Have them sand the worst spot and make a sample with the color you want.

A good sanding + hands and knees bleaching in the worst areas (you can do the scrubbing before these guys come in) will do WONDERS.

Then PLAN ON a mid-tone brown colour to HIDE the worst areas (as Johnson flooring points out). The mid-tone "mushroom" browns can hide a MYRIAD of sins. Including pet stains. So long as the odor is gone, a decent stain master will get this done.

Please work with a higher grade professional (ie. a bit more expensive) to ensure a higher level of care/attention/EDUCATION on their part. The best place to start = www.nwfa.org You will find a list of professional sand/refinishers in your area on this website. They have the education to handle this without much issue.

Bring them in FIRST....get some hints so that you can do as much cleaning/bleaching as possible so that you can get the floor ready for the sand/refinish by the professional.

And they will be SOOOO impressed that you got all the staples out! I kid you not! You will love these floors once you see them at their best.

Congrats on this old darling! You will love her for a long long time!

Thank you both for the input - I will be sure to ask better questions now that I am armed with this information! The floors do not smell, so that's good - the stains must be quite old. I'll have to read some more on how to bleach - is there any way I could go too far and do more damage once I get bleach involved?

AMS, I am not a pro. Except for having an old cat. My floors are from 1965 and do not have a polyurthane finish. The chlorine bleach does not work for me. What does work on my oak floors is an enzyme cleaner. Tide powder with color safe bleach, oyxclean for laundry, or Bar Keepers Friend. Pick ONE. Put a small amount in a throw away cup and moisten with water until a thin paste. Apply just to the stain and let set. Clean off well with paper towels. I use a damp one to get the residue off. Do not over wet the floor and I would test in a small spot first.

I would not do this to a new floor or a laminate floor.

I had a cat that started staining the carpet which soaked through to the (unfinished)floor in a few spots. I found that hydrogen peroxide removed the odor as well as the stain when it was fresh. I don't know if it can work on old stains. Find your pro and ask his advice first.

Thank you for the advice raee and Sherry! I will definitely ask my pro tomorrow when he comes by!

Use high strength hydrogen peroxide which is sold as developer for hair bleach at beauty supply stores. I had also bought some two part wood bleach but we didnt end up using it.

The hydrogen peroxide will force out dirt which has accumulated between boards and that can make a mess. Sweep and vacuum thoroughly before trying any wet cleaning. The stains will be much lighter after bleaching and sanding and wont be overly noticeable after the refinishing.

I pulled up very old carpet in my parents old home, which was laid over pet-stained hardwood floors that looked just as bad as yours currently do. I was rehabbing the house to sell it (my parents had died) and a home with hardwood floors in my area sells better than a home with carpet in it.

I talked to a competent floor refinisher who told me exactly what yours did - that he could make it better, but it would likely not be "perfect." I decided to give it a try and I'm so glad I did.

When he was done, it looked great. Some spots he was able to make completely disappear. The worst ones were still visible, but over all it looked (to me) exactly like an old floor in an old house should look....if that makes any sense at all. It fit with the patina of an older home way better than a perfect/new hardwood floor would.

Buyers LOVED the floors.

So my advice is that if you can find a really good floor person who knows what they are doing, AND if you have reasonable expectations you should be fine. You're in the same boat I was. Your house is not new construction so as long as you don't expect perfection in the floors, I hope you're as happy with them as I was with mine.

Just found a photo which gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. This is the "after." I had to replace all the windows. This was a spare bedroom, and I guess my parents never noticed the old windows were leaking in there.

There was a HUGE water stain on the hardwoods underneath the windows on the left.

You can obviously still see where the leak/stain was - but again, not one buyer complained about the condition of the floors.

I wish I had a photo of the "before" - because that area was awful!

There are many ways to make the stains less obvious:

1 - Scrub the floor thoroughly and remove all the staples and stuck-on crud

2 - Carefully bleach the stains with WOOD bleach (oxalic acid). Break up the patterning of the stains so you don't replace light blotches for dark blotches.

3 - Select more than one color of stain and stain individual boards to minimize the look of the stains. Pick a stain that matches the darkest bits of wood and a medium one that matches the mid-ranges.

Yes, you will be hand-staining individual boards by wiping the color onto the boards.

4 - Sand.

5 - If a board has a dark old stain on it, make the whole board darker or extend the darker color into a shape or streak that looks like a natural variation. If there is a regular pattern of damage, break up the pattern by selectively staining some spots that aren't damaged.

6. Then stain the whole floor with the medium shade.

You should end up with a floor that is clearly not new, but that doesn't look abused.

For a bleach treatment to be successful, the existing finish needs to be removed first. You will need several bleach treatments. There is no one-size-fits-all with bleach. There are different bleach treatments for different types of stains.

AMS where are you located and how many square feet of flooring is being done?

Thanks for the tips everyone! I met with another company today and they echoed the sentiments of the first - they would try, that a dark stain would mask it, but that I shouldn't expect miracles. I'm not really that fussy and have large rugs, I just want to have the right expectations going in.

Patriceny - I'm impressed! I think those floors look great and while I see the area under the window, that wouldn't bother me at all either.

G&S - I'm located in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota, and I have roughly 650 sq ft. I've had one bid of $2000 for sanding/staining/poly and one of $2250.

You don't have enough allowance in your budget for bleaching. The right type of bleach will lighten and eliminate a lot of your stains: ink, water, rust and pet.

If, the wrong type of bleach is used. It lightens the natural color of the floor causing a damaging effect. And is a tedious job, where timing and scheduling becomes unpredictable.

Hi all, I thought I'd report back! I took Johnson Flooring and SJ McCarthy's advice and chose a dark walnut stain in an attempt to mask the pet stains. I am THRILLED with the results! Sure if I compare before and after photos I can sometimes see shadows of previous stains, but this doesn't bother me one bit - they surpassed by expectations and I think they're gorgeous. Thanks again for your advice! Here are some photos I took, attempting to get the same views shown in my first set of photos.

Beautiful. And perfect for an older house!

Wow! What a difference! So glad we could help you see the potential in these floors. I'm thrilled that you are thrilled. We don't always see/hear "good news" stories on threads....it's photos like yours that keep us coming back!

Congratulations on your SUPER HANDSOME floors! They look amazing. A big thumbs up to your flooring professional! S/He did an excellent job.