I am hoping to come up with a method of cleaning some 80 year old oak floors that have had decades of dirt (from the garden) tracked in and ground into them. I don’t want them to look like new, I just want to feel a bit more comfortable turning my 9 month old loose crawling around on them.
It would appear that the only finish ever applied to the oak was oil or wax and there is no evidence of either having been applied in the last 30 years.
I want to emphasize that I am not trying to make them look like new and am not presently interested in sanding them and applying a contemporary finish. They are going to continue to be subjected to a lot of dirt and abuse that would trash any refinish job.
Essentially I am curious if there is any technique for pulling out dirt that has been ground into the wood?
If my earlier attempt to post this succeeded, I apologize for the redundancy.
thanks, Karl
Replies
i'm also interested to see what is posted here. old floors have a different kind of classic beauty i don't want to mess with. but at the same time, i know what you mean about the young child crawlng around on them... i have a 4 yr old and never got my 80 yr old floors re-done in time for him. i hate being snobby, but it does feel good to see him on clean new wood floors...
Karl, what I have used in the past to clean old wood is a mix of TSP ( trisodium phosphate) with bleach. In 5gal about 1/2 cup TSP & 1-1/4 cup bleach. I assume this is T&G. Are there any gaps between the boards or is it still nice and tight. If there are gaps I would use a wet/dry shop vac to pull dirt & water up out if the gaps. Rinse with plain water and dry with shop vac and old towels. Finish with oil or wax as you chose. And yes this is a hands & knees with stiff brush operation ( knee pads help ) Good luck!! Bill D. on the Chesapeake.
Elbow grease, flax soap and a good stiff brush, followed up with something like a Bissel, no soap just hot water in the machine.
Used this method on an old floor in the same shape a few years ago. Flax soap is also commonly sold as "oil" soap, Murphy's is the most common brand. Scrub it several times, applying liberal amounts of the elbow grease and rinse very thoroughly. Then use the "steam" cleaner without any detergent. What's left after this process will require sanding to remove.
Rent a buffer with medium grade nylon pads and use Johnson's paste wax.
Apply the wax liberally then buff the floor thoroughly -- you'll find that a lot of the dirt will come off with the wax and the wax itself will restore the color of the timber.
Repeat as necessary. I did a lot of work in National Trust properties and used this method to restore 100+ year old flooring.
IanDG
A follow-on question: what's a good gap-filler for these old floors? I have old Douglas Fir flooring that I don't want to refinish for fear of losing the beautiful honey-colored patina. But there are some large cracks and gaps that I would like to fill.
Vince,
Be carefull here about filling "gaps" wood shrinks and swells naturally. In the humid summer it swells a lot and shrinks during the heating period.. Without those gaps the only place for wood to go is up.. another words, cupping When that happens it doesn't always come back down.. (in other words perminent damage can be done)
describe the size of the gaps and I might be able to help you.. (get down and measure how wide they are and are they evenly spaced or all in one location..
Are they over a beam or are they near a switch in the direction of the sub flooring?
The gaps are between 1/8" and 1/4", all are between adjoining boards.
This floor is 100 years old. It was originally the subfloor under linoleum but was sanded and finished when the lino was torn up probably 50 years ago. I don't think the boards are even T&G.
I live in San Francisco where the humidity varies little from season to season, so I'm not too worried about expansion.
Sorry I'm late getting back to you. I would never use water on an old floor like yours -- try the paste wax first, you'll be surprised how much crap it fetches out of the grain. Sure some will be left but it'll keep the old look.
For the gap-filling a proprietary filler like TimberMate isn't going to help because of the irregularity of the surface of the boards so I'd mix my own from beeswax and sawdust and fill the day before buffing. That filler will be compressible although it won't hold in the gaps as well as TimberMate. You'll find that the buffing tends to fill the joints anyway.
You really want to buff until most traces of wax are gone -- a full wax finish is a pain to maintain -- better to aim for a low-sheen.
IanDG
Edited 8/10/2005 2:18 am ET by IanDG
Ian, thanks for the pointers. Should I be worrying about the dirt that is ground into the grain of the wood or the cracks in between?I am ok just figuring it adds character to the wood and fills the gaps if necessary. Several people have suggested damp techniques ie. TSP and bleach or a "bissell" machine. Is water a workable option or is it better to just aggressively sweep, vacuum, swiffer it and then do the buffer with wax?I inherited two gallons of "Bruce liquid wax and cleaner". It is probably 20 years old but seems workable. Is this an acceptable alternative to paste wax?Thank you,
Karl