Need some help - repair/refinishing hardwood floors

[always quiet]

Are getting new carpeting in the very near future and I thought that I would like to have the carpeting removed from the dining room (the entire house had hardwood floors which all got carpeted in the late 60's). We got the old carpets up and just about all of the cherry hardwood floors are in great shape - a bit dull, but no scratchs or stains. However, out of the 80+ feet of floor, there is about 5 tiles that have stains.....and naturally, it couldn't be where the table would sit to hit them! They are apparently spills from past years coming back to haunt me.

Does anyone know of a good product out there that could remove these stains? Is sanding the only choice out there? Also, if we can get the stains to lighten, would staining the floor a darker color an option to hide them? The floor right now is cherry.

Thanks for any advice............oh yeah, one final thing................if you ever have carpet installed and you see the installer with a staple gun in his hand, grab that thing and don't give it back!!!! I don't know what the previous carpet installer was thinking, but there were HUNDREDS of staples holding the padding to floor!! I could see them MAYBE around the edges, but through out the entire thing! I told my DH if I catch this guy, I'm stapling a certain body part of his to his zipper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[FroggyinArk]

check with home depot, or your local flooring cenbter, they do make hardwod cleaners that lighten stains, also sometimes if the varnish is sanded away they stain goes, or even try bleach. good luck and btw,,, padding should never be stapled in any traffic area away from the wall, and really isnt sposaed t o be stapled there either

[golfgal]

When we moved into our house a year ago, we took up all the carpet and installed/refinished hardwoods. I love them! I feel your pain with the staples. Our kids helped pull a lot of them out, but after doing 7 rooms and 2 hallways of staples, oh and the stairway, it gets old. We found a needlenose pliars worked the best at pulling them out.

As for the stains, my guess is you are going to have to sand them out if you are going to keep the wood and not carpet over.