Removing Glue From Hardwood

Q: The previous owner of my house put some linoleum over a hardwood floor. I have ripped up a big part of it and now have some glue residue left in spots. Could someone tell me a good way to get the glue off or does it just need to be sanded. I cannot afford to have the floor refinished like it needs to be right now and thought maybe if there was a way to make it look a little better for a few months until I get it done I would.

A: Without knowing what type of adhesive was used, you will have to have some trial and error. Use a fiberglass pot scrubber, gently, in circular movements over the adhesive - first try acetone (nail polish remover), if that doesn't work, try alcohol (rubbing alcohol from the pharmacy will work fine), then comes varsol and if none of the above work, anything else will probably damage the wood. After using any of the above chemicals wash that area of the floor with some warm water and dishwasher detergent. Try not to breath in the fumes as you are leaning over the spot and scrubbing, they will give you a good headache. Best if you can pick a day when you can open the windows.

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Hardwood Flooring Finish

Q: We installed pre-stained oak in our house- we did mix up the boxes but some of the pieces are more matte and others are more shiny- which makes the floor look awkward- is there a floor polish that would even things out when we go on the market, yet not hurt the finish?

A: The finish should have been the same, sometimes there are variations in the color primarily because wood being a natural material, will stain differently depending on which tree it is from and from what area of the tree. They make both a satin and gloss finish. If it is a name brand flooring, such as Bruce, I would contact them.

That being said, if you buff the floor with a fine grain sand paper, you should be able to coat it with a high gloss polyurethane floor finish, which will make the entire finish the same. I wouldn't apply a wax or other polish to a finished hardwood floor.

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Parque Floor Disaster!

Q: We bought this house last year and it has nice clean carpet when we moved in. To make a long story short we got screwed. Turns out after the stains started coming up a few months later that whoever lived here before us just let their animals pee and poop wherever they wanted. We have children and have allergies so we are in a bind. We have been pulling up the carpets as we can. The two kids rooms we put down plywood flooring and stained it and used polyurethane on it. It looks good for the kid’s rooms but can't do that in the rest of the house as it scratches easily, etc. We went through the options since we have to do this ourselves and on not much extra money and came up with the parquet as the cheapest, easiest way to replace the carpet we have pulled up. Then my husband did the entryway with the parquet. It looked beautiful for a week or two but now the part along the wall is buckling and we can't figure out where we went wrong. We still have a living room, den and bedroom to do so we really want to know what we did wrong so we don't do it again in the other rooms. Can anyone give me any advice? What my husband did is put adhesive down first and then the parquet.

A: One of the most common errors with hardwood (which is what parquet is) is not to let it acclimatize to the room its being placed in. This requires 48 to 72 hours. The boxes need to be opened so that the air in the room can get around the wood. Most warehouses are very dry, the wood will suck moisture from the air in your home and expand and when it expands, if it has nowhere to go it buckles. Another error is to place the parquet tight against the wall, there should be 3/8” to ½” gap between the edge of the parquet and the wall (for expansion).

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Re-finishing An Old Hardwood Floor

Q: I am a little confused about some aspects of floor finishing. I have heard the expression 'raise the grain' and I assumed that meant water swelling the wood fibers. I haven't had a problem with that so far but I'm not really sure if the problem would be now or later, or what it would be, and hope you will explain. A couple years ago I did an upstairs bedroom floor in this same house....another ancient and funky old floor. I used a water-based paint remover first (Back To Nature Multi-Strip) and had to use a lot of water to scrub off the residue, I mean a bucket of water and a scrub brush and pile of rags, just like if I was washing a kitchen floor. After that, I sanded and would use a wet sponge mop to remove the sawdust in order to see what my results were and if I needed to sand some more. I always let the wood get really dry before re-sanding. When done with all the sanding and wiping and re-sanding and the floor was bone dry, I used tack cloth to remove every last bit of dust. Then used a walnut stain, then urethane. That was two years ago and I haven't had any problem with that floor yet. What is the story about water swelling the wood fibers? I used a lot of water in doing that floor and I'm sure some of the wood fibers must have swollen at some point. So will that come back to haunt me in the future? So far all is smooth and shiny.

A: Raising the grain with soft woods is very common in furniture making. The problem with water on wood is multifold:

1. It swells the wood, which can lead to buckling and twisting - especially if the wood has been laid very tight board against board.

2. In furniture, the wood is generally open to air on one side -if you look at a dresser, the outside surface is finished with a sealer but the inside surface is not sealed, this allows any moisture to find an easy exit for evaporation.

3. With flooring in newer homes, it is more than likely that the underside of the boards are laid on sheathing such as plywood or worse, particle board, which swells the instant it gets wet and does not shrink back when dry. In your case an older home, the boards are most likely the floors themselves and hence they are not "sealed" on the bottom allowing air to take care of any moisture problems that might develop. As well, when there is no airflow around the floorboards and they are damp, they will begin to rot. Water spilt on a carpet that has wood underneath, will feel dry to the touch after a period of time, but the water has penetrated the floor boards.

4. If you used water and the boards are 100% dry, then you shouldn't have a problem. Most people don't wait for the boards to dry out completely. The surface water may have evaporated, but that does not mean that all the moisture that penetrated the wood has dissipated. If you seal a board that is wet inside, and there is nowhere for the water to escape, the board will begin to rot.

