Restore back hardwood floor.

[veron]

Hi all,

My house is about 40 years and it have carpet in bedroom and tiles in living room and kitchen. I am thinking to remove carpet and tiles for timbering.

Underneath of carpet and tiles is hardwood floor so I think I can sanding/staining and finishing it. Of course I will ask professionals to do this cause it is about totally 100sqm.

May I ask you if you have experience that is it possible and valuable to do rather than laying the new timber floor? and do you know how much does it cost to remove carpet/tiles and then sand/stain/finish the hardwoord floor and maybe replace some planks if there are some decayed planks underneath of carpet/tiles.

I think that we lay the new timber floor (overlay pre-finish timber floor) is faster but it's costly.

Appreciate any comments if you have experience about this.

Thanks
Veron.
Castle hill, NSW

[Cicatrix]

Back in the day I used to help a friend occasionally who had a floor sanding business. I'm no expert but having done this job a few dozen times ill share what I know.

Before I got in any professionals I would at minimum remove the carpet yoursefl first. This isnt a hard job. Just be careful of the staples/nails, use some gloves. You will be suprised at the amount of dust and dirt you find. Make sure you section off the rooms you are doing with some poly sheets and masking tape otherwise you will be doing a lot of cleaning in the rest of the house.

For the tiles... they will either be laid on the boards direct (major pain) or more likely they will have been laid on some leveling/backing boards. If its the former, depending on what was used as an adhesive it might be hard to remove the tiles. If its the latter its usually a much easier proposition as they come up pretty easily. Either way a crowbar or hammer and demolition chisel is the go here.

At this point you can decide if you want to lay a new floor over the old. Personally i think its a waste of money if you have a hardwood floor underneath but its your choice. If you do lay a new floor over the top make sure they put down batons and do it correctly and try not to damage the original floors below.

The biggest cost in floor sanding is the labour. In particular recessing the nails into the floor. This is done with a nail punch and a hammer. If you can be bothered doing this yourself you will save yourself a lot of money.

A sanding machine is like a big belt sander. Anything you wouldn't sand with a belt sander isnt going to do much good to a sanding machine. This means all staples, upstanding nails, gritty adhesive and the like are best removed from the floor as much as possible (nails can be counter sunk). All of this is just time and energy, again its not difficult to do in that you dont need a particular skill for it, its just time consuming and at times hard work.

Once the floor is free from things that will foul a sander you have the choice of what to do with the nail holes and attending to any boards or areas that might have imperfections. You can leave the nail holes unfilled for a more rustic look or otherwise you fill them with wood filler. Again another labour intensive job spent on your knees. If the floor is hardwood and is only 40 years old, as long as you have good ventilation under your house its very unlikely that any of the boards will be rotten. We did a house in inner city Melbourne that had 100 year old boards which didnt have any rot (the nails were the old T shaped flooring nails - a particular pain to counter sink).

Its probably wise to have a professional do the actual sanding as this does take some skill. Make sure anyone that you get uses a sander with a clutch instead of the tilt type. The clutch allows you to pull a lever that lifts the sanding belt so it doesnt contact the floor. This means that you will get a much better finish. The tilt type of sanders are cheaper and are usually used by cowboys. Because you have much less control these sanders tend to leave deep troughs at the edges.

In terms of finish we used to use 3 coats of poly. That was about 15 years ago and im sure things have developed in this techonology since then. At the time there was talk about 2 coat and single coat stuff but not sure if it was any good.

Hope that helps.

[F_Peter]

Veron

The only additional point I might raise is that the removal of the tiles is more problematic. You haven't stated if they are ceramic or vinyl. If they are ceramic they may be layed on a mortar bed or glued to cement sheets, either way these are removable and the supporting boards can probably be filled and sanded. If they are vinyl tiles, again they may be on a Masonite or cement sheet underlay which is usually tacked or stapled to the floor boards which is also removable. Where your problems may really begin is if you have the old style thick vinyl tiles that are glued directly to the floor boards with a bituminous fixing. This thick black tar is still removable but to preserve the base floor boards needs to be tackled slowly with a heat gun and a lifter (scraper or strong flat blade). If you attempt mechanical removal you will cause serious damage to the underlying boards.

When you think you have finished lifting all the tiles....think again. Any glue left behind will clog sandpaper and needs to be scraped away. If it is black bituminous stuff then this can be removed by soaking with turps and working with a flat paint scraper. All this can be done at around 2-4 square meters per day depending on your persistence.

Best of luck.