Refinishing hardwood floors with bad water spots?
Hi, when I first moved into my home, I discovered under the carpet was hardwood floors! At the time, my husband didnt want to help me refinish them, so I just took a hand sander and basically sanded off the first layer of stain, then I noticed how badly the floor had water spots. So i decided online pharmacy prescription to put a darker stain on the wood to help cover it up. Well, the more I look at the wood now, the more I want to refinish it again, but this time do it right and rent a drum sander. But I dont want to get this big project going, if theres no way I can get ride of the water stains on the wood? I’m afraid the stains in the wood are real deep, and regardless of how much I sand those spots, they wont come out? Am I wrong? If I get a drum sander, would that take care of the problem? Or do I need to put some kind of bleach or chemical to help make the stain lighter so it will match the rest of the floors? Thanks!!
The truth is that until you try, there is no way to know for certain how deep a stain is, no way to know whether a stain can be bleached or sanded out.
As you mentioned, you might rent a drum sander. (Resanding a floor is a rather involved process. You would also need to rent an edger sander for the areas along the walls that the drum sander cannot reach and a 16" buffing machine for the final fine sanding with a #120 grit screen.) You might sand the stained areas a little more than the rest of the floor, but be careful to gradually ‘feather’ the sanding depth to blend with the surrounding area. Also take care that you do not sand too deeply and hit the boards’ tongues and grooves.
After sanding, some stain is likely to still remain, so you might try oxalic acid (a mild bleaching agent). I have used a gel product named DeksWood manufactured by Flood, Inc that costs about $8 per quart. First mask off the unstained floor so that it will not get bleached and form a halo of light wood. Pour a lttle on the stained area, then scrub hard with a scrub brush. Leave it on for 15 minutes, then wipe off with a damp rag. Repeat many times.
Especially in the case of pet urine stains, be prepared for the likelihood that the stain will at least partly remain. If you find that result unacceptable, you might consider replacing the stained areas with new materials. If new materials don’t match the old floor, there may still be another option: If part of the floor you just sanded was in a closet, you might remove the closet floorboards and use them on the repair and then place new floorboards in the closet. Then you would resand the patched pieces to the height of the surroundind flooring.
If you do not want to do any carpentry, you might choose to reduce the contrast between stained areas and the rest of the floor by applying a coat of medium or dark stain on the entire floor before applying the coats of finish.
when we moved into this house i pulled the carpets up to find hardwood with pee stains dark ones hired a floor guy to come in and redo the floors and all the stains came out floors looked so good i kept them natural and put poly on them