do about the nails. There are all kinds of nails in the floor, some I pulled out, all different lengths but with the rest (and I mean about 40) all I am managing to do it damage the floor or pull the nail heads off. Is there a better tool to use - I’m using a hammer, pliers, and a thing that looks like a flat head screwdriver with a slit in it. If I start hammering them down with a nail set I’m going to have an awful lot of ugly putty spots right in the middle of the floor. I was hoping to save some money doing the floors myself, I just want them to look ‘good’ but every professional I contact wants to replace every board with the slightest imperfection and make them look stunning! It’s an old house, I don’t want to pay for brand new looking floors.

V-groove

Friday, April 7th, 2006

How do I sand/refinish the v-groove? I’ve seen many articles on finishing floors but none seem to address the v-groove.

Circular marks on diy sanded floor

Thursday, March 16th, 2006

We used a sander after we installed our brand new hard wood floor. After the stain was applied and dried, it now shows a circular marker from the sander. Now that the stain is on and 2 coats of the water based finish, is there any way to fix the marks so they won’t show?

Steps to finishing old wood floors

Thursday, March 16th, 2006

After sanding my old wood floors should I stain or seal them first and do they have to be sanded again after sealing? What are the steps to finishing old wood floors?

Winding staircase

Wednesday, March 15th, 2006

…How do I finish off the stairway where it meets the hardwood? Do I cut a bull nose or some type of custom wood? Also, How do I do curved stairs with hardwood planks? Do I have to taper each piece or just the last few?

Professional hardwood floor fees

Wednesday, March 15th, 2006

What would be helpful is if you could give me approximates on the cost of a floor- in this instance say 1200 sq. ft pre-finished if possible.

Glue pattern (from ripped out rug) on hardwood

Wednesday, March 15th, 2006

I started ripping out an old shag rug from a hardwood floor and found that it had been glued down, much to my dismay and surprise. What is left is a red, chalky substance about ¼ of an inch thick, with a weird line design that makes it look like a truck floor. The work was done by an old company in Philadelphia in 1972, and the glue/adhesive has dried into a chalky substance that is almost impossible to remove by hand (e.g., scraping). Do you have any suggestions on how to remove it?

Can’t afford carpet

Thursday, February 23rd, 2006

We have rental property with stained hard wood floor found under a stained dirty carpet. What would be the most cost efficient solution for us to consider? I thought of staining the floor dark to try to hide the stains and adding a large area rug to room with a one and half foot allowance of wood floor showing. Not sure what to do. We don’t want the expense of wall to wall carpet.

DIY Air bubbles

Thursday, February 16th, 2006

I sanded my hardwood floors and refinished them with 2 coats of polyurethane. I applied the finish with a paint roller. The associate at the home centre told me what caused the air bubbles that I had after I put the first coat on. I resanded and applied 2 coats of finish. I didn’t realise there were teeny, tiny air bubbles in areas of the floor. This is a big room (22′ x 24′) and it is a little much to hand sand and I surely don’t want to have to use a floor sander again. Is there help for the air bubble problem that is not labour intensive for me? Someone told me to have the floor professionally buffed. Will this solve my problem?

Bare micro-bevels

Tuesday, February 14th, 2006

We have recently done a DIY hardwood floor installation using a pre-finished birch product purchased from a major home improvement retailer. This material has micro-bevels, but we noticed during installation that it appears the finish which was applied to the top surface of the strips does not extend down the bevels, i.e.. the bevels are stained, but not actually finished. The result of this is that in all the bevels in the completed floor, we have exposed, unfinished wood, which is susceptible to absorbing liquids easily and could quickly ruin the floor - there are already a couple spots that have started to swell from spills. Of course, we could refinish the entire floor, but we were wondering if there was some way we might be able to seal the joints/bevels without resorting to a full refinish job?

Yellow and “oranging” of wood

Saturday, January 28th, 2006

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.

Flooring glued to concrete and buckling

Monday, January 9th, 2006

We have recently had a solid oak floor laid in our living/dining area. The floor consists of oak planks (160mm x 20mm) glued directly onto concrete subfloor. Unfortunately the floor has buckled severely in couple of areas. How do we rectify this matter without incurring huge costs? Will it go back naturally with the aid of a dehumidifier or would we have to replace the whole floor?

Sticky

Saturday, October 22nd, 2005

I am refinishing some wood floors. I put the stain on in both rooms, in one room the floor was sticky from the stain. It has been 48 hours and this room is still sticky!

Sanding floors

Thursday, October 20th, 2005

I sanded my living floor over the last two days. Last night I scrubbed the floor to prepared for putting the finish on this morning. I woke up to a disaster. There are areas where the wood looks like it’s dotted in black. Also, a ring where the pale was. Would bleach help, or do I re-sand? Ugh, my back hurts.

Loop marks

Friday, October 7th, 2005

I have a new-found deep appreciation for people who work with wood. Here’s our problem: My husband and I have a very tight budget and scraped together the money to install wide plank pine floors. After sanding with a drum sander (which there seems to be various opinions about whether that should have been used), applying ****** wood conditioner and ****** “Puritan Pine” stain, we have terrible looking floors with visible sanding marks (you can feel the raised areas plus some boards are wavy) both on the open area and the edges are horrible – there are loop marks. What now?

Oak floor underneath

Saturday, October 1st, 2005

I have recently moved into a house which has 1930’s vinyl flooring throughout the ground floor. I had pulled this up and found underneath some sort of board- hammered down with hundreds of nails. I have managed to pry some of this board up with a crows for and a mallet but it is very hard work. Is there an easier way? Underneath is a lovely old oak floor which just needs sanding and finishing. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Old painted hardwood floors

Friday, September 30th, 2005

I am purchasing a home that has painted hardwood floors. The home is nearly 100 years old, and I have no idea what type of wood it has or how many layers of awful paint have been added to the natural wood. Is there hope for restoring this floor to its natural wood? If not, what type of paint do you recommend so we can at least change the drab colors?