Wood Floor (Re)Finishing

[danolie]

Hello... I recently purchased a 1932 home with some beautiful wood floors (in nice shape)... but there's a kitchenette area (about 6' x 7') that is carpeted. I pulled back the carpet and found linoleum... pulled that back, and viola! found wood... but it's not perty.

I'm not even sure it was ever finished. there's a lot of crap on it, so it's hard to tell. Anyway, the cracks between the slats aren't filled in (small cracks)... and I felt at least one somewhat loose board.

SO... I'm sensing a BIG project. Any pointers as I get started, or things to think about?

I know I'll need to take up the carpet, tack strips, linouleum...

Then I'm assuming I go in and check for nails that need to be countersunk, loose boards that need to be fastened, fill any holes, etc, then sand with a big power sander...

Advice? anyone taken on a project like this before?

Dan

[LazyPup]

danolie..

Once you have all the old flooring materials pulled up and all the nails pulled you can resurface the wood by sanding it.

You can rent a commercial floor sanding machine at most tool rental stores quite reasonable. (In my area it is $50 a day,,but you can get a better price by renting it on saturday for a monday morning return)

Unless the cracks you mention are really big i wouldnt put any filler in them. Real hardwood undergoes great changes in dimension by humidity, especially if it is not properly sealed with a varnish of some sort. If you fill the gaps with a non-pliable filler, when the boards expand it can actually cause them to pop up.

Normally if the wood is in good shape, once it is sanded, sweep, dry mop and vacuum up as much of the sawdust as you can then finish it with a varnish or polyurethane material made for floors and that should be sufficient.

[HayZee518]

For a floor finish that is real "tough" choose FABULON or SATIN-ZAR.
They are both solvent based so use extra ventilation when applying them, AND "No open flames!!!" Urethanes are ok but the humidity makes them cloudy.