5. Wood can only absorb so much water, if they are wet when you apply a water based stain it does not penetrate the boards to the depth it should.

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Finishing Hardwood Flooring

Q: I have a question about finishing wood. I have sanded down the wood in preparation for putting on a shiny topcoat of varathane or polyurethane. When I finish sanding I wipe off the sawdust with a wet cloth. When the floor is wet it looks much darker than it does when it's dry. Does the coloring of the floor when it is wet pretty much give you an indication of what the coloring will be when clear polyurethane or varathane goes on?

A: The floor should be wiped with a tack cloth not a damp cloth. Water swells the wood fibers. It must be 100% dry before you stain, not 99.9% but 100%. The wet darker appearance is Not a good indication of what you will get. A clear high quality urethane will not change the color of the floor.

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Hardwood Floor Project

Q. I'm researching phase of a hardwood floor project. Some background, this is my first time laying hardwood flooring and I have access to tons or scrap pieces of random lengths from 6 inches to 32 inches of solid kiln dried .75 inch hardwood (cherry, oak, and hickory) the width is between 2.25 and 4 inches.

My plan is to purchase a router, table and tongue and groove bits and manufacturer my own product.

Here are some questions:

What is the min length of material I should use for a floor?
Is there a min and max width I should use?
What are some of the pitfalls of going this route?

For the cost of surfacing one room with a cheap laminate I can do basically my whole house so I'm pretty set on doing this, unless there is some big red flag out there.

Thanks for your time and input.

A. I think it is a great concept. Considering the varieties of woods you have available you might want to consider some different patterns:

Tips:

Make sure the lumber is in the room that you plan on flooring, to allow it to acclimatize at least 72 hours.

Unless you are using a diagonal pattern, and some of the patterns above will utilize a lot of smaller pieces, in a straight layout, an 18" piece is really the smallest you want to work with. You don't want joints in parallel rows to be within 6" and joints should not line up for 4 rows minimum.

You will need to mill one side smooth (bottom) in order to use a router table.

If these are unfinished, and you are going to sand flat, make sure that the tongue and groove are cut from the same side and when laid, otherwise your floor will not sit tight to the sub-floor. Try to do all your routing of tongues, then do grooves. Duplicating the set-up exactly will be tricky.

You will also have to decide whether you will tongue and groove the ends.

There is no real difference in widths and you can mix and match in rows. I wouldn't use less than a 2 3/4" width.

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Sanding Hardwood Floors

Q: I want to get someone to refinish my hardwood floors about 400 sq. ft. How much should I be charged I don't want to get ripped off. And what kind of sander do I need to rent? I really just want the trade to do the sanding part not really the staining and everything.

A: It depends somewhat on where you are located. But you should budget $1.50 to $2 a sq. ft. for sanding, they will supply the sanders and sandpaper. That should also include doing the hand work in corners, but will not include stairs. The big box home improvement centers offer this service.

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Can't Afford To Refinish My Hardwood Floors

Q: I too need to have my floors refinished but it isn't in the budget. Could I just clean the floors really well and then put a polyurethane on them to hold me over until "someday" comes when it might be in the budget?

A: Their are two problems with adding a coat of urethane over your hardwood floors. The first is that you will seal in any dirt, grime and other marks. The second is that if there is any wax or varnish on the floor the urethane will not adhere to it.

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Removing Staples From Hardwood Floors

Q: I took the carpet out of my home a few years ago and I have hardwood floors underneath. They had stapled the pad down. I pulled up a lot of staples that I could get a hold of with the needle nosed pliers, but there are still a lot of staples still in the floor. Is there a secret to removing them with out gouging the floor too badly?

A: You can remove the nails by using a very thin straight screw driver or 7" mini pry-bar and "carefully" push the edge of the tip under one end of the staple, twist and the staple should lift. Try using lineman's pliers they
have a wide set of jaws and by placing the head of the jaws straight up on the floor, one jaw on each side of the staple. Needle nose pliers don't provide the necessary grip.

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Gaps In Hardwood Floors

Q: I'm trying to fill the gaps in my wood floor with wood filler. My plan is to stain and then coat with poly but the filler seems to be flaking and chipping (there's some movement in the boards when we walk on the boards nearby). Will this stop when I poly it? Also, how many coats of stain does it take to turn this yellow stuff (wood filler) brown?

A: The floor must be solid, wood fill will not strengthen the boards! It is chipping and splitting because the adjacent boards are moving - there is no flex in wood fill. The stain will not make the yellow fill look like the wood - ever!! Wood and fill take stain completely differently.

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Waxing Hardwood Floors

If you have a hardwood floor that has been finished with a polyurethane coating, or are installing a pre-finished hardwood floor, there is no need to apply wax to the surface.

Applying wax is probably one of the worst things you can do. First of all, wax holds onto dirt, which is an abrasive, by trapping it in its surface layer. When you walk over a wax floor, the trapped dirt particles rub against the surface of the wood, which in turn scratches the finish. Secondarily, wax yellows, especially when it is in direct sunlight.

Polyurethane’s provide the ultimate protection for hardwood flooring. The better pre-finished hardwoods may have as many as seven layers of polyurethane coating applied over the stain or natural wood as the case may be.

For additional information on cleaning and maintaining hardwood floors, follow the link.

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