I have been restoring historic homes for over 17 years and my floor guy and friend got very busy. These videos have been very helpful for finishing up my flooring tasks.
Redoing flooring my century old house. Porcelain tiles. BUT... while prepping, peeled off one, two ,three four layers of flooring over the years. Yes. Found black asbestos mastic. Possibly one or more layers may also have asbestos in it. Discovered pine boards underneath. Now question is to go ahead with tiling? Refinish original wood?
We are going to sand down a pine floor and put LVP over it. We are just sanding to get an even surface. Would you recommend the Clark EZ8 or an Hiretech orbital sander? My impression Is the EZ8 is more aggressive and harder to use. (Both can be rented from the local big box store.) We did debate refinishing the pine, but the pine is in the kitchen area plus a bathroom, so we wanted a more water resistant floor in those areas.
The orbital sander isn't designed to flatten uneven planks, and you'll waste a lot of time, and money trying to flatten it with that machine. Drum sand the floor on a 30 to 45 degree angle with 36 grit. Since its pine it should flatten quickly providing its not covered with paint or a century worth of floor finish, or adhesive. After sanding on angle you should sand it plank parallel , or on a 1 or 2 degree angle. Since your putting vinyl floor on top you can progress to 60 grit plank parallel sanding next. After edgering the perimeter you can then orbital sand the entire floor if you feel its needed. I like the guys in the HD Tool Rental but they don't sand floors for a living and often give misinformation to customers regarding what machines are capable of doing because they haven't experienced sanding over 500 000 square feet of floor. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the video! On those gaps - if you don’t fill them, won’t that be a pretty bad water intrusion route? Or does the polyurethane completely fill those gaps when you poly?
The poly won't fill the gaps. Filler can be applied to any gap, just realize that all filler will eventually come loose and break away at some point, more prevalent when gaps are large.
@@HardwoodFloorRefinishing101 couldn't you pour some kind of poly resin in the cracks or would it show under the polyurethane? Or why couldn't you fill all the cracks with polyurethane?
Redinishing floors today. So worried about using a drum sander. Still no definite on whether the floor is quarter sawn pine or fir. Should I stain? Or will it be blotchy? If I just use poly, do I use oil or water based? I do not want shiny floors, something satin would be nice. Thank you for your help!
Fir or pine don’t necessarily require a stain as they look good with just an oil or water based finish, although I have stained pine in the past. There is a likelihood of blotchy spots occurring. Also pine tends to have naturally occurring yellow or green streaks throughout that won’t absorb stain. Oil based finish will amber over time while water based finish will look exactly the same as floor after sanding. Best to test a small section to see what you prefer. Thank you for watching and good luck👍
So I'm doing the house out in Kansas that was built in 1905. So hardwood floors upstairs and downstairs, und large gaps in the floor similar to your video. My question is, if staining on the second floor , will it go in-between the gaps and bleed through to the ceiling below?
I have a home in KS built in 1894 with gaps in the hardwood. I’ve been planning to refinish it as some point and I am curious what you ended up doing with yours. I have both the first and second floor to do.
@@quincy-2000 you can fill the gaps if you like. Eventually the gap filler will crack, loosen and come out through plank shifting and seasonal changes over time.
I am looking to restore my pine floors, and have been thinking about using a Random Orbit Floor Sander instead of a drum sander. I have been reading that the orbit sanders are less aggressive and may take longer, but where pine is a softer wood, that should be less of an issue? (theoretically?) Am I right about that assumption?
You could use an orbital sander but it could take up to 20 times longer or more than if you were to start with a drum sander. It also depends on what the existing finish is on the floor. If its covered in paint, adhesive etc it will be virtually impossible to do with an orbital sander. Best to test a small area 1st to see how the finish is coming off. Expect to start with 24 grit and progress through higher grits accordingly. Pine dents easily so any deep gauges take longer to remove. Thanks for watching!
Can you elaborate on that a little. What make of caulking did you use etc.? Ten years is a long time, The very old pine floor I'm going to refinish has gaps, ive been back and forth whether to fill or not, and now your caulking suggestion has me interested. Any tips and advise would be appreciated.
