Need help with my Pine Flooring....

[redhawknc1]

Wife has me doing some remodeling in the house this winter as always. Currently remodeling our Master Bedroom. The painting, tearing out an old make-up vanity, etc. are finished. My problem is with the flooring. The flooring is 11" wide heart pine 14' long. Being a soft wood, the floors have taken some abuse. Traffic patterns, an indoor Doberman, etc. have taken their toll. I like the distressed look, but at least need a new topical finish applied. The flooring was put down using hand cut nails with a large head that protrude above the floor surface, so sanding with a floor sander is out of the question. It looks as if the pine has just a poly applied with no stain. Some of the poly is worn down to bare wood as shown. Any suggestions on how to approach this project would be greatly appreciated!

 

[jhreed]

Wayne, I would pull each nail and replace it with a Miller Dowel. Then sand and finish. If the floors creak, the Miller Dowels will stop that. I think the dowels will give it a distinctive look.
James

 

[JimmyC]

Wayne,

My inlaws have the same type of floor and the cut nails were sunk and not filled. It has a nice antique look to it. So you may want to counter sink your nails so that a sander can be used, this would be your cheapest and easiest fix.

Good luck,

 

[PeteM]

Personally I would not sand the floor. All that wear is character.

I would set all the nail heads and use a strong cleaner and an abrasive pad to clean the floor and finish with a few coats of Waterlox.

http://www.waterlox.com/solutions/flooring.aspx

pete

 

[tablemaker]

Wayne, to fix the floor properly it MUST be sanded. That as a given you have several choices:
1. Do as J H Reed sugested, pull the nails and dowel it.
2. Use a hammer and drift punch and reset the nails below the surface 1/16" to 1/8".
3. Pull the nails, drill countersinks where the nail holes are, screw down floor, then peg each hole. To peg the holes buy a peg cutting tool for your drill press and use a scrap of heart pine for the pegs, then hammer and glue each in place.

#2 would probably be my choice personally. Pulling the nails would be nearly impossible without mutilating the floor.

 

[PeteM]

Wayne, to fix the floor properly it MUST be sanded.

Why MUST it be sanded?
If you were going to restore an antique pine cabinet would you sand that?

pete

 

[JimmyC]

Why MUST it be sanded?
If you were going to restore an antique pine cabinet would you sand that?

pete

I've got to agree with Pete here, if the Waterlox is compatable with what's on there go with that. Wide board pine has character to begin with and age and patina only add to the beauty of it.

 

[redhawknc1]

I would like to keep the distressed character of the flooring. I was thinking stripping, cleaning and using a floor finish over that. Have called most of the floor guys around here with no luck. One gave me a name of a cleaning service that might could do it. Some really good suggestions here, thanks!

 

[dave "dhi"]

Floor sanders can sand right over the nails, plus you usually only taking off maybe a heavy 1/16!

 

[Jeff]

Just a thought. Without knowing what the current finish is it's kind of a guessing game. Waterlox is good stuff, but you don't want to run into adhesion issues after applying it. So maybe you could countersink the nails as suggested, clean the floor well without sanding, and apply a coat of Zinsser SealCoat (100% dewaxed shellac) as a barrier. Then apply the finish coats. :icon_scra

Bona makes excellent poly floor finishes in both oil base and water borne. The Industrial grade poly is quite a bit more $ than the household grade, but worth the extra bucks for durability.

http://www.bona.com/en-gb/Global/TopMenu/BonaSystem/Floor-care/

You could send a PM to Howard Acheson who is the site finishing guru!