refinishing D Fir floor- questions

[JOHN HANCOCK]

I am refinishing the floor in my 1926 home. It has been linoleumed and carpeted for many years. Main problem is staining around the toilet.

Any ideas on bleaching it out so that is will still take a light stain and resemble the rest of the floor?

Also, I am planning on putting on pre-stain conditioner, a colonial pine stain to be similar to the aged oak floors in LR an DR, and probably water based polyurethane. Any cons to the water based products?

I am also doing a small sitting room floor, doug fir also. My wife would like to just use paste wax as a finish. It gets little traffic. I believe this is all that was ever used on our oak LR and DR floors and she likes the ease of renewing their finish, just add more wax and buff. Any downside to just wax on doug fir? Is it possible our oak floors originally had another finish that was compatible with wax and that we can put some other finish on first and add a protective wax finish that can be renewed like we do our oak?

[Kelly C. Hanna]

The only answer I have is about the water based poly. I know several who use the finish when redoing floors and they are pros. They swear by it. I'd love to see pics of that floor...bet it's nice!

[JOHN HANCOCK]

Good to know about the water base. I will post some pictures when done. It is pretty except for the small area around the toilet. My wife and I spent about two days taking off the old linoleum. It had some tarpaper like backing and real good glue that were really ON. Floor sander choked on the tar paper. Finally ended up with a heat gun and scraper. One whole day just for that.

But it is bare wood now and pretty. I hope I can do it justice with the finish.

[Jason Roehl]

John, what I'd start with is some oxalic acid. It usually comes in crystalline form from your local borg. Mix some up according to the instructions, and then let it sit on the stain at least overnight. You may have to do this more than once, and it may not entirely get rid of the stain, but it should get most of it. When I say let it sit on the stain, I mean leave a puddle. Afterwards, you'll have to rinse it, let it dry, then sand and finish.

Addy proto: I've done quite a few wood floors professionally.

[JOHN HANCOCK]

Jason,

After treating with the acid will it blend into the rest of the floor using a light stain, (Minwax water based Colonial Pine)?

Also, if you have ever done fir floors and used a stain, did you use a pre-stain conditioner? Any problems with uneven staining?

[Chris Padilla]

John,

Be sure to post some pics of this...sounds nice. I love finding "preserved" wood floor undre linoleum, carpet, etc.! Too bad, my house was built in 1973...only 1 1/8" thick plywood for our floors! :)

[Jason Roehl]

Jason,

After treating with the acid will it blend into the rest of the floor using a light stain, (Minwax water based Colonial Pine)?
No guarantees there. I always heavily downplay my ability to remove a stain to a customer beforehand. No expectations--no disappointments.


Also, if you have ever done fir floors and used a stain, did you use a pre-stain conditioner? Any problems with uneven staining?
I've not stained any softwood floors, only clear-coated them. However, if I remember right (I've stained plenty of SPF), douglas fir tends not to blotch as much as white pine. I'd do a test area first. If you don't like it, sand it off.

[Richard Blaine]

We had oak flooring put into our living room about ten years ago. At the time, the installer gave us the option of waterbase or oil base. We chose water base because the smell wouldn't linger for weeks.

It has held up well. The only issue that we had was a sun stain caused by a bucket having been left on the floor for a month after the finishing had been completed for two weeks. The sun darkened the area everywhere but under the bucket. It took many years for that circle to finally disappear.

[JOHN HANCOCK]

Tried staining the small back room. The test spot looked OK but the staining was very uneven on the whole floor. Also was darker than we liked. Basically a disaster (will include disaster pics with project pics). It looks like it didn't penetrate too deep. A sample sanding with 220 removed the stain in one spot. We are going to re-sand and try clear paste wax in this room and just clear poly in the bathroom. The stain obscured the grain too much.

Regarding the bathroom stain, I decided to replace about 8 boards. Of course they are not standard (2 1/4 wide and about 7/8 thick) but I found a source in Sacramento that will mill them to match. It will end up about $5 a lineal foot for a match of as tight grain as they have, T & G straight grain.