Cleaning Floorboards

[Raylea]

Hi Alex

I am not sure, but if the answer is liquid form, perhaps the ceiling should of came after the cleaning.

Raylea

 

[Nemesis]

You may find information in the SPAB pamphlet on floors:

http://www.spab.org.uk/plugins/online_shop/product_popup.php?iDSID=9&iImageID=26&sTitle=Care+and+Repair+of+Old+Floors&PHPSESSID=2c514b3df205...

Or the Geo Group:

http://www.georgiangroup.org.uk/docs/pub/pub.php?id=7:27:189:0



A very gentle test in an inconspicuous area with the finest wire wool and white spirit might do the trick, but go carefully. Clean off thoroughly with more white spirit and clean cloths.

 

[NT]

I've used a mop & bucket with water, washing powder and a few drops of bleach. It does drip down, but a lime ceiling is a very big sponge, so no problem. Obviously squeeze the mop out before mopping, wet but no more is the goal.


NT

 

[Toby Newell]

Hi please see my website for what can be achieved (500 yr old elm) I have just finished last week a 500 year old floor although I have a feeling the replacements were around 300 years old. Your boards look around 300 years old a t least, lets hope they are walnut, they will look fantastic. I would sand them with a hand sander, I definately would not advise coating with copious amounts of water. Please see my pieces in the finding out section.

Regards

Toby Newell
http://www.Floorsanding-uk.com

 

[Wren]

We have wooden floorboards upstairs in our cottage. When we got this place they were covered with some sort of vinyl floorcovering and underneath the floorboards we had to clear out a huge amount of detritus including lots of nesting materials brought in by mice I presume. There was also evidence of woodworm.

I weighed up cleaning versus sanding and decided on cleaning after reading this forum. Using one of those big sanding machines is a noisy unpleasant job in my opinion. We have an original lime plaster ceiling below and I wasn't keen on banging a heavy vibrating machine around the place directly above this ceiling.

It is possible to wash floorboards without slopping lots of water about. It just takes a bit of time and lots of elbow grease and lots of changes of water. Ours were quite dirty so first we thoroughly hoovered up and then did a couple of light washes over the whole floor to get the worst of it off.
The next stage was intensive cleaning:
The house already had plenty of moisture in it because of all the lime plaster setting on walls, and all the other jobs we had been doing. So I was keen not to keep wetting the floors and letting them dry out repeatedly. Instead I took a small area of floor at a time (4ft by 3ft) and just worked on that until it was totally clean. Just using enough water to get the floorboard wet and then would just keep wetting and wiping/scrubbing with constant changes of clean water (I would have several buckets next to me, and then change them all at the same time). I was down on my hands and knees rather than bothering with a mop. The water was cold because we didn't have hot water yet. I added a tiny bit of something gentle to it (Ecover washing up liquid), but mainly just water. I am trying to remember what I used to scrub with. I think it was one of those sponge things you wash the dishes with - I wanted something quite gentle so I wouldn't roughen the surface of the wood.
My other half didn't have the patience to do it (but then he is better at plastering).

In the bedrooms the results look great. In the bathroom the floorboards were in a very poor shape to start with, and in one corner of the room is an area where a water cylinder had been leaking for a long time. I might try a little bit of very gentle sanding by hand in some parts of this room just to finish off and see how that goes.

Still trying to decide what to put on the floorboards. Prefer the idea of wax to varnish, but I have heard that wax takes alot of maintenance (particularly in bathrooms). So toying with the idea of using one of the harder wearing oils.

Your floorboards look lovely. Walnut sounds fab.