How to maintain old wood floors?
June 11, 2022 6:54 PM Subscribe
I recently bought a ~1910 townhouse, and everything I've previously taken for granted now seems... fraught. Including, most recently, how to prolong the life of the original wood floors installed before my grandparents were born.
This is a question where my internet research is simply failing me - plenty of articles, but none seem reliable. The floors are in good shape and seem to have been refinished fairly recently with polyurethane, but I don't know how many more sandings and refinishings they have left in them. I also seem to have done more damage than I would have expected in the last six months since moving in - nothing too dramatic, but with your first and likely only owned home, it's a bit stressful seeing the scratches multiply so quickly with pretty regular use.
My initial understanding was that polishing the floors every quarter or so would fill in the "micro-scratches" and protect the finish - just part of regular maintenance. But after ordering some Bona polish I found out that, apparently, applying it would mean you could never again (easily, at least) refinish your floors with polyurethane - seems to be a big deal to me, but not at all obvious from the advertising and reviews. Now I feel leery of buying in to some marketing scheme that is ultimately going to ruin my floors, but I also want to keep them in good shape for as long as possible.
Hive mind - what is your advice?
This is a question where my internet research is simply failing me - plenty of articles, but none seem reliable. The floors are in good shape and seem to have been refinished fairly recently with polyurethane, but I don't know how many more sandings and refinishings they have left in them. I also seem to have done more damage than I would have expected in the last six months since moving in - nothing too dramatic, but with your first and likely only owned home, it's a bit stressful seeing the scratches multiply so quickly with pretty regular use.
My initial understanding was that polishing the floors every quarter or so would fill in the "micro-scratches" and protect the finish - just part of regular maintenance. But after ordering some Bona polish I found out that, apparently, applying it would mean you could never again (easily, at least) refinish your floors with polyurethane - seems to be a big deal to me, but not at all obvious from the advertising and reviews. Now I feel leery of buying in to some marketing scheme that is ultimately going to ruin my floors, but I also want to keep them in good shape for as long as possible.
Hive mind - what is your advice?
What is the wood? Oak, pine, something else?
I feel that waxing just makes it harder to refinish without drastic sanding.
Without wax, a light sanding with a random orbit sander, and then 1 or 2 coats of polyurethane, can make a big difference.
posted by H21 at 7:36 PM on June 11, 2022
I feel that waxing just makes it harder to refinish without drastic sanding.
Without wax, a light sanding with a random orbit sander, and then 1 or 2 coats of polyurethane, can make a big difference.
posted by H21 at 7:36 PM on June 11, 2022
Hello from a 1903 house with original floors!
If your original hardwood floors have recently been refinished and polyurethaned, there's really no reason to refinish them anytime soon unless there's some significant damage or you're desperate to change the color. Poly's generally pretty tough and lasts for many, many years.
The most important thing is to baby those floors just as they are -- if you're a shoes-on household, change to socks and barefoot only. If you need to move furniture, remember to lift instead of drag. If you have bigger pets like gleefully rambunctious dogs, make a point to run them outside so they're not blowing off energy indoors. Make sure their feet are clean and dry when they're coming in so you don't have grit wearing down your poly. My folks put beautiful hardwood in at their house 30 years ago and they've never refinished thanks to a routine of gentle everyday care.
They have never, ever used that Bona stuff. I've used it before in rental houses and it made the wood filmy and gross. This may have been user error, but I was really unhappy with it.
When we moved into this home five years ago, we opted to sand the old poly off these original floors and restain, ultimately finishing by hand with paste wax instead of a layer of poly. (Paste wax... it's been a choice, and not one that everyone would or should make. It's a ton of work every couple of years but it's the kind of work I like. There's absolutely nothing wrong with poly, I just prefer the paste wax and it makes the floors creak less.)
The amount we had to sand to scuff off the poly and refinish was actually quite thin, though we were cautious because we were never quite sure how thick the wood was. It'll handle another resand/refinish or two, at least. Wood's pretty resilient and as long as you're gentle and avoid harsh cleaners, you shouldn't have to do this anytime soon.
posted by mochapickle at 9:55 PM on June 11, 2022 [5 favorites]
If your original hardwood floors have recently been refinished and polyurethaned, there's really no reason to refinish them anytime soon unless there's some significant damage or you're desperate to change the color. Poly's generally pretty tough and lasts for many, many years.
