Do these floorboards look shite?

[GreengrassofW]

Days and days of sanding but i think they still look grubby and shite. Would you paint or varnish? I think if i sand them anymore I'll lose my mind

@Another2Cats Thanks for this. I've since tried white spirit and washing powder on the bitumen and it does scrub off with a wire brush which i managed to snap in 2. I'm not sure about the time investment however 😂😭

Danny Sandhouse is my hero. He seems to just fuck it with the bitumen and edger it off as well. I worked out it's £1.50 per disc, so about £1.50 every 50cm of bitumen.

Have also tried heat gunning it off, again, it worked but took rather a long time.

I have shoved the vacum hose into the sander exhaust, but of course, it doesn't quite stay there snugly, so there's gaffer tape around that. The current scene is appalling, i'm taking a break.

Small victory over bitumen
This is after white spirit..
The fucker is finally breaking down

"I worked out it's £1.50 per disc, so about £1.50 every 50cm of bitumen."

If you haven't already seen it, another tip from him was to use WD40 on the disc and the floor:

They don't look great. After sanding, the boards should be the colour of new wood. You need a proper belt sander. First, make sure that there are no nails sticking up; they need punching below the surface. Then move diagonally in all directions using a coarse grit. Finally, go along the boards using a finer grade. Make sure there is no dust left on the surface, then give 2 or 3 coats of quick-drying Sadolin varnish in satin, starting in one corner and working towards the door.

Our dining room had carpet stuck to the floor with strong glue. It took ages to get the carpet off and it was impossible to remove the glue. We were advised that extra-coarse sanding sheets would work and they did.

This.

@GreengrassofW You could call Strippers of Sudbury (def about paint not anything else!) and ask them about removing bitumen, their products are great and they are very helpful.

So for our floors we couldn’t use one of those huge drum sanders as the floor was too wobbly and the iron nails couldn’t be knocked flush so exploded the drum sanding things pretty rapidly. So I bought a belt sander from B&Q and did it painstakingly over the course of a week. I don’t think the edger has the right motion. Killed my knees. Good luck!

@MadKittenWoman
After sanding, the boards should be the colour of new wood

It depends what look you are after. I think old pine floorboards look better with a bit of character left in them especially in an old house.

@Another2Cats oh my effing gawd! WD40! THANKYOU

@LeroyJenkinssss Looks back breaking. Are you happy with result though?

@MadKittenWoman If you read up I've already tried 2x belt sanders to no avail sadly

I planed my floorboards. Took the whole top layer off, then sanded (lightly).

But they weren't on the floor at the time, would be harder on the floor.

Hi
I would not advise painting or varnishing. I think you have more sanding to do. Then use one of the Hard Wax oils eg Osmo
You can get dark tones and lighter ones but dark may be best. This is a very hard wearing finish - so much better than varnish.
Im sure it’ll look great when finished.

@GreengrassofW yes it was worth it in the end. We waxed it and the colour is really beautiful. Hard work but definitely worth it

@ExtraVotes Sorry, I meant they shouldn’t look grey and dingy when sanded. When they are varnished / waxed they regain their character. We have a Victorian house and have retained & restored its original features throughout.

Those of you who have waxed floors, do you have any advice on repairing damage? Some of our pine floorboards are waxed, probably have always been. We decided to leave them like that, because they're pretty and also because sanding them would be expensive. There's damage in some places though - scratches (I made one myself yesterday moving a packing box...) and more importantly water marks, because one window used to leak, and other marks occurred when we were moving in in pouring rain. Just to add that my builders waxed the floors at the end of the renovation, before we moved, but it really didn't do much. I'm not sure they had much experience, and I don't know if they used any products on the floors before waxing. Frankly, the living room looks nice, but the bedrooms' floors are quite shabby. It's too late to sand them, we've moved heavy furniture in. Is there anything I could do?

You could sand the areas of damage back then rewax.

What about the colour though, @schloss ? The floorboards are honey coloured (years of patina) and if I sand some parts, I will get patches of lighter wood, which the transparent wax won't cover.

You can get coloured waxes - it will be trial and error to see if any match sadly. I have very similar in one area and did find a standard clear wax (Osmo) did bring the wook back to a very similar colour. The trick is to gently sand back only as much as you need to (hand sand using various different grades of paper - course to fine). Using any electric sander will take too much of the pine off.

I think you might be looking at that the wrong way. Use the industrial sander to make them level. It will start off by only sanding the high bits. If you keep going it will remove all the high bits to make it level.

Just coming on to say what a lovely house you have. Take heart, it will be beautiful.

You mentioned having problems sinking the floorboard nails.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/scruffs-trade-shock-impact-work-gloves-black-grey-large/391kv

https://www.screwfix.com/p/essentials-nail-punch-set-5-pieces/2624v

https://www.screwfix.com/p/magnusson-fibreglass-handled-club-hammer-4-1-2lb-2-0kg-/9413v

Thank you @schloss , I will try that. So literally sanding by hand, not with a small handheld sander? I will ask about coloured waxes in a specialist shop, there's one where they had advised me on Osmo oils before (I have also oiled pine floors, but they have not been waxed previously, but painted, so we did sand them).

Yes sanding by hand, try a sanding block, or just wrap the sandpaper around a piece of wood. Start with 40/60 grade then work your way up - you must use the finer grades as that will ensure a smooth finish for the wax. Try a clear wax, old pine is very good at coming back to its original colour with a wax on. As I said previously I would sand somewhere hidden initially and try a clear wax on.

So glad it's not just me! I really like them. They look warm and cosy and cute. I wouldn't paint them.