Help me with my wood floors!

[thefatpotato]

We have just bought a new (to us) house which has just been renovated. The previous owners, turns out, were kind of dicks and have trashed the lovely new wood floors they've laid.

Turns out the wood is completely unsealed. It's not been maintained and there is so much ingrained dirt and it looks awful. Any tips on how to salvage? We will eventually have them professionally done but the lead time is huge and money is tight after the move!

Very uneven gaps between the boards 😒

Are these the actual floorboards or stuff laid on top of that?

I know 😩

This is a floor which has been laid in the last 2 years. It was sealed and they've taken the top off with a sander (and missed a lot of corners.

There is in inlaid entry mat which I had to lift as our cat peed on it, and the under floor is in a bad way (one floorboard not even nailed down!)

It’s hard to tell from your photos if it’s solid wood boards or some kind of veneered laminate? But if they’re solid floorboards there’s no reason that won’t come up good after sanding, filling and varnishing. You wouldn’t need to take off that much, it looks like surface grime mainly, but I’d probably hire a sander rather than try to do it with a small one.

They're solid I think?

Yes one just lifted straight from under the skirting board 😬

Yep. Just hire a big floor sander and sand them. You can hire sanders these days with built in suction and bags that vacuum up the sawdust (and grime) as you go. Then put on whatever finish and sealant you want to.

You can use a small hand sander for the corners.

The gaps bother me a bit. It looks to me like the boards weren't left in the house for a month or two to acclimatise before fitting, so have shrunk as they dried out- unless anyone knows different? I know you have to do this with parquet flooring, we did when we were laying some.

Quite possibly! Is there anything particularly wrong with the gaps or is it just an aesthetic issue?

It's a good floor! Nothing wrong with gaps, it looks like authentic original flooring.

The wonky sanding in the corners is from the little hand held sanding device you hire to do the edges.

It costs a fortune to put down a solid wood floor like this. Don't do anything hasty.

You can try a good floor scrubbing bush with a clear soap. That will get the majority of it up. It takes a while. Then if you are happy with it, oil it. Word of warning, don't use anything with lemon or citrus in it. It brings the tannins out in the wood and you get black streaks!

Floors like this need a good oil applying once a year and it dries to a sheen. We use this one:

www.sprayster.com/product/liberon-floor-oil-clear-2-5l/

If you are not happy after scrubbing, it is not too expensive to hire a commercial sander to take the top few millimetres off. Bit of a weekend job but the floor will come up like new. I'd get a sharp chisel into the corners to take down the height difference or get a carpenter to come and do that bit for you.

Too good a floor to replace. It has the potential to be gorgeous.

Put a big cheap rug down while you wait/save up and get it professionally sanded and refinished. Sanding floors, especially corners, is pretty difficult to get a good finish

It's a good floor! Nothing wrong with gaps, it looks like authentic original flooring.

No it looks like generic pine t+g structural flooring from the photo at 630. You can get similar from wickes etc. But agree with you otherwise.