Restoring an oak engineered floor

[Nigel Watts]

In our modern lean to side extension, which forms a top lit corridor from the front of the house to the garden, we installed an oak engineered floor about 10 years ago. This is now looking tired and where the varnish has worn off the oak has turned dark brown/black. For reasons of economy we opted for this rather then solid oak, which would have been much more satisfactory.

I heave read that one can only sand floors like this three times before the oak layer becomes too thin. Rather than machine sanding, I am thinking of removing the current varnish with a chemical, treating black stained areas with oxalic acid, then refinishing after a light hand sanding. Does this sound sensible?

 

[Penners]

In our modern lean to side extension, which forms a top lit corridor from the front of the house to the garden, we installed an oak engineered floor about 10 years ago. This is now looking tired and where the varnish has worn off the oak has turned dark brown/black. For reasons of economy we opted for this rather then solid oak, which would have been much more satisfactory.

I heave read that one can only sand floors like this three times before the oak layer becomes too thin. Rather than machine sanding, I am thinking of removing the current varnish with a chemical, treating black stained areas with oxalic acid, then refinishing after a light hand sanding. Does this sound sensible?

The "only three times" rule seems a bit haphazard to me, given that (a) different engineered boards may have different thicknesses of oak and (b) different sanding processes will remove different amounts of wood. Nevertheless, the general principle of taking great care not to sand through the top layer is of course a sensible one.

If it were my floor, I think I would try a small, insignificant test area of your proposed treatment, to see how successful it is. But before I tried the oxalic acid I might just have a go with a soapy water scrub, to see whether this is sufficient to clean the boards. I think it will depend on how much of the staining is oxidisation and how much is just dirt.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Yes, I agre with Penners, probably worth a good cleaning with soapy water first-- there are various good ones around--I use an Ecover floor cleaner on our engineered oak.