Finally refinished our 100 year old floors and don't know why we

10 years ago

We moved in 6 years ago and fixing up this home has been a real labor of love. When we took ownership it had 50 year old red shag carpeting everywhere. We ripped it up and the original parquet floors beneath were in decent shape but needed to be refinished. We ended up moving in during the renovation instead of after (its a long story) and never got around to doing the floors. DH found a floor guy who we trusted to do them on vacation. He sanded them down and used Waterlox tung oil. When we got home yesterday I couldn't believe my eyes!!! They are amazing. I never thought they could look this beautiful. I'm so glad we didn't polyurethane the floors like so many of the floor guys in our area had recommended. Here are some before and after pics:

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Comments (26)

polly929
Original Author
10 years ago
Sorry posting from my iPhone....title was cut off and should say why we waited so long!

Here's the after (can't figure out how to post more than one pic)
amykath
10 years ago
Gorgeous! They look stunning!!
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Me? A procrastinator? Just because I put off until now reading this? I started to read it on Thursday, but after just a few words I saw a bad word! EXERCISE! So I didn't read any more. So here I am. So far today I have: read the paper, had my oatmeal and tea, made the bed, fussed at the cat for getting on the new chair, checked on Eagle Cam, Africam, Gorilla Cam, and lucked out on Djuma Cam and spent a lot of time there, had a banana and more tea, watched a few minutes of 20/20 that I taped last night (will finish that later) played around on photoshop, started a letter to a friend (I'll finish that later) and now here I am back at the KT. And it is time to fix some dinner, or I could do that later. Oh, well, guilty as charged. Think I'll watch the news. Sue
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countryatheart
10 years ago
They are absolutely beautiful, well worth the wait.
gsciencechick
10 years ago
I love parquet floors, and yours look amazing!
User
10 years ago
Really beautiful!! I ripped up everything that was covering our 120 yr old heart pine floors when we moved in 11yrs ago....love those old floors. Your parquet reminds me of the floors in my DB's place in Manhattan. You are lucky you had someone so good to do them . c
User
10 years ago
Really beautiful!! I ripped up everything that was covering our 120 yr old heart pine floors when we moved in 11yrs ago....love those old floors. Your parquet reminds me of the floors in my DB's place in Manhattan. You are lucky you had someone so good to do them . c
polly929
Original Author
10 years ago
We even refinished some trim pieces that were missing. Thanks for all your compliments. If you had told me last week they would look like this I would have never believed it!

Before:
polly929
Original Author
10 years ago
And after:

This post was edited by polly929 on Sun, Sep 1, 13 at 10:16
Annie Deighnaugh
10 years ago
How nice. I've always loved parquet floors!
funkyart
10 years ago
Gorgeous!! What a great improvement!
nancybee_2010
10 years ago
Beautiful! I love the border and the detail in the corners is amazing.
cat_mom
10 years ago
They look wonderful! I wish we had known about Waterlox when we'd had our floors finished/poly'd.

Of course, they still wouldn't be as special looking as yours with the lovely parquet and detailing!
TxMarti
10 years ago
They do look great. How did the refinisher sand them? We had parquet in our old home and were told that they couldn't be sanded (at least not by machine) because the grains rain in both directions. I can't remember now how we did refinish them, but I remember using poly.
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
10 years ago
I love tung oil for floors! Wonderful choice and absolutely stunning job. Hope you hugged your refinisher! You wouldn't happen to be anywhere in the D.C. area would you? I would love to find someone like your guy!

Your daughter is a cutie pie, too!
Rory (Zone 6b)
10 years ago
The floors are just beautiful!!
Holly- Kay
10 years ago
Just beautiful!
lazy_gardens
10 years ago
Marti - You can use a "screener" ... it's like a huge floor buffer that is an oscillating sander, not the belt-drum kind.

It sands in all directions at once and removes less material.
MarinaGal
10 years ago
Oh WOW - those floors are gorgeous!! I love the floors in older homes.... Enjoy them!
lascatx
10 years ago
Beautiful floors. You just added to the value of your home as well as the enjoyment. I would love to have tung oil finish, but we are on a concrete slab foundation and the house either had to be built for the wood floors, reno'd with engineered floor or face lots of other issues. Enjoy them!
mtnrdredux_gw
10 years ago
ohh so pretty!
polly929
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you everyone!

Marti8a, I am not sure the exact technique that was used. But we had many estimates years ago when we first took ownership, and had so many opinions from different companies and one of them told us that too. We had another guy tell us we needed to rip them up and replace because they couldn't sand them with all the nails in them! Really? Rip them out? Umm, no thank you! It really pays to be persistent and find someone very experienced and knowledgeable.

Cyn, we aren't in the DC area, we are in NJ, not that far, but I doubt the gentleman who did our floors would travel, he lives in our town.
anele_gw
10 years ago
Ooooh! Just gorgeous! Did you have to remove a lot of furniture? I meant to get ours done before we moved in and did not. Now the thought of having to get everything out seems like a huge hassle!

Those floors are just beautiful!
madeyna
10 years ago
Good job , the floor looks amazing
DLM2000-GW
10 years ago
Just beautiful! Those floors were worth waiting for - glad you had the patience to find someone to do it right.
polly929
Original Author
10 years ago
Yes Anele, we had all of our furniture in the front area of the house, we have to do those floors next! But since those floors are not parquet, with no inlays, DH will DIY. Still haven't moved it all back yet, now that my dark china cabinet is empty, I want to paint it. It was beautiful in my first house, but it doesn't really go with the direction I went in this house.

Anyhow, now that the floors are done, I really am kicking myself for waiting so long.
Valerie Noronha
10 years ago
I can't believe someone told you to rip them out. They were beautiful before, but now they are just stunning.

Finally refinished our 100 year old floors and don't know why we

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polly929
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