The most important thing is to baby those floors just as they are -- if you're a shoes-on household, change to socks and barefoot only. If you need to move furniture, remember to lift instead of drag. If you have bigger pets like gleefully rambunctious dogs, make a point to run them outside so they're not blowing off energy indoors. Make sure their feet are clean and dry when they're coming in so you don't have grit wearing down your poly. My folks put beautiful hardwood in at their house 30 years ago and they've never refinished thanks to a routine of gentle everyday care.
They have never, ever used that Bona stuff. I've used it before in rental houses and it made the wood filmy and gross. This may have been user error, but I was really unhappy with it.
When we moved into this home five years ago, we opted to sand the old poly off these original floors and restain, ultimately finishing by hand with paste wax instead of a layer of poly. (Paste wax... it's been a choice, and not one that everyone would or should make. It's a ton of work every couple of years but it's the kind of work I like. There's absolutely nothing wrong with poly, I just prefer the paste wax and it makes the floors creak less.)
The amount we had to sand to scuff off the poly and refinish was actually quite thin, though we were cautious because we were never quite sure how thick the wood was. It'll handle another resand/refinish or two, at least. Wood's pretty resilient and as long as you're gentle and avoid harsh cleaners, you shouldn't have to do this anytime soon.
posted by mochapickle at 9:55 PM on June 11, 2022 [5 favorites]
No outdoors shoes helps a lot, as do really good mats inside and outside the doors and all other forms of grit control. I sweep because it’s so easy, a barely damp mop is even better, Roomba on a 24h repeat is probably great.
posted by clew at 10:25 PM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by clew at 10:25 PM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yes! And rugs for the high-traffic areas!
posted by mochapickle at 11:40 PM on June 11, 2022
posted by mochapickle at 11:40 PM on June 11, 2022
So I think part of the charm of old wood floors is their character. My house was built around 1905 and we have the original fir floors in all the rooms except bathrooms (and I’m guessing they’re under the kitchen linoleum). We refinished most, which had layers of paint. I have area rugs over a lot of it, but plenty of it is exposed. And I am just not super precious with these floors. I try to be careful not to drag furniture across it. We swiffer or mop with wood cleaner once in a while after vacuuming. But they’ve lasted 115+ years already and are doing just fine. So I don’t do anything all that much to fuss over them.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:14 AM on June 12, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by bluedaisy at 12:14 AM on June 12, 2022 [7 favorites]
In addition to being sock-only and rugs, I recommend sticking felt to the bottom of any furniture legs that might move. It keeps wood legs from grinding against the poly and making marks. I use the classic stick-on option, which I do have to keep a general eye out for them coming off and replace every once in a while. They work really well for this specific task though.
Other than that, I use the brush-end attachment for the hose on my vacuum to suck up dust bunnies--there is sometimes a hard surface floor setting that turns off the brush on a vacuum that you could use too. If something gets on them that needs to be washed up, I've had good success with Method's almond squirt and mop. Be sure there isn't any grit on the floor by sweeping/vacuuming before rubbing on the surface so you don't accidentally scrub grit.
Most of this I learned from my parents, who also have hardwood floors. They had them refinished in the early 90s, and theirs still look in perfect shape 30 years later. Enjoy!
posted by past unusual at 1:05 PM on June 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Other than that, I use the brush-end attachment for the hose on my vacuum to suck up dust bunnies--there is sometimes a hard surface floor setting that turns off the brush on a vacuum that you could use too. If something gets on them that needs to be washed up, I've had good success with Method's almond squirt and mop. Be sure there isn't any grit on the floor by sweeping/vacuuming before rubbing on the surface so you don't accidentally scrub grit.
Most of this I learned from my parents, who also have hardwood floors. They had them refinished in the early 90s, and theirs still look in perfect shape 30 years later. Enjoy!
posted by past unusual at 1:05 PM on June 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
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Two tips - first, look into floor "screening" - it scuffs up / takes the top layer off the polyurethane and lets you re-coat without taking any of the wood off as you would with sanding.
When you do get to sanding, remaining floor life depends a bit on how the wood was installed. If it's tongue and groove you need to see how much wood is left above the tongue. If there's a section where you can see the depth of a crack between two boards, or maybe an air vent you can take up to check you can generally tell. You need 1/8 of an inch above the tongue in order to do a full refinish. If it's surface nailed instead (as some older wide plank floors are) I'm not as sure, but I don't think it's quite as hard and fast of a limit as the T&G floors.
posted by true at 7:30 PM on June 11, 2022