Can my kitchen floors be salvaged?

11 years ago

Sorry to pester once again with the saga of restoring our 100 yo hardwood floors, but we're at the final decision point of whether these kitchen floors are redeemable.

I've stripped off 2 layers of vinyl + adhesive, sanded till I'm blue in the face with 4 different sanders, from drum to hand orbital, and tried bleaching out the water stains with oxalic acid. With all of the above, I was unable to get out the black stains, water marks, or uneven (splotchy) color.

Here's what it looks like after a coat of Bona Sealer:

There will be cabinets down the 2 sides, so I'm only concerned about the 5' down the center, but it's still splotchy.

And here's a shot of where the fridge will go (upper right corner in photo):

Here's the doorway between the kitchen and dining room. Lots of residual rust spots and holes from the nails in the carpet tack strips and transition piece:

As a contrast, here's a bedroom with sealer and one coat of fresh Bona Traffic poly.

So what think you? It seems my options are:
1. Go ahead and poly it.
2. Put a darker stain on it to cover up/even out the ugly.
3. Paint it.
4. Cover it with sheet vinyl.

Opinions?

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Comments (6)

gregmills_gw
11 years ago
You wont like this but if you decide to stain it you will have to rip off the sealer.

Staining black is the closest thing that will hide the stains. Wont get rid of them but any dark color will help delay noticing them.

Its an old floor that was mistreated you can only do so much. For everything the floor went thru it looks pretty good.
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User
11 years ago
If it was mine I would probably be okay with doing some type of diagonal grid with squares glazed darker brown, maybe with a 6" to 12" border separated from the field by a dark 1" strip.
Or it could be painted a plain color. Or after painting it a plain color a pattern could be painted on with complementary color paint. Google painted wood floors and you'll probably get some ideas.
Here's one that looks sharp and would cover lots of flaws:
http://yourhomeonlybetter.com/painting-wood-floors/
OTOH, it's now nice and smooth to install sheet vinyl over.
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Debbie Downer
11 years ago
Some things Ive been contemplating as Im going thru same process w my old fir with same old black blotches and water stains:

Red or rust (or any color) paint applied to floor (sanded or rubbed off strategically so it looks reminiscent of worn floor and so grain is still visible The general finishes gel stains / milk paints/ glazes look like they could achieve same effect or maybe nicer but haven't yet experimented with them. Would need clear top coat over.

Dark gray or charcoal colored stain - poly over.

If you were to stain or color the wood, I like that the diagonal wood pattern would continue into the kitchen, which is pretty unusual (at least around here - never seen that before).

OTOH - people who are buying a modest but well-renovated house would probably expect and be happy with vinyl - some might worry that they would have to baby a wood floor and f reak out if anything spills.
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raee_gw zone 5b-6a Ohio
11 years ago
Did you try waterpopping it before you applied the stain?

I had water stains that mostly sanded out -- my floor was not nearly as bad as yours, but the initial attempt at staining was very blotchy too. Re-sanded (used a pro this time) and they did the waterpopping, then stained. Looks very good now!

How badly do you want to have a wood floor there?
Does a cost/benefit analysis justify pouring more work into it? If not, then vinyl really is just fine!
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glennsfc
11 years ago
Good advice from JFCWood for painting the beast. Your floor actually does not look as bad as you think it does. You get cabinets, new wall surfaces and all the rest in the space and the floor will not look bad, unless what you are aiming for in interior design is new and pristine.

As it is now, think of your floor as a possible canvas on which to add paint as a design element. If you've already bought the Traffic, no problem, paint the floor with an acrylic paint and then coat with Traffic when dry.
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weedyacres
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. After much consideration, we decided to go with vinyl. I was sorely tempted to try a dark stain or paint, but practicality won out. We've got to move in next weekend, and another couple weeks of mess trying a few more things just isn't as important as the other stuff the house needs. Like a kitchen. :-)

So we ordered some gray tile-looking vinyl and that'll have to do. Oh well, we gave the salvage a good effort.
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