Restoring a parquet floor

[slefley]

Hi,

We have just moved into a lovely 300 year old double fronted Georgian house. One of the front rooms has a gorgeous herringbone parquet floor that looks as though it has been varnished using somebody's elbow! It is a horrible red colour and you can clearly see circular brush marks all over. In one or two areas this varnish has simply peeled off exposing a gorgeous pale chocolate colour wood. Not a wood expert but possibly oak or walnut?

We would really like to take all this horrid varnish off and maybe just seal to leave the natural colour. What would you recommend for both removing the varnish and for sealing. My other half wants to do it all with Nitromors as he reckons a sander would be messy and potentially damaging to the floor.

Also, all the way around the room and around the fireplace, about 20cm in is a gap about 1cm wide that has been filled with what appears to be cork or similar. Between this gap and the wall the parquet tiles are straight and not herringbone. Is this just the design? If so, what should it be filled with as there are some gaps in it around the fireplace area.

Thanks in advance,
Sarah

 

[WoodYouLike]

Sanding is your best options, after thoroughly cleaning the floor first to get rid of most dirt and old maintenance product residue (if any). The circular marks could have been caused by a wrong type of sander and will only disappear with proper sanding, using a belt sander.
After sanding (three times to get the best result, grit 40, grit 80 and grit 120) apply two coats of hardwaxoil for the most natural finish exposing the natural character of the wood best.

The design you describe is indeed old-fashion, so try to keep it in style. The 'gaps' between pattern and blockborder is an original feature and could be filled with cork strips again

 

[slefley]

Thanks for your reply. The circular marks are definitely brush marks as they are not true circles, and not all over. In some areas they are just straight. I think the person who did this did it in a hurry! So, with this in mind and the floor is in very good condition, is sander still the best option? Is it best to hire somebody to do it or is it an easy diy job with a hired sander?

Quite impressed I got the cork bit right , was this to allow for expansion then? Just out of interest, any idea how old the floor would be with this design, or is it not as simple as that to date? Looking through some of the gaps around the fireplace I can see that each parquet piece has a groove in the side towards the bottom, so imagine that makes it not that old?

 

[WoodYouLike]

I would definitely sand the whole floor, either by hiring a proper beltsander and edge-sander or hiring a professional sander (make sure he/she doesn't turn up with a drum sander!)

Yes the cork in between pattern and blockborder was the old-fashion way of creating the necessary expansion gap (- and don't ask me why, but the use of cork strips somehow ended up later for filling the expansion gaps around the floor where you normal cover the gaps with the skirtings or flat beading).

I guess your floor is at least 40 years old.

 

[slefley]

Thanks WoodYouLike! Have to say I am rather pleased to be able to go to other half armed with this info, I dread to think how many tins of Nitromors he would have got through, and how stinky and messy it would have been!

 

[WoodYouLike]

My pleasure