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A Not Quite Fix for My Poor Hardwood Floors

aabbbiee — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:30:55 -0800

How can I limit damage to my virtually-unfinished hardwood floors without the trouble/expense of refinishing? I have an 1800 sq foot ranch-style home built in 1994 (in Missouri, USA). All of the flooring is hardwood, with the exception of a small utility room and the two bathrooms. This is a slab home, and the wood is directly on top of the concrete. I cannot be very specific about the type of wood it is- possibly oak? It's very standard early-90s suburban house wood flooring.

When I bought this house in 2006 (at the top of the market, of course), the floors were not in great shape. I didn't care because I own a dog and do not want to live a lifestyle where I have to place a lot of emphasis on keeping my floors scratch-free. My house is not worth what I paid for it, and I've had to put some very expensive work into it (roof, foundation repairs, new a/c, just to start). This is not a house I wanted to own forever. I will likely sell or rent the place out in 5 years.
In addition, refinishing of any part of the house would require refinishing of all the floors of the house, because the wood flows through all the rooms. I have had a casual estimate of $4000 to refinish the floors of the house. This is not chump change for me, and that new a/c unit was installed just two weeks ago, so I am not exactly rolling in it right now.

Until this past weekend, I didn't worry too much about the floors, but they were not in great shape. I cleaned them regularly by sweeping or vacuuming. Maybe once a year I tried to clean them with Murphy's Oil, whereupon it became obvious that they had almost no finish left. The water soaked in and there was a smell of wet wood.

This past weekend, I had the excitement of coming home to find that a washing machine hose had burst (the washing machine was not even in use at the time) and flooded about a third of the house with an inch of water in just forty-five minutes. (Fantastic entertainment for a Saturday night!)

After the immediate cleanup, I am happy to see that there was very little long-term damage to my house. The floorboards have dried out without buckling. We've had very low humidity this week (totally unusual for Missouri in summer) but the new a/c has been very helpful, and I think I removed the water fast enough that there may not be mold damage. Furniture and other possessions were largely untouched. Rugs are all cotton and can be washed. I was remarkably fortunate.

The only thing that was ruined was [whatever was left of] the finish of the hardwood in that part of the house. In the living room, I can see where the water was and where it stopped. It's not a bad stain and it would likely come out with sanding, but the floors are clearly in even worse shape than they were. Refinishing them would fix them perfectly, I'm sure.

I don't want to refinish. See paragraph #2.
What can I do with these floors? My priority is to decrease the amount of damage that my dog and I could incur if we live on pretty-much-unfinished wood floors. Making them pretty is not really my priority. I just want to limit the damage. (I can't put rugs everywhere.)
Google lists different products on the market that swear they will help me, but I don't know enough to tell the useless & destructive from the magic miracle tonic.
Things that involve sanding seem to be a little beyond my comfort zone as far as things I can do myself (and I don't want to hire someone else).
What options beyond refinishing do I have? How should I be cleaning this floor?

Hardwood floor protective coating?

Mid — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:44:52 -0800

How to protect hardwood floors from my dog and child? We are moving into a new house that has very nice new-ish floors. The floors were either refinished or perhaps replaced about 1-2 years ago. They look great. I'm told they are "cherry," if that matters.

In the house we are leaving, the floors are destroyed. Our dog and our kid have just beaten the heck out of them over the years.

So, here's the question: is there anything we can do for the new floors before we move in to protect them? We have talked with a couple of floor guys, who both say that they would put "a couple of coats" on the floors before we move in. But, other people have told me that putting coatings on the floors will just make the eventual scuffs and scratches look worse. I have no idea what kind of coats we are talking about.

Obviously, we will put rugs and runners where we can.

Any clues here? Thanks

Hardwoods? More like Bore-aphyll.

AsRuinsAreToRome — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:43:04 -0800

Need a hardwood flooring recommendation for West Los Angeles - specifically, the Culver City area. So I bought a condo last April. So far its great. But the entire thing is covered in white carpeting which, unfortunately, has taken a beating since we've moved in. Although we have rugs all over the place white carpet is a dirt magnet and my girlfriend and I own a dirt-loving pug.

