Refinishing wood floors out of 100yr old house

[Eric Fletcher]

I'm going to be taking some flooring out of a 100 year old house.. The wood I think is walnut, I'm going to get with a few other locals to verify what it is for sure.. the flooring is various widths.. and the rough cut sawmilled.. What is the best way to clean these up before reinstalling them, without plaining.. and what should i use after putting them down.. I know of a product called waterloxs. but i thought I would ask you pros on this..

[Jim Becker]

Waterlox is an excellent finish for your application. That said, you will very likely need to have your floor sanded prior to re-finishing once it's reinstalled in the new location. That will clean it up and make the surface even and ready for the finish. Depending on the condition and quality of the installation, the folks that sand may not need to get too aggressive and that will help preserve some of the nice vintage color.

[Sam Yerardi]

Eric,

It sounds as if by the way you describe it that the boards are still in the rough condition. If that's the way you want them to remain obviously you wouln't want to sand them. If the boards are rough then you probably lose a lot of the coloring, etc., from sanding due to the age of the boards. If you're just wanting to clean them, I would use warm soapy water with clean cloth rags (not wringing wet,just damp) to clean them. I'd hate to see you lose the original look of the floors.

[Matthew Poeller]

Right now of refinishing 80 year old oak floors. I have been using Bona Kemi Mega. www.floormechanics.com I really like this stuff and it is waterbased so it does not stink up the house (it is winter up here so opening a window is not really and option). As far as the finishing without planing, the sander is probably the best way to go I would think. If it is not too rough you might just skip all the sanding steps and see what a scotch brite pad will do. I am using the varathane squar buff sander and it is working out very nicely.

I am not affiliated with Bona Kemi or Floor Machanics, I actually found them both here in a similar post.