The current work-based project is the refurbishment of an old large country house, Grade 2 listed, so nothing too special, however its going to be a lovely place to live for the owner (and my boss) once we complete, all being well, by April/May next year.

My plea for help to the Hive mind is in relation to the existing parquet floors, there are three areas, the main entrance hall of about 40 sq metres, a ‘Breakfast Room’ (one of two dining rooms , but this one is for breakfast) of circa 30 sq metres and a smaller lobby of circa 16 sq metres.

The main entrance hall has been extended and Ive laid some modified reclaimed tiles to this new area.  Whilst these reclaimed tiles are of a similar tropical hardwood (the originals look like a Brazilian Mahogany, but then again, most tropical hardwoods can ‘look’ like Mahogany), their patina is naturally different to the rather worn and dull original floor.

My plan is to restore the floors and thinking that sanding them back to wood, to remove all finishes, then staining them for consistent colour and then finishing them off with something like a Hard Wax (Bournes Traffic Wax coming to mind).

The internet reveals many other finishes too, Polyurethane Varnishes etc.  I would like to have an easily maintainable finish, so as foot traffic wears common routes, a straightforward recovering will bring back the lustre of my original finish.

Process, products, approaches, all suggestions are welcome, thank you folks.

DD is your man

Yep, thanks @pigface. I wasn’t too sure whether to PM him.

A few years ago I refurbished some 1930’s parquet.

The previous owners had varnished it.

I got a wooden flooring specialist in, the ones that do school halls and stuff, they sanded it all back and then used an oil to protect it. They certainly didn’t stain it.

It looked good beforehand but was stunning afterwards.

It didn’t cost that much either, although it was 20 years ago and wooden flooring was not as fashionable as it is now.

We had our living room, dining room and study restored professionally. Cost about £800 IIRC and looks fantastic. I think they guy covers west London and the m4 corridor if you want his details. We had quotes from a company with a website etc but turned out they just subbed it to this guy to do the work so we kept his direct number for future work!

Sanded everything. Taking a good few mm off (there’s a slight bowl at the edge in places where the sander doesn’t reach), then two coats of a commercial varnish (we paid for three coats of the domestic version but it was Friday and he offered the upgrade so he could finish early and beat the traffic!). 3 years on it still looks as good as ‘new’.

It does seem to harden over time, I put a couple of dents in it no long after the work was done (dropped a hoover tube, not exactly heavy) but not much since then. So if you do have it done, do it before a period when it’ll be empty.

Hi slackalice, I’ll try to help, although I’m not really a restoration dude – more a put-in-new and go from there.

im going to assume that the floors are in a condition which means they’re worth restoring rather than binning and starting again.

If the floor is a type of mahogany or to be honest, any one of loads of different South American or African hardwoods – there were loads of different types used back in the day, the names of which have been mostly forgotten by everyone – you’ll be needing some pretty good sanding kit – and by “pretty good” I’m thinking maybe not the drum sander you’d hire from your local HSS or likewise. Some of them eat sandpaper for fun.

Forget about compatibilities of finish and aim to take at least a mm of timber from the surface to get back to bare timber and then, probably a hardwax oil – I’d normally recommend Osmo or Saecos but there are plenty of good brands. Before application, I’d test it on a few blocks first to check it cures overnight. Some high oil content fooors can be a bit of a ‘mare when it comes to finishing with oils so just keep that in kind.

Having said all that, if I’m being honest, and I know you’re not a complete amateur, but it may be best to get some pros in – they’ll have all the right kit to restore parquet. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can end up with cross grain scratches that’ll kill you trying to get rid.

the boys that do this for a living will rock up, bang out the kind of area you’re looking at in under a week and give you a lovely looking floor at the end of it. Time is money in refurb and you can worry about more important stuff. As it’s floors, those rooms will be out of action while you’re working on them so paying the lads to do it will probably save money in the long run.

Good luck and any more questions, just fire away.

@thisisnotaspoon, I would appreciate the details.  To alan (dot) dow (at) ntlworld (dot) com.  We have a hallway which really needs doing.  Thanks

To @gobuchul, @tinas and @ DD, many thanks indeed for your wise words.

Up till now, I have been planning on doing this myself and closing the house down for the last two weeks before Xmess, so I could sand and refinish.

The floors are definitely worth restoring, plenty of thickness left, no loose tiles, just look dull and tired and with the ‘new’ area in the entrance hall, Im concerned they’ll finish with a slightly different patina to the original.  I have spare tiles of reclaimed and old, so maybe try out for colour matching with them too.

Three strikes saying the same thing, I’ll now look into getting some quotes from those that do this thing all the time.

@DD, cheers chap and yep, whilst not a complete amateur 😉 , the scale and scope of the areas needed to be done with little experience is somewhat daunting.  Thanks for