Floorboard finishing

[Lozzy-May]

We are in the process of doing up our living room and have decided to take the carpet up and make the most of the wooden floorboards beneath. Some of the boards seem to have been replaced at some point and so the floor is a mix of (I think) oak and pine boards. What is the best way to finish the floor in order to even out the colour etc? We don't really want to use varnish.

Cheers

Loz

 

[JoceAndChris]

There are lots of different methods - I recently used the Liberon system of products (Liberon Floor sealer, Liberon Floor Wax) and have been very pleased with the results.

I did have to stain the new pine to match the old though.

 

[masochists-r-us]

Can you post a photo of the floor please. Depending on the quality of your oak boards and their proportion of the whole floor you might want to lift the pine and replace with new oak or vice versa. If you did, matching would be much easier. Staining is tricky and it can be hard to get a really good result.

 

[Lozzy-May]

The floor is majority pine so if we replaced any boards I guess it would have to be the oak ones.

 

[Feltwell]

Can't say for certain without seeing a more detailed set of photos, but it looks to me like your whole floor is pine - just different ages and degrees of cleanliness! Don't think of that as a bad thing.

The patch on the left of wider boards will be difficult to make look good, and it looks like you once had a chimney breast & hearth at the far end. Can you cover most of that up with furniture?

If you want old posts on this topic do an advanced search for posts by Toby Newell, who does floor finishing professionally. What finish to go for depends on how you'll use the room as I understand it - if your house is adults only and you are careful, a wax finish can be great, whereas if like me you have kids and are not a "shoes off at the door" type person then a harder wearing coating would be better, even if it is more work to re-do when it does wear out.

http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10762&p=129948#p129948

 

[Lozzy-May]

Thanks for all the info. Most useful! I think we will replace or plane down the couple of odd-looking boards. I don't know why they didn't just get some that fitted properly! We took the decision to remove the hearth on the basis that we cannot afford to reinstate the chimney-place. It turns out that the wood around the hearth structure was very damp and slightly rotten in places so maybe removal was a good idea in the long run. We shall see!

 

[AMc]

I've refinished plenty of old pine floors that looked like that (or worse). I have tried the industrial floor sanders, used a Bosch 1/3rd sheet orbital sander and last time I was lucky enough to borrow a 9404 Makita Heavy Duty Belt Sander. My favourite was the Makita by a mile - the dust extraction worked properly and the motor was powerful enough to strip through years of grime and an a nasty acrylic floor sealant.

I really didn't get on with the industrial floor sanders (one that looks like a lawnmower and one like a router). The large belt one just shredded belts every couple of feet and got expensive really fast. The small 'edge' sander wouldn't go into the edge and created circular wheels if you weren't super careful.

The handheld bosch was fine but with no real dust extraction it was very messy and even with a mask I was literally spitting sawdust.

If you hire a powerful handheld belt sander you'll soon have the boards looking acceptably in a few hours tops.

Mop clean the boards then painstakingly crawl over them to find all the old carpet tacks, nails etc and pull them out or punch them down (as appropriate). If you don't you'll get very familiar with changing belts and very tired of stopping. As you go you'll find the odd polished nail head appears so keep the punch and hammer handy.
Sand with 80 grit until they look fairly clean then 120 grit to get a reasonable finish.

FWIW sanding belts for handheld sanders are generally cheaper at screwfix than at the hire shops. Likewise if you decide to use an orbit sander buy a 10m roll of paper for about as much as two packs of precut sheets in a DIY store.

The floors I've done recently had the edges stained with acrylic but the centre left bare (in mimickery of traditional tar). It simply wasn't possible to completely remove the finish because it was filled into 200 years work of scrapes, dents and dings so the only way I could get these really looking good was to stain the boards before protecting.
I used Osmo colour foundation in Oak then two coats of Osmo polyx - all applied really thin which worked very well.

 

[borischarlton]

Personally I would scrub the floor with a washing up "greenie" also called a scotchbrite pad with minimal soap and water and then when dry give it a couple of coats of Osmo Polyx-Oil Original Hardwax Oil. I have found this product to be fantastic. It's hard wearing and can be patch repaired if necessary.