My floor has very significant dips and heaves. Like over an inch out of level over just a few feet. Can you use a drum sander without flattening? Flattening my floor would probably mean wearing through several boards at the high spots. Thanks in advance, I appreciate any advice I can get.
@@HardwoodFloorRefinishing101 yeah I was thinking of using black, the colour difference would be a feature. But I agree it’ll be flexible. Was thinking about it but I’m not going to do it, it’ll take too long. Hammering the nails in was long enough.
Hey Dave, I will try refinishing my floor this weekend. I believe I have oak wood and some of the boards have broken off pieces. A side view would look like this (right quarter is slant broken. ----------------------\ | \ |__________________| Any ideas on how to properly fill these broken boards or do I have to fully replace them?
@@yoyoyoufs Its always best to replace broken pieces with actual flooring if you're able to get it. Depending on the size of the gap you could cut pieces to size and fit into the gap. If the pieces are too small you may need to size them in with a small belt sander. Turn the sander on auto and hold it with one hand, then take the small piece of wood and sand it checking it periodically for size to fit in gap (be careful not to push your fingers into the belt sander - use pliers to hold piece if needed). When the piece is almost to size and it will fit in gap, clean out the opening and put carpenters glue in opening then press fit the piece of wood in. Allow it to dry overnight. It doesn't matter if its higher than the surrounding floor as you'll be sanding it flush to the floor the next day. If the piece is too small to fill with hardwood you can use wood filler. The oldest method of gap filling is to use the dust you sand from the floor and make a paste. Put a couple handfuls of dust in a small metal container then slowly add some oil based urethane to the dust stirring regularly. When a workable consistency is reached - similar to drywall mud - trowel the filler into the gaps. NOTE: If you're going to be staining the floor you'll need to add a small amount of stain to the paste as you're making it so its the same color as your floor when completed. Or, LePage Plastic Wood filler is an oil based, stainable filler excellent for small gaps/holes as it dries rock hard and is stainable. Or, Duraseal, and Sanlyn sell stainable latex wood filler for flooring contractors sold in 2, or 5 gallon containers. If you only have a couple small gaps to fill this would be an excessive waste of money for just one floor! Hope this helps.
Canada's oil poly don't turn your floors dark like ours do in the U.S. otherwise I'd use them. I used the water based last time,not a fan. Thanks for another great video
The Fabulon urethane I use is made in Cleveland Ohio. The big box stores don’t sell it but you should be able to get it from a hardwood flooring outlet near you.
My house is 103 years old with pine floors. After sanding noticed darkish spots in the floor. Some have told me it's probably because of all the foot traffic in and out of that room.. but it bugs me. Not sure if that's accurate or I just need to sand more
I have been restoring historic homes for over 17 years and my floor guy and friend got very busy. These videos have been very helpful for finishing up my flooring tasks.
Glad they helped!
Thanks for watching!
I love the look of tung oil on these old pine floors. Good job!
Floor looks great! The music is a nice added touch to the video!
Thank you for a fine demonstration. I learn a lot and will try to refinish my pine kitchen floor from a 125 year old farmhouse in VT.l Thanks again.
Thank you for watching !
We are doing that now. How did your project go?
You did a beautiful job ❤️❤️
Thank you
Redoing flooring my century old house. Porcelain tiles. BUT... while prepping, peeled off one, two ,three four layers of flooring over the years. Yes. Found black asbestos mastic. Possibly one or more layers may also have asbestos in it. Discovered pine boards underneath. Now question is to go ahead with tiling? Refinish original wood?
If you’re going to refinish make sure to wear a VOC protective respirator when sanding at all times.
We are going to sand down a pine floor and put LVP over it. We are just sanding to get an even surface. Would you recommend the Clark EZ8 or an Hiretech orbital sander? My impression Is the EZ8 is more aggressive and harder to use. (Both can be rented from the local big box store.)
We did debate refinishing the pine, but the pine is in the kitchen area plus a bathroom, so we wanted a more water resistant floor in those areas.
The orbital sander isn't designed to flatten uneven planks, and you'll waste a lot of time, and money trying to flatten it with that machine.
Drum sand the floor on a 30 to 45 degree angle with 36 grit.
Since its pine it should flatten quickly providing its not covered with paint or a century worth of floor finish, or adhesive.
