floorboards soaked with machine oil

[tekin]

hi.
just moving into a new office and it needs a little work. i'm planning on sanding and varnishing the floorboards (sorry, no idea what wood), but having ripped up the hardboard that was covering them, i've discovered that some are quite heavily stained with machine oil. on some boards, the oil has soaked right through. the building used to be a clothing factory, and i guess the oil is from all the machinery.

basically, i'd like to know what the best course of action is. if i sand down the surfacce of the wood and varnish it, will the varnish be ok on the oil soaked parts? i'm not too bothered by the discoloration, i can deal with black patches, i just want to make sure that sanding and varninshing will be ok on the oil soaked wood.

thanks for your help

tekin

 

[cobweb]

I doubt very much that the varnish will take over the oil-stained patches. You could do a small trial patch to see.

One option is to buy some proprietary oil remover, Halfords should have some, and try to “clean” the oil stains as best you can and then do a test patch of varnish.

The other option is to replace the stained boards. If it was a factory they are probably just pine boards – I can’t imagine they’d have used anything more expensive and exotic.

Or maybe just some large rugs scattered about the place


Just thought of another option to try...but I've no idea if it will work...

sand the satined patches down well and then paint with neat PVA to seal the stain, let it dry, and varnish over.

Good luck!

 

[robmorphet]

We have bought boards from factories before now. They are deeper than normal boards and when oil soaked found there's no chance of cleaning them. They also emit a constant smell (like the outside of a garage!), and any rugs etc left on will absorb some of the stain.

We’ve always removed them, or covered with brazil ply, as for swarfega etc, don’t fancy yours much!
Have a good weekend