Is it possible to patch and refinish a pre-finished Bruce floor?
We have a 17-year old Bruce pre-finished floor throughout most of our first floor. I don't know the square footage, but it's over 1,000 sf. I believe it is oak and the Gunstock color. The flooring has significant fading in some areas and there are a lot of scratches that seem to be all the way through the finish. We have 3 kids and a very large labrador puppy, so these floors are taking a beating.
We are going to remodel the kitchen and are planning to refinish or replace the floors during that process. The remodel will include the removal of a couple of partial walls as well as the removal of an area of ceramic tile near that is 6' by 10'. The areas under the walls and the tiled area will need to be replaced with wood flooring to match the rest of the first floor.
I have lived in several old homes that had the original oak floors from the 1910's or 1920's. I have seen what a good contractor can do with those floors when they needed this type of patching and refinishing. However, I have never been through that process with a pre-finished floor. Is this even possible?
I am perfectly happy with the "look" of the 2 1/4 boards, however I would prefer to stain it a darker color (possibly Minwax Special Walnut or maybe as dark as Jacobean). I know that the current trend is for a wider plank, but I'm used to 100-year-old homes so I actually love the 2 1/4 width. I do wish that the mini-bevel could be eliminated. I know that my kids and my dog are going to cause a lot of wear and tear on whatever wood floor I choose. So I am not expecting to get a picture perfect finish that will last forever.
Admittedly, I don't know much about floor installation, but I think the builder did a good job. There is no splintering. I haven't noticed a lot of gaps or creaks and we are in the midwest and have lived in the house for 6 years so I have seen plenty of seasonal cycles.
My preference would be to keep this floor and just have it repaired and refinished. I really hate the thought of throwing this much material into a landfill. The money isn't really an issue because I have the budget to do either refinish or replace. However, I don't want to refinish and go through all that aggravation to find that it looks a mess and then I have to replace it anyway!
I am going to attach a few pictures. The first is from within a heating vent on the floor where the unfinished side and thickness are visible. The second and third show some of the scratching and fading. The fourth shows a couple of the partial walls we will be removing. There are several more, but this is an example. The last picture is just a wider view of a large patch of the floor in an area where there is less fading.
So, my questions are: Is this floor worth refinishing and will it be possible to patch the areas that need it? (If so, I will begin the research into which products and process are best.) Or should I just tear it out and replace it with new? Can anyone give a good guess as to whether this is red oak or white oak or a blend? Will it take well to a darker stain?
Comments (6)
SJ McCarthy
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Patching/Painting Plaster AFTER Floor Refinishing
Comments (5)A newly finished floor is not cured enough to tape down protective paper. The plaster crew will probably damage the newly finished floor with dust or with the paper and tape. You need to have this discussion with the plaster contractor, otherwise you're setting them up for failure. If they tape to the baseboards only, there is a chance. You must communicate this to them, and put it in the contract that they are responsible for ANY damage to the newly finished floor. See how they react to that. Maybe they are fully capable of working with freshly finished floors. Maybe they do this all the time. Maybe the cost goes up 300% because its going to be twice the work and quadruple the liability. Bottom line is to have this conversation with the contractor who's doing the job....See More? about pre-finished hardwood flooring
Comments (7)I don't know, Bumblebeez. I, too, have 3/4" natural prefinished Bruce, about 10 years old. The only place my floor has lightened is at the north-facing French Door. You can see the change from lightest to darkest exactly where the light from the door falls on the floor. The floor is in my dining room, breakfast nook, and kitchen, north-facing except the kitchen, which is windowless in the center of the house. The floor is perfect there, no rugs or natural light on the floor. I do have a thick wool rug under the dining room table, but no mat under it. I just rolled it back to look at the color - it's the same everywhere, no color change under the rug, only where the fade is at the French door. I dunno, maybe cooking grease protects the color? Anyhow, our floor takes plenty of abuse from kids, gkids, friends, cats and dogs, and I love it. It is still beautiful, even though the primary entrance is through the garage, right onto the kitchen floor - no sign of wear at all, despite my being a lousy, lazy housekeeper, and we never take off our shoes in the house, just wipe them on the mat in the garage. It's a great floor - enjoy!...See MoreConcern with refinishing pre-finished hardwood
Comments (1)"Wondering how concerned we should be with the beveled edges that may not get fully sanded down." It just takes more time....See MorePre-finished Hardwood/Eng Hardwood recommendation
Comments (8)Ok...first things first. Janka hardness ratings only apply to solid hardwood. Engineered planks do not work with Janka because the plied layers underneath are often 'soft woods'. Considering Janka measures how much force it takes to imbed a metal ball into the wood, it isn't possible to offer Janka scores for engineered. They just don't compute. The next thing I'm going to point out is the oddity of trying to match the ENTIRE HOUSE to a single room of existing hardwood. You have a small amount of hardwood that is dictating the rest of the house. It's not impossible but it is HIGHLY unusual. In other words, you are trying to put down more than a thousand square feet of flooring by trying to match 150 - 250sf of dining room (I don't know the size of your dining room so I'm only guessing here). That's a little like putting the cart before the horse. Usually we see this the other way around. Usually we have a house full of hardwood (big amount) but the bedrooms have carpet (small amount). The homeowners then agonize over getting a match for the smaller area. That is normal. As for your price range that you are looking at, they are too low and a little thin. The gold standard is 3/4" thickness (solid or engineered). An engineered product with 3mm or more of wear layer is the base level. The thicker the wear layer the more times a floor can be refinished. The Gold standard is 6mm wear layer (usually in the $10/sf range). If you are having a hard time finding floors that you like, you might want to think about replacing the dining room at the same time. This takes away all the pressure to work with low-grade hardwoods just to get a match to a small amount of hardwood. Solid or engineered should be more than what you are looking at for price. Prefinished wood flooring should be in the $7/sf just to start and they go up from there....See MoreLiz Court
3 years ago
PROJohnson Flooring Co Inc
3 years agoLiz Court
3 years agoSJ McCarthy
3 years ago
Johnson Flooring Co Inc