After sanding on angle you should sand it plank parallel , or on a 1 or 2 degree angle.
Since your putting vinyl floor on top you can progress to 60 grit plank parallel sanding next.
After edgering the perimeter you can then orbital sand the entire floor if you feel its needed.
I like the guys in the HD Tool Rental but they don't sand floors for a living and often give misinformation to customers regarding what machines are capable of doing because they haven't experienced sanding over 500 000 square feet of floor.
Hope this helps.
My attic floor is pine plank. There is no varnish or urethane on it appears to be bare wood. How do I prepare it for the urethane coat
Thanks for the video! On those gaps - if you don’t fill them, won’t that be a pretty bad water intrusion route? Or does the polyurethane completely fill those gaps when you poly?
The poly won't fill the gaps. Filler can be applied to any gap, just realize that all filler will eventually come loose and break away at some point, more prevalent when gaps are large.
@@HardwoodFloorRefinishing101 couldn't you pour some kind of poly resin in the cracks or would it show under the polyurethane? Or why couldn't you fill all the cracks with polyurethane?
Redinishing floors today. So worried about using a drum sander. Still no definite on whether the floor is quarter sawn pine or fir. Should I stain? Or will it be blotchy? If I just use poly, do I use oil or water based? I do not want shiny floors, something satin would be nice. Thank you for your help!
Fir or pine don’t necessarily require a stain as they look good with just an oil or water based finish, although I have stained pine in the past. There is a likelihood of blotchy spots occurring. Also pine tends to have naturally occurring yellow or green streaks throughout that won’t absorb stain.
Oil based finish will amber over time while water based finish will look exactly the same as floor after sanding. Best to test a small section to see what you prefer. Thank you for watching and good luck👍
So I'm doing the house out in Kansas that was built in 1905. So hardwood floors upstairs and downstairs, und large gaps in the floor similar to your video. My question is, if staining on the second floor , will it go in-between the gaps and bleed through to the ceiling below?
If you can see through the subfloor it possibly could.
I have a home in KS built in 1894 with gaps in the hardwood. I’ve been planning to refinish it as some point and I am curious what you ended up doing with yours.
I have both the first and second floor to do.
@@quincy-2000 you can fill the gaps if you like. Eventually the gap filler will crack, loosen and come out through plank shifting and seasonal changes over time.
I am looking to restore my pine floors, and have been thinking about using a Random Orbit Floor Sander instead of a drum sander. I have been reading that the orbit sanders are less aggressive and may take longer, but where pine is a softer wood, that should be less of an issue? (theoretically?) Am I right about that assumption?
You could use an orbital sander but it could take up to 20 times longer or more than if you were to start with a drum sander. It also depends on what the existing finish is on the floor. If its covered in paint, adhesive etc it will be virtually impossible to do with an orbital sander. Best to test a small area 1st to see how the finish is coming off. Expect to start with 24 grit and progress through higher grits accordingly. Pine dents easily so any deep gauges take longer to remove. Thanks for watching!
You fill with color matched caulk and it holds up. Mines been there for 10 years
Can you elaborate on that a little. What make of caulking did you use etc.?
Ten years is a long time, The very old pine floor I'm going to refinish has gaps, ive been back and forth whether to fill or not, and now your caulking suggestion has me interested.
Any tips and advise would be appreciated.
Do you recommend staining then varnishing? I am afraid to get started on my floors with the power sander, I don’t have as much remove as you though.
Yes stain before varnish if properly sanded to bare wood and you want a different colour.
Everyone is telling us not to stain our floors bc they will look blotchy. Is that true?
Why not take a planer to remove the old finish ? Or stripper and scrape? Or heat and scrape? It’s gonna be fun to see the rest😊 of
Would you still use a drum sander if the floor was uneven? I have dips and heaves in my floor.
Yes sand it on 45 degree angle to flatten then straight afterwards
My floor has very significant dips and heaves. Like over an inch out of level over just a few feet. Can you use a drum sander without flattening? Flattening my floor would probably mean wearing through several boards at the high spots. Thanks in advance, I appreciate any advice I can get.
Hi just wondering what grit screen did you use between second and third coat? Was the third coat the last coat?
