Flooring - former shop

[zunetunes]

Our house was built late Victorian times on the site of a previous building as a shop (with living accommodation upstairs). It is detached - a one off and I feel not the most expensive of constructions.
It was originally a general store and was known in the village as Central Stores. At some time (70's?) it became a Spar and then I think 90's a fish and chip shop for a while and then a hairdresser and was then unused for a while. we've been here 10 years and have now got round to dealing with the floor. We have pulled up 7 layers of various linos, hardboard, chipboard and the top layer of laminate flooring that the hairdressers had laid down. What we have underneath is bare floorboards, some very worn, some a bit rotted at the ends and some with old looking woodworm. Total size of room c 5 meters x 6 metres
Our plan is for bare floorboards. Underneath is a cellar.

The boards are very patchy and it looks like on the whole have never been treated/stained/oiled or anything. They are very patchy - I'm guessing the darker areas are where dirt has been trodden in and the lighter areas we under the counters - just a guess. Some of the boards seem to have worn very thin, presumably where there was lot of foot traffic/ people standing at the counter.

So what to do? - first step is that we have washed the whole floor, but that hasn't achieved a lot.

Do we
- scrub it with a scrubbing brush?
- sand it?

I plan to treat it with cuprinol 5 star rot/worm etc treatment

Then what do we finish it with?

Any thoughts/observations are welcome.

All pictures taken with flash:

This is just after washing (not fully dry around nail holes etc) showing lighter and darker patches

Closer view of lighter area

Closer view of darker area

Bottom edge of floor boards from the cellar

 

[Zebra]

It doesn't look toooooooo bad at all...... I am not sure what I would do. Perhaps some interior woodworm treatment, such as the one Wickes sell which is simply pemethrin in white spirit. It has no preservative so doesn't discolour the wood, although of course try a test patch first. You could hand sand any particularly rough patches, but don't use a big rotary floor sander on the whole thing or you'll lose all its patina. Any holes can be filled with a wood filler, or even better in my opinion is some sawdust from the wood in question mixed with PVA glue. It dries virtually invisible and can be sanded once dry. Then I think I'd be tempted to use linseed oil or Osmo-polyx or Liberon or similar to protect it.

 

[zunetunes]

Not sure there's any real patina - it's just dirt really!
As the pictures are taken with flash it all looks a bit lighter in the pictures - the dark stuff just looks dirty.
Have tried a number of different techniques on different patches.
Hand sanding seems best but VERY labour intensive - its around 30 sq metres and it takes about 20 minutes to do a linear foot!
However deffo wont use a big rotary sander. The floor is too uneven for that anyway!

Zebra have you used Osmo-polyx or Liberon?

 

[88v8]

Errrm, this appears to be what one might describe as a practical floor.
Never intended to be on show in a domestic setting.
Osmo and like can be quite high-maintenance, although perhaps OK where there is little traffic and no one comes in with outdoor shoes.

Me, I'd go for a Turkey carpet, with perhaps a border of bare boards.
I'd stain it.
Go very carefully with the colour, try a patch and let it dry, easy to go too dark. But dark enough that you don't have to worry too much about getting all the marks/patina out of it first.
Then coat it with two-pack. heresy...

Ivor

 

[Zebra]

Yes I've used Osmo-polyx ono one floor, but on another used simply beeswax and linseed oil. It gets plenty of me trudging in and out with dirty hooves and seeems to withstand it well.

 

[zunetunes]

Zeb - which one of these did you go for?
http://www.vanillawoodfloors.co.uk/manufacturer/8-osmo.aspx

Did you go for satin or matt? How satisfied with the matt or satin were you?

This is described as oil but is it oil? I wouldn;'t have expected oil to give a hard finish but if its matt or satin presumably it does?

In other news i've discovered that just scrubbing with warm water very very hard seems to get the best result.

 

[formerly known as]

I have used this product for years - http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=267027859

I would then use RLO once dried.

I agree with above advice not to sand with an industrial sander.

 

[Zebra]

I used original matt. It's wax and oil. It doesn't seal, but soaks in. It looks very natural. It doesn't look like a "finish." It just looks like natural wood. Much the same as if it had just been oiled and waxed. Which is what made me think to save money the second time around. Would you like a picture of my various floors?

 

[zunetunes]

zebra - photos would be good

 

[88v8]

Also, linseed oil.
Never knew it had flooring applications, but here it is on page 20
http://www.stonewarestudios.com/PDF/Holkham/Allback%20Linseed%20Paint%20Handbook.pdf

Ivor

 

[Zebra]

Here you go.
Bedroom. Reclaimed pine floor. Osmo-Polyx Original Matt stuff on it.

Living Room. Reclaimed oak floor. Linseed oil and beeswax. (Luckily, I've just cleaned it and given it another wipe over with the linseed oil/beeswax concoction. It wouldn't normally look this clean.)

 

[formerly known as]

the oak floor in particular looks very good ..... where did it come from?

 

[Zebra]

Unfortunately not a repeatable source. A forum member bought far too much by mistake, so let me have some.

 

[formerly known as]

oh well!

it looks like a commercial floor of some sort, possibly retail?

 

[zunetunes]

Well the floorboards were so ingrained with dirt we've had to resort to an electric sander - an attachment with a foam drum that you put on a drill.
half the floor done. Loads of work and we're not remotely down to completely bare wood yet!
I think the boards may have had quite a rough finish originally, so they are not like the other floorboards in the house.
It's very patchy due to different levels of wear in different parts of the shop and spillages!

Anyways looking ahead, the mrs wants to know - with the polyx oil - how do you clean the floor - do you use a special cleaning fluid or can you just give it a damp wipe over if needed?

 

[Toby Newell]

omg.

I'm too late.

Sander on the end of a drill. Gulp.

Your boards look totally ok, at least from the underneath picture, if they are all like that *thumbs up* aesthetics will really have to take a back seat to function here, which is to stop you from falling through the floor to the cellar below.

The floor looks very worn, you can see where the resinous harder knots have remained proud. I am a floor sander amongst other things, and would never contemplate sanding a floor like that with a large machine. Kudos for persevering with a 1970's sanding technique but its not very clean, gentle or effective.

I would sand using P60 paper on a powered random orbital like a Festool Rotex RO150 or Bosch GEX150AC TURBO connected to a dust extractor and finish with a quick going over with a P80 grit. A drill based sander will be too aggressive.

All you want to do is remove enough gunk and dirt to be able to get a slightly more even finish, nothing more, then apply a very unreactive finish like Osmo oil (or any of the oil /hardwax oils, they are all the same, effectively tall varnishes missold as oils) which is effect a thinned out PU varnish with a different resin to PU. Not very durable but suitable for this purpose.

Be careful, if you sand down to an even clean colour using an electric drill attachment you may find some areas become too thin and will start to splinter and break in use.

If there is no fresh frass and the area is heated you hardly need to slosh around awful insecticides common furniture beetle and deathwatch beetles prefer damp wood to munch, they cannot survive in centrally heated environments. If you do treat it's best to treat the underside instead and do the joists and beams whilst you are at it, pay attention to areas which meet the walls especially where the joist is supported in the wall structure. Spraying underneath will stop you from breathing in insecticide slowly over the years as the floor surface wears. Any chemical specifically designed to kill DNA bearing life isn't normally that great for you over long periods. The current crop of insect and biocides are only 'safe' and legal until they aren't. Like a lot of things.

Like asbestos. DDT. Benzene. Tobacco. Processed meat. Alcohol.