Our hardwood looks...ew.

[amber913]

We've uncovered our hardwood floors after 42 years of being covered with padding and carpet, and they look bad. Some of it's normal, i guess. Some of it is a result of our pets (ie. urine stains). It's basically very uneven color. Some spots have worn through the finish, as well. There's no money/it would be logistically nearly impossible to refinish.

So my questions are:

Is there a way to remove the stains?

Is there a way to coat the bare spots myself (that would only need a few hours to dry)?

Should i just distress the rest? If so, how do you do that? I don't think we should walk around peeing on it to even out the color, ya know?

[sunnysandiegan]

I'm not an expert on hardwood floors, but I lived in a house at the beach for 4-5 years that had two types of hardwood floors and here is what I learned and did.

In my "wing" of the house, the hard wood was original... at least 50 years old and never refinished. I used a (borrowed) pole sander and sanded it smooth in two rooms (the rooms I rented). I left it as is in the hallway and third room in my "wing". Then, I used two products recommended to me at the time...a paste of some kind and a finishing wax. I didn't have much money and these were low-priced. These two rooms looked WAY better than the areas left untouched! One of the rooms was my bedroom and didn't have much room for walking around, so it stayed looking nice the whole time I lived there and I never did anything further in that room. I used the other room as a sitting room and it had a lot of open space and got scuffed up. Plus, I ended up painting the walls in that room and had to remove the splatters of paint from the floor. (I had never painted before and a friend offered to help me. Turns out I knew more than she did, but it was too late once I realized that.) So, that room got done twice within the first year I lived there. It looked way better after the second time. Partially because it probably needed it done twice and partially because I learned better techniques in that time.

The rest of the house (outside of my "wing") had professionally refinished hardwood floors. While they looked obviously "new" and fresh, they were slippery and I hated them. They always looked dirty and I slid when wearing socks in the house.

[SquishyKitty]

I would probably consult somebody about getting them professionally refinished. After 40 years, you want to make sure there's no damage to the wood, and if you get them refinished with high quality products now, you likely won't have to do anything to them again for another 40 or 50 years besides wax occasionally.

[JamieCatheryn]

My mom and stepdad and I refinished their LR hardwood floor. The process was basically sand, stain ($20/200sqft), then coat it twice with urethane ($45/250sqft). We sanded the room in one evening and night because the big sander was rented by the day ($40). I suppose you could do it on small spots at a time, it would be very difficult to make it even though. Sand the areas, match the stain the best you can, and coat it. But you'd need to match the old finish, so probably penetrating wax.

[velochic]

This was about 12 years ago, but I had some of my hardwood floors refinished in exchange for one of my racing bicycles, believe it or not. I think anything is up for barter. I would check around and see if you can get them done professionally in exchange for something. It's worth a try.

[mumkimum]

An old apartment of mine had been in a fire and the floors very damaged/stained - the landlord had stained them very dark (like a brown-black) to cover the stains there. You also see painted hardwood floors too - with a nice high gloss to them, so either of those might help cover the staining.

(and btw, about the idea of going around peeing on the floor to even out the color)

[ArtsyMomma]

DP's house has hardwood that was covered for who knows how long with pink shag carpet (eww). His floors are badly stained and need refinishing.

We looked into doing it ourselves, and it wasn't too expensive. We would have rented a floor sander (about $90 for a weekend) then stained and sealed the floors ourselves. Not too expensive, but quite a bit of work and time consuming. If you went this route, and the stains didn't sand out - you could just stain the floors a dark color to cover the irregularities.

[mommy2maya]

pet urine stains won't sand out.

[MJ13]

We just refinished a bedroom floor that has had a mysterious stain since we bought it (we're thinking pets from previous owner?) DH rented a sander for a day ($40) and sanded the whole thing but the stain didn't budge. We stained the floor just a bit darker than the stain on the floor and it looks great

[doubledutch]

another option is painting them. painted wood floors look really cute.

[annethcz]

Stains usually can't be sanded out, especially if they're from urine and have soaked into the wood. That said, it really isn't that expensive to refinish floors yourself. We've done it, and although it was a PITA, it wasn't hard. We rented a sander, re-stained the floor and sealed it. Doing it yourself is MUCH cheaper than having it professionally refinished.

[Ellien C]

yeah - my house has stained floors - they don't really sand out. The previous owners had everything stained very dark to cover the stains. I decided I would prefer lighter honey floors and would live with the stains and uneveness. To be honest, between the furniture and a few area rugs, I don't find the stains all that noticeable.

[jrabbit]

our floors are 100 years old. stains don't matter. even if YOU know it's a pee stain, nobody is going to assume that. we have a burn-spot in one of our rooms, it just adds character.

someday, you might be in a financial position to have them professionally refinished, and DIY is time=consuming. in the meantime, just clean the floors, put some rugs in where you need them, and move on!!!

we had ours refinished when nobody lived here, and we will probably have to do them again, after 7 years of furniture kids, dog, cats, rabbits, rats (the bad kind), and more.

--janis