220 grit between 2nd & 3rd coat. Yes 3rd coat was last but you can apply as many coats as you like.
@@HardwoodFloorRefinishing101 Thanks ! I'm from Bowmanville and I was wondering where I can purchase the Fabulon urethane
@@jeffwoodbeck4760 Woodchuck Floors 161 Nugget Scarborough
Could you fill the gaps with a polyurethane sikaflex?
I need to do my floors this week, I probably won’t bother filling because I can’t be bothered.
No as it remains elastic in texture. It needs to dry hard. Also it likely isn't stainable so the color difference would be obvious.
@@HardwoodFloorRefinishing101 yeah I was thinking of using black, the colour difference would be a feature. But I agree it’ll be flexible.
Was thinking about it but I’m not going to do it, it’ll take too long. Hammering the nails in was long enough.
Hey Dave,
I will try refinishing my floor this weekend. I believe I have oak wood and some of the boards have broken off pieces.
A side view would look like this (right quarter is slant broken.
----------------------\
| \
|__________________|
Any ideas on how to properly fill these broken boards or do I have to fully replace them?
Is it parquet?
@@HardwoodFloorRefinishing101 no, a normal 1946 flooring
@@HardwoodFloorRefinishing101 oak
@@yoyoyoufs Its always best to replace broken pieces with actual flooring if you're able to get it. Depending on the size of the gap you could cut pieces to size and fit into the gap. If the pieces are too small you may need to size them in with a small belt sander. Turn the sander on auto and hold it with one hand, then take the small piece of wood and sand it checking it periodically for size to fit in gap (be careful not to push your fingers into the belt sander - use pliers to hold piece if needed). When the piece is almost to size and it will fit in gap, clean out the opening and put carpenters glue in opening then press fit the piece of wood in. Allow it to dry overnight. It doesn't matter if its higher than the surrounding floor as you'll be sanding it flush to the floor the next day. If the piece is too small to fill with hardwood you can use wood filler.
The oldest method of gap filling is to use the dust you sand from the floor and make a paste. Put a couple handfuls of dust in a small metal container then slowly add some oil based urethane to the dust stirring regularly. When a workable consistency is reached - similar to drywall mud - trowel the filler into the gaps. NOTE: If you're going to be staining the floor you'll need to add a small amount of stain to the paste as you're making it so its the same color as your floor when completed.
Or,
LePage Plastic Wood filler is an oil based, stainable filler excellent for small gaps/holes as it dries rock hard and is stainable.
Or,
Duraseal, and Sanlyn sell stainable latex wood filler for flooring contractors sold in 2, or 5 gallon containers. If you only have a couple small gaps to fill this would be an excessive waste of money for just one floor!
Hope this helps.
@@HardwoodFloorRefinishing101 I truly appreciate your insight. I wish you were in the US actually to give you this job comfortably.
Is lead not a concern?
Canada's oil poly don't turn your floors dark like ours do in the U.S. otherwise I'd use them. I used the water based last time,not a fan. Thanks for another great video
The Fabulon urethane I use is made in Cleveland Ohio. The big box stores don’t sell it but you should be able to get it from a hardwood flooring outlet near you.
@@HardwoodFloorRefinishing101 Thank you
Better to scrape those with some heat first. It’s painted and that guns you up
Only 2 sand papers? 36 and 60? Thank you
Drum 36, 60, OBS 18: 60, 80
@HardwoodFloorRefinishing101 in your video you said 180 grit obs
that's for the screen sanding between coats@@Herr2Cents
Doesn't using a roller create bubbles?
No bubbles
My house is 103 years old with pine floors. After sanding noticed darkish spots in the floor. Some have told me it's probably because of all the foot traffic in and out of that room.. but it bugs me. Not sure if that's accurate or I just need to sand more
It could be decades old moisture damage. That likely won’t sand out.
How can I get a quote? I am in Apsley Ontario
Hi whats your postal code?
Thank you
Camera work is a little shaky haha, but the content is amazing
Thanks for the guide
however, next time can you please set the camera on a stand so it won't keep shaking and makes people dizzy to watch :)
Thanks for the tip
Floors look great but I wouldn't call it a how to. No step by step given on sanding, etc