Stains On Old Floor Boards

Q: I have a 117 year old house and am working on finishing the old wood floor in the living room. I say finishing rather than refinishing, because the floor has never been finished in the sense of sanded, stained and urethane. I'm not sure what kind of wood but probably not oak or anything high-end. Just old wooden boards. The 'archaeological dig' shows evidence that in olden days it had an area carpet in the middle, with varnish and then later on paint, around the edges. I've removed the modern wall-to-wall carpet, taken out all the old staples and nails, and used a drum sander. The old paint has been removed. The old red varnish was tough to get rid of but is pretty much gone. The outer four foot rim of the room looks reasonably good. The problem is that in the center of the room where there was once only area carpet, there are some black stains that are proving very difficult to deal with. Sanding and more sanding seem to have little effect on them. My husband thinks that the stains must go all the way through the boards; he says someone must have worked on their engine in there! I've tried bleaching them off, but that just lightened the unstained wood around them without lightening the stain. Does anyone have any advice how to deal with this? Is there some special product that is made specifically for removing stains from wood?

A: Sounds like animal urine damage that soaked through the rug/carpet and then into the floorboards. Sorry, but to my knowledge there is nothing that can be done, besides replacing those boards.

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Stained Bathtub

Q. I have a really old tub that is stained and want to find out how to clean it.

I have scrubbed with chemicals and abrasives and bleached. I’ve even soaked in straight bleach.

Is there anything I can try? It’s a plastic type tub, not ceramic.

A. Plastic tubs have a very thin nonporous surface that in theory is stain proof (the same applies to porcelain). Once you apply abrasives and scouring pads you remove the protective layer and the stains permeate the plastic. Once that happens there is not much you can do to remove the stain - it would be like trying to remove stain from wood, you can't, all you can do is sand away the layer that is stained.

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Removing Wood Stain

Q: About eight years ago I put a white stain on my cedar fence. I'd like to take it back to natural but suspect that I will never get the earlier white stain out. When I was power washing my deck I did a bit of washing of the fence but the stain remained. Is there a way to get rid of the earlier stain?

A: Stain does not sit on top of the wood like paint does. Stain penetrates the grain, depending on how dry the wood was it can penetrate to a 1/8" easily.

So the answer to your question is; "How much sandpaper do you have?"

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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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