My in laws gave me enough oak wood flooring to cover my kitchen. However, it is too dark. It is prestained and also has a sealer on it. I am trying to avoid laying it and then sanding/restaining/resealing. I have been given two suggestions that I don’t know if I should trust:
1 – Plane the backside of the wood and lay the woodfloor upside down then stain and seal (this avoids the sanding)
2 – Plane the top of the wood off so that the sealer and stained portion is removed and then stain/seal.
Both sound better then sanding and then staining. However, I don’t know if this would work and what the floor would look like. Also, I am worried about putting that much wood through the planner with the sealer on it. I don’t know if that would cause havoc to the planer.
Thanks
Tom
Replies
Tom
You could send all that wood through the planner but be prepared! I think you will have some gummed up cutters. Nothing that's irreversible though.
Does the flooring have relief cut on the bottom side. If so your going to have to plane quite a bit off to get rid of that.
I'd probably opt for planing the top side.
Doug
Hey, I'd be careful about offending my mother in law. How about buying a throw rug to throw on top of the too dark floor
I love my mother in law, we always have room in closet for her broom when she comes to visit. But then again....... you know she doesn't underware so she can grip her broom better
Sell it on ebay and buy what you really want.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
Tom,
1- not do-able , the T&G are relieved slightly to allow for seasonal expansion, you'd have a gap between boards.
2- workable, but you better have a second set of planer knives sharpened and ready to go, if this is prefinished flooring, as I think you indicated, is it full thichness (3/4") solid oak or is it laminate?(like plywood, but still 3/4" thick) just checking, If it's 3/4" prefinished, solid oak, the boards have a micro-bevel, planing will eliminate that feature, but that's O.K. , 'cause sanding would do the same. How much square footage are we talking about? I would plan on losing about 5% to tearout, snipe and just plain oops's, maybe more.
Geoff
Planeing to lay upside down will definitely NOT work.
Flooring T&G patterns are made such that the top surface mates tightly together and the bottom is beveled back with a slight gap. If they were equal, there would be a lot of gaps in the surface when laid together. Turning it upside down would mean that the whole floor would have gaps.
Also, most flooring is milled such that the top third is slightly thicker and the bottom third slightly thinner, to allow for a sanding. You would end up with fewer re-finishings available to you i.e. a short life for theflooring.
Sanding is the way to go with this. If you planed it, you would still needd to sand after it is laid to get it finished right anyway, and you would have gummed up your planner bldesm, maybe even dulled them a couple of times, depending what kind of finish is on it.
I don't know if this is white opak or red oak, but you could still end up with some residfue of stain remaining in the pores of red oak after sanding deeeply.
If this were mine, I would look for another room to lay it in or try to trade it to somebody even if it meant 50cent on the dollar value.
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Another thought is that if you already have a finished kitchen, adding 3/4" elevation with cabinets in already will creat a problem at the range and the dishwasher
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Don't do number one. Those releif cuts are there for a reason. If you remove them, your boards will cup and the floor will look horrible. Your best bet is to lay it and re-finish it on the floor in my opinion. Besides, If you lay it, you may find you like it the way it is. Or you could abuse it for a few months before you re-finish it.
Thanks for the information. I never knew about those relief cuts. I will definitely not be doing that. I think I am going to avoid planing the top of the wood. I don't want to gum up my new planer (a big concern once I started thinking about it). I think I was looking for a magic bullet to take care of this floor. I am afraid there is no getting around the sanding that needs to be done. Thanks again for the help.Tom