Basically, I'd like a guy who's available to come out on the weekends and do a free estimate of how much it'd cost to either a) refinish the existing hardwoods beneath my carpeting or b) install laminate over the existing hardwoods and re-do all the white molding on the floor.

I'm actually not even sure how this even works. Does the guy come out and just rip up a little corner of your carpet to inspect the wood underneath and write me a quote based on that little section of flooring? Will I get options if the entirety of the floor isn't salvageable?

I searched using Google Maps but there are literally THOUSANDS of hardwood flooring showrooms and independent contractors in Los Angeles (most with no reviews to speak of), and I have no idea how to ensure I get a competitive price and a quality job done.

Does anyone have a guy they used that can do the job well for a fair price?

How to remove dye stains from hardwood?

Felicity Rilke — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:38:45 -0800

Ho do I remove confetti and streamer stains from hardwood floors? We held an election party last night complete with streamers and that metallic confetti which shoots out of poppers. Some of the streamers and confetti sat in pools of alcohol all night and today I am faced with candy-coloured marks all over my light-coloured hardwood. What's the best way to get rid of them (or, at the very least, fade them so they're less noticeable). I don't want to ruin the floors with my experimentation.

I'm floored that I'm writing the HiveMind about THIS.

canine epigram — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:43:35 -0800

How best to protect hardwood floors from chairs? I did a search on "protecting hardwood floors" and didn't find much.

We've just moved into our nearly-new condo, and have company over quite a bit, and we sit around the dining table in wooden chairs. Despite putting those sticky felt pads on the chair feet, the dining room floor is still sustaining a lot of surface scratches and scuffs - the pads shift under people's weight, they slowly slide off the chair feet, deform unevenly, etc.

We're likely eventually to get a rug in the dining room (partially for this reason, and also to cut the echo), but until we do, how best to protect the floor, because the pads aren't cutting it?

I suppose we could get a cheap(ish) remnant and put that down until we can afford a real rug, but even a remnant would run near $100, not look terribly great, and then only get used for a few months until we've got a rug - but at the rate this is going, I can't wait a few months to deal with the problem.

Help me hivemind!

Keep us up off the killing floor.

jquinby — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:31:01 -0800

Water damage to our hardwood floors - what can/should we expect? Help!

We had a new dishwasher installed a week ago and discovered last night that it had been leaking from the elbow joint. Our kitchen floor is hardwood, but the planks don't extend all the way under the dishwasher space, so the leak pooled there and then seeped under the boards. It was the discoloration around the seams and some noticeable buckling that tipped us off that something was wrong, but it was so gradual that we really didn't start digging around until last night.

The big-box home improvement store re-dispatched their contractor/installer, who addressed the leak first thing this morning, so at least that's fixed. Their installation service manager is coming out on Monday to inspect the damage.

We've never owned a place with hardwoods, so I'm not really sure what to expect with regards to remediation. I'm doubtful that they'd be able to match the finish/color of the rest of the kitchen, so my opinion is that they're going to have to patch the area and refinish the whole kitchen floor. But then there's the plywood subflooring to consider (we have a crawlspace). The total, visibly affected area is roughly 4-foot by 3-foot. Should I be concerned about mold and such?

I don't *think* they're going to try to shaft us on this, but what should I be looking for regarding the repair? They're clearly on the hook for it - the contractor said as much. I just want to make sure that we don't settle for something half-assed.

So, hivemind: any advice or further considerations?

Creeping myself out.

Jess the Mess — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:17:09 -0800

What are these reddish brown stains on the floor of my "vintage" apartment? I'm not sure if I really want to know the answer to this question but here goes: I live in an old (circa 1920's or older) apartment in Chicago with wood floors. Both this apartment and the one I lived in before (also quite old) had very dark reddish brown stains on the floor when I moved in. In this apartment, they're in the bedroom. The other one was in the bed/living area of the apartment, which was a studio. Both were groupings of several stains of varying sizes, the largest being about a foot in diameter.

The morbid part of me wants to think they're blood stains, but could they just be from a drippy plant or something? Also, why is this apparently so common, if it is blood? As far as I know there hadn't been any murders or anything in either apartment.

Removing stains from floor.

zenpop — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 12:05:56 -0800

Any 'real' success stories with getting water/mildew stains out of an oak hardwood floor? While renting I've taken great care of my landlord's house. But was bummed to discover a big discoloration on the hardwood floor when I moved a large potted plant that I'd had sitting there through the year. (Yes, I had a water catch under it, but I think condensation gathered and did the dirty work).

I've Googled this and found various suggestions -- which are fine and good. This one sounding the most involved. But I'm wondering if anyone here has had real success in doing this. Or if anyone might have some other, less involved directions/suggestions. Or other stories to share.

I'm dreading the house 'inspection' when I move out end of July.

Did I choose the right company to refinish my hardwood floors?

Lorna — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 11:51:42 -0800

I'm having my hardwood floors refinished by professionals. It will take 3 days and in addition to the sanding they'll be applying 4 layers of polyurethane (no sealer) Does this sound good to you? Did I pick the right guys? Some of these companies come in and do it all in one day and use one coat of sealer and one of polyurethane. And some other companies bad mouth these guys and say that their work doesn't last. I plan on staying in this house for another 25 years, if not longer so longevity of the finish is important.

The rug was put there to protect us, but who protects us from the protector?

mzurer — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 11:55:17 -0800

Jute rug damaged my floor! My wife and I are moving out of our apartment, and when we rolled up the jute rugs, there seems to be damage to floors underneath as though the actual rug wore into the floor. We had thin anti-slip rubber mesh underneath. If you can imagine the pattern of the rug weave worn into the floor, that's what it looks like. Murphy's oil soap+elbow grease has made it less horrible looking, but still there. Any ideas? Any floor-reconditioning products you can reccomend? The floors are worn and water-stained anyway, but it's not clear if the landlord was going to redo them soon. I'd prefer not to fund refinishing with my security deposit.

Gross! It smells like cat pee in here

Yukon — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 08:48:59 -0800

I'm currently considering buying a circa 1900 house that has one major issue, both the first and second floors reek of cat urine. Does anyone have experience with erradicating this odor from an older home? To further clarify, we're talking about a completely empty house (no furniture or rugs) with hardwood maple floors, that in all likelihood have had a pretty good bath with cat urine. One floor previously had carpet which has been removed. Our current plan is to sand, possibly treat, and poly the hardwood floors professionally. Along with removing all the wallpaper, possibly treating the walls and then painting.

We're contacting as many professionals as we can but it's always good to try for the homeowner POV.

Carpet (glue) bombing...

dersins — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 18:39:35 -0800

RenovationFilter: We just bought an old library out on the great plains. Yes, library. But that's not the point. It's a wonderful, hundred-year-old brick building. The floors are beautiful, straight-grained, old-growth fir. Unfortunately.... ...some time in the mid-1950's, the town decided it would be an excellent idea to glue horrid industrial carpeting directly to the floors. We pulled up the carpet, but there is glue residue covering every square inch of the floor.

First, we tried scraping up the glue with a paint-scraper, to no avail. Next, we got a drum sander with 30-something-grit paper, and the glue just gummed it up within a few feet each time we ran it.

We switched to a 60-something-grit paper to try to sand it off a layer at a time, but we only got a little further before it gummed up completely.

We have well over 1300 square feet of floor to refinish-- is there anything we can do to this glue to weaken it (without harming the floors) so we don't have make multiple passes and go through literally hundreds of sheets of paper (at 2 bucks a pop)?

(FYI, we've tried: acetone, paint thinner, diluted paint thinner left on overnight, plain old powdered dishwasher detergent dissolved in water, and commercial adhesive remover.)

Cat Barf

frykitty — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 15:18:24 -0800

Point one: We are beginning to look for our first home.
Point two: Hardwood floors are pretty.
Point three: We have a kitty we lovingly call "Madame Barfary".

I've looked and looked, but can't seem to discover whether cat barf is harmful to hardwood floors. Anyone have experience in this area?

want to get wood floors installed, looking for local but not bank breaking

hummus — Tue, 13 Apr 2004 08:36:33 -0800

Does anyone have any experience with having wood floors installed. I just got a quote for almost 3k to install maple strips in less than 200 sq. ft. Home Depot does installations, and although I would like to patronize a small company, I can't do it for double the price. Any ideas?