Refinishing vintage red oak hardwood

12 years ago

I am having these floors refinished, but I am concerned about how they will look with a natural finish, which the flooring refinisher recommended. What do you guys think?

I don't plan on painting the wood trim. I'm looking for some opinions on whether refinished unstained floors will look too light and incongruent here. Also, perhaps someone who is familiar with wood floors may know what color stain this is...or is it just aged amber varnish?

This is the previous landlord's apartment in a 1919 building I've recently purchased, and that family had lived here since 1947 as the second property owners. It was "updated" in the 70's, with loads of paneling sheets and plenty of dropped ceilings. It was fun to find the original velvet flocked metallic wallpaper underneath the gray paneling :)

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Comments (9)

DLM2000-GW
12 years ago
Gorgeous - they will be stunning in a natural finish and show the natural variations in the planks. Hard to tell if they've previously been stained or if that's natural oxidation that darkened them. What a fun project to peel away the layers in your new home!!! Please share more as you do things.
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cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky)
12 years ago
I just sanded down my quartersawn red oak hardwood in preparation for some work and the natural color was in no way "light"- there was still plenty of color. That color will only be enhanced by your topcoat.
It may look wrong with radiators and old wood paneling but once you bring that place into the 21st century it will look amazeballs.
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Thank you for the responses. I just spoke with the floor guy. His experience with our insurance company has been that they "get it" with the hardwoods and are generally agreeable to redoing the whole floors and not just a patch. I sure hope that holds true for us. DH and I have pretty much decided to do the whole floor out of concern for matching and aging thereafter. If we end up having to eat part of the cost, it's probably worth it in the long run. I'll keep my fingers crossed, though. Thanks again for helping me!
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I would see if there is a way to take care of the squeaky floors from either in a basement, or under the house in a crawl space. No, you really cant go over them, and expect the squeaks to stop, you will still have squeaky floors. I am also pretty sure, your hardwood you already have is a better quality than an engineered floor would be, so if it is able to be refinished, I would absolutely go that way.
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I paid to have an independent, certified flooring inspector come in to evaluate my floors. His final report noted that the pinholes were caused by an improper finish. The flooring contractor applied 2 coats of polyurethane on the same day and did not allow sufficient time for the first coat to fully dry before they applied the second coat. The inspector noted a hazed appearance in numerous areas that were indicative of the previous coat not being fully dry before the second coat was applied. The wood was not a number 2 grade selection and the inspector contacted a technical adviser from the National Wood Flooring Associate and he said that there was nothing inherent to the red oak that would have caused the extensive pinholing in the finish that was observed and that this was due to either incompatible finish products being used or improper application procedures. I had a second company come in and redo the entire refinish - sanding down to bare wood and reapplying stain and 3 coats of poly and there are no pinhole visible on any floors in the house. The fact that the issue could be corrected by completing redoing the work lends credence to the original job having been poorly done. The original company tried applying a 4th coat of polyurethane but this did nothing to fix the pinholes. If you look at page 59 of this PDF, pinholes can appear in the finish of a floor if the previous coat was not fully dry (http://www.crescenthardwood.com/nwfa/ProblemsCauses.pdf). The bottom line was that I was out a lot of money from the first contractor, which was a large reputable company in my area, because they refused to fix the issue or even test to see if their finish job was the issue and had to go through the aggravation of having the entire job redone. The second company came out and sanded the floor of a closet and reapplied stain and 3 coats of poly to ensure that it was the previous finish and not inherent to the wood. The test area showed that when done correctly no pinholes in the finish formed.
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A Red Oak floor can be bleached so that it turns a silvery gray (very light). This is expensive. It adds another $2/sf on to sand/refinish. The average price for sand/refinish = $5/sf. That means your chosen colour (with bleaching) is going to be about $7/sf. That's it. That's all. Everything included. Compare that to a factory finished floor identical to your inspiration photo: $7-$12/sf (depending on how wide the plank is...wider is more expensive). Now you have to pay for the original wood to be ripped out ($1-$2/sf depending on if it is nailed or glued). Subfloor prep is another $1-$3/sf (depending on if it was nailed or glued). And then the installation = $3- $5/sf (depending on if it is nailed or glued). Whew. Makes the $7/sf refinishing price pretty attractive doesn't it? The REALLY pricey bit: the stairs. That is going to run MUCH more than dealing with hardwood. It takes a VERY special wood worker to get the railing and the treads to match the colour. It is long, tedious work. The floor isn't the part I would worry about. I would be VERY nervous about the stairs. That is going to cost and arm and a leg to refinish.
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deeinohio
12 years ago
We also just redid our red oak floors in natural, and we have dark woodwork. I love the contrast.

I think you're eight that your current floors are just amber from age.

Your floors will be gorgeous!

Dee
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gsciencechick
12 years ago
I wish we could refinish our red oak floors! Just so much going on including senior kitty who would need to be displaced.

Good luck, and I can't wait to see the refinished results!
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Annie Deighnaugh
12 years ago
It looks like there are some pale spots on the floor from wear or whatever near the doorway. That should give you a hint of what the color will be when sanded completely down. I suspect it will be too light and you may want to go with a stain to bring it back to this rich tone. If there are areas that you know will be covered where you could do a small test of natural vs stain, that would be great....
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sail_away
12 years ago
We recently had our WHITE oak floors refinished, as well as added more hardwood on the first floor. We chose to have them natural, although at first we were afraid it would be too pale. The floor guys applied the oil-based finish to a large area to show us how it would look and we love it! The finish definitely adds depth, warmth, and color to the floors and really brings out the grain. I love the way the natural finisih makes each board stand out, yet come together for a beautiful, cohesive look. There are a few very pale (almost white) boards, but not many---if they all had looked like that, I would not have been pleased; but mixed in with the majority much warmer boards they look fine and don't bother me at all--it looks lovely, and the variance in how each board took the stain is part of the beauty. To me, it really emphasizes the beauty of the hardwood floor.
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User
12 years ago
Have them "screened" (scuff-sanded to take just the varnish off) and then clear-coated. It will retain most of the color.

Drum sanding removed the top 1/16 or more of the surface and you lose the patina and old color.
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chardie
12 years ago
I had my white oak floors sanded and just had a clear finish put on them. They look great. My house is c. 1875, but I don't know when these floors were put in over the original pine boards.

Here is a link that might be useful: refinished white oak floors
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tradewind_64
Original Author
12 years ago
Thank you so very much for your replies, everyone. I am meeting with the floor refinisher again tomorrow, so I made notes based on the thoughts you guys expressed here and I will get a chance to address them tomorrow. I am very appreciative :)

chardie, your floors_are_gorgeous. Mercy!
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Refinishing vintage red oak hardwood

Comments (9)

DLM2000-GW

cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky)

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deeinohio

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Refinishing vintage red oak hardwood

Comments (9)

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tradewind_64Original Author

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tradewind_64
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