Rob

 

[JoceAndChris]

Scrubbing can be as effective as sanding. I used wire wool and soapy (Ecover water) After 2 days of solid work the floor went from a very muddy, paint-speckled dark colour to light brown.http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10707&hilit=which+shellac+sealant&start=60 (Scroll down that page for pics)

I second what AMc says about runaway beast floor sanders, and personally I wouldn't sand a floor whose patina I wanted to preserve.

In the case of your floor, though, it's tricky, as it's pretty mismatched. I think I'd just put the finish on it, get a big rug and live with the unmatchingness. (BTW, rugs can be put on non-slip backing which does not mark the floor, I've just bought some in Laura Ashley)

With the finish, you just need to bear in mind that nothing you do will be permanent, so it's a case of what you like the look of, and whether you think you'll be spilling a lot of water or wine! The wax I used is a nice finish but it's fragile. The Osmo Polyx is too subtle for my taste, especially the matt which is barely there. However I believe it's more waterproof.

With my next floor I'll be trying the Toby Newell method - cleaning/ shellac sealer (2 coats)/ wax (3 coats)

It really is a matter of personal choice and how much time and effort you want to put into it.

 

[ilona73]

ooo this is making me think there is hope afterall for my lumpy bumpy bedroom floor.. now all i ahve to do is rip up the new pine thats only half the width of the rest of the floorboards and away i go.......... when i get round to it perhaps this time next year maybe!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[AMc]

The Osmo Polyx is too subtle for my taste, especially the matt which is barely there. However I believe it's more waterproof.

I had no choice but to sand in this house as the aforementioned sealant had to go and then evened out. Polyx is remarkably water repellent despite being breathable. Water actually beads up on contact which made cleaning off the floorbricks downstairs a bit of a chore!

 

[Lozzy-May]

Thanks for the sanding tips. That was going ot be my next question! I wasn't going to use an industrial sander as I'm told they can do more damage than good in the hands of a novice. I am hoping that when sanded the boards will resemble each other a bit more closely than in the photo (some of them are really grotty, other have old stain on them). At the moment we have taken up a lot of the boards so that we can insulate underneath them. We are putting the majority back down as they are in good nick and will replace the odd-looking ones that are a different width. On the advice of one of Toby Newall's threads, I have purchased some Bona Mega floor lacquer stuff as I'm told it is the easiest coating to use. Has anyone used this stuff? Will it alter the colour of the boards or will I need to put some stain down first to do that? I would prefer the pine to be a little darker than it is when freshly sanded!

 

[Toby Newell]

Hi

Your boards are all pine. The wide ones are probably original, which means your property must be over 100 years old.

Bona lacquers are the most durable most environmentally friendly finishes you can buy, MUCH better than oil finishes (which are 50% solvent and last 10x less) BUT I would not use the Bona lacquer directly onto your sanded/cleaned floor. The bona is an almost totally clear finish and this can give an 'anaemic' or bleached out look. I always apply a coat or two of pure shellac underneath which imparts some warmth, clarity and depth to the timber before applying the Bona. Shellac and wax is nice but will be less durable. You can tint the shellac with spirit dyes (Mylands, Jenkins, Morrells) to put some of the patination back that may have been lost during sanding, only a very slight colour tint can change the appearance a lot.

Unless you can hire a 'proper' continuous belt sander like the ones I have (see the video) here http://www.floorsanding-uk.com/Equipment.html then it is probably better not to get a hire shop one. (they are almost always normally the American Hiretech HT7's and HT8's and are really quite awful) If you cannot stomach sanding the whole floor with an edge sander (which is VERY physically demanding) then perhaps try cleaning a la Jose and Chris, their floors looked very nice when I saw the pics. You may need to carefully scrape or strip with nitromors the older baords if they have a dark/black bituminous stain on them before cleaning. A light go over with a hand held sander would be preferable to remove any flaky or loose grain and to provide a key for the finish but unless you buy a very expensive one the cheaper ones are virtually useless. (Bosch GEX150, Metabo SXE450DUO, Makita BO6030, I have 5 of these types of sanders)

Regards

Toby