Budget wood floor solutions

[Minnie M6]

I have reached a breaking point with my wood floors- they are just awful. When we moved into our house almost 7 years ago, the floors were not in great shape, and they went on our list of things we would get to when we could. In the years since, we have raised 2 puppies, who had their share of accidents on the floors. Because they are rough and need refinished, the urine soaked in on occasions we were not home or didn't catch it right away. So now they are stained and it takes a lot of effort to keep the room smelling halfway decent. I am embarrassed for anyone to see our floors, and the living room is the first room you see when entering the house. We have discussed stripping the floors ourselves with a sander and then refinishing, but my husband has never done that type of project. I would welcome any advice/ suggestions about refinishing hardwood floors without breaking the bank, as well as suggestions about odor removal from the wood.

 

[Ericandjenng]

Unless you just have to keep them, I'd pull them up and install cheap laminate. Pick a floating floor because it's super easy to install. Lumber Liquidators has some phenomenal prices on this type of flooring.

 

[Evi]

If your floors would be in good shape by sanding and staining (except for the dog stains) then that's what I'd do. You can sand the floors and have them dyed a modern dark brown and then sealed and you won't see the stains. Unless your dogs just use your floor like a bathroom and no one picks it up. Once they've been sanded stained and sealed you won't smell anything. If the stains aren't everywhere and you want to keep the wood light you could have the areas that are stained removed and replaced with wood to match the rest of your floor then have them sanded and stained to match. Either way not having to pull up your entire floor is cheaper then replacing it. As for someone else's advice to rip up wood and put down linoleum I say NO WAY!! ok i had to get that out. You loose some resale value and it just looks dated fast. You may want to have an area tiled off like a in the kitchen or a hallway etc and then you can put down piddle pads and train your little ones to go on the piddle pads and not the floor. Also when you have your floors done explain that you want them to put on a really thick coating tell them you dont wear shoes in the house. You'll end up with a thicker top coating offering more protection it may cost a little more but very much worth it.

 

[Tinkerbelle9980]

Word of advice about refinishing the floors. Make sure if you are the ones putting the shiny sealer on the container is very well stirred or shaken. Whoever did ours, before we bought the house, apparently didn't so half the room is shiny and half is more of a matte. We were told by a handyman that it was the reason for it. We always have intentions of fixing it but have yet to. Plus you don't notice it much with the furniture. I wish I could convince my husband to let me fix ours. Good luck with it!

 

[Pigeon]

Have you treated the troublesome areas with enzymatic cleaner?

I would do that thoroughly and then refinish them. I think once they are treated, sanded down and sealed any odor problem should be gone. Doing it yourself isn't that hard if your husband is handy. We did it in one of our houses.

I wouldn't rip out good hardwood to replace with laminate.

 

[Luvchefmic]

Since you said the floors were in bad shape when you moved in 7 yrs ago AND you & you DH have never done a project like this (stripping/sanding etc) I say leave it to the experts...get someone in there that can tell you if the floors can even be refinished...I saw this on one of those DIY shows or Income Property doesn't matter but aparently you can only do this to floors so many times over the life of the wood..AND IMHO (and from experience) the best domestic fights over a home project

Definitely too agree with pp re-changing to linoleum...not in todays market..even a wood laminate would be better or plain tile but still find a trusted licensed professional 1-800-empiretoday maybe?

 

[Pigeon]

The pp actually suggested cheap laminate, not linoleum.

The thing is, hardwood adds to the value of your house. Laminate, even high quality laminate, not so much. And I happen to like laminate for ease of maintenance with kids and pets. We put in high end laminate in our kitchen which was actually more expensive than middle of the road solid oak, knowing that it doesn't add to the value of the house.

But I wouldn't pull up solid hardwood if that's what I had. It is true that solid hardwood can reach a point where it is too thin to refinish further if it's been done several times. If it's engineered wood flooring you may not be able to refinish it at all.

 

[laurafergie]

An option to consider.

Our wood floors were too far gone, old and thin to refinish. However we could not afford to replace them, so I went to Lowes and bought porch paint. You can get it tinted in lots of colors. I just went with a blond color and painted my floors and put 3 coats of poly on top of it. Looks great, and very easy to keep clean because of the poly top coats and gives us a few years to replace the floors with what I want. (bamboo)

 

[NotUrsula]

Urine stains on hardwood are NOT removable. You could sand off a quarter inch, and the stain would come right back the minute the finsh was applied. I found that out the hard way, when we pulled up the linoleum that had been put down in our dining room. You will have to completely replace any urine-stained boards.

I've done the orbital-sanding thing, and it isn't easy; you have to be super-careful to keep it moving at all times, and keep the speed constant so that you don't end up creating low spots.

Your best bet is to hire a professional, not least because they have proper masking equipment to minimize how much dust gets out of the rooms you are having re-done. If you are doing the whole house, your only real choice is to move everything out for a week. It will take a day to sand and a day to coat, then a day to dry, then a day for the second coat and a day to dry that. Then you have to wash the walls and ceilings to remove the dust.

 

[loveysbydesign]

Just wondering if anyone has any tips for refinishing soft wood? Our house was built in 1875 and has original pine wide plank flooring that are in dire need of a new coating of something. The previous owners but some type of glossing coating on it but did a horrible job.

 

[Evi]

Just wondering if anyone has any tips for refinishing soft wood? Our house was built in 1875 and has original pine wide plank flooring that are in dire need of a new coating of something. The previous owners but some type of glossing coating on it but did a horrible job.

We had our floors refinished and I wanted to go with a wood hardener as apposed to a sealer. You can look into ting oil and Bona not the cleaner but there actual sealer. Older hard wood floors were treated with a sealant that actually was absorbed by the wood and made the wood harder over time. Its also what gives older wood floors that hand oiled look. I wish I had large old pine floors sounds so very pretty. We went with a poly coat because our floors are badly stained and had been refinished recently. One thing if you want to go the all natural route and seal the floor you will need to strip it down to bare wood. You can also layer these sealers over and over again with drying time inbetween and they will harden the wood itself not just coat it.

 

[buzz5985]

Word of advice about refinishing the floors. Make sure if you are the ones putting the shiny sealer on the container is very well stirred or shaken. Whoever did ours, before we bought the house, apparently didn't so half the room is shiny and half is more of a matte. We were told by a handyman that it was the reason for it. We always have intentions of fixing it but have yet to. Plus you don't notice it much with the furniture. I wish I could convince my husband to let me fix ours. Good luck with it!

Polyurethane comes in a matte finish and a glossy finish. Sounds more like they used matte on one section, and a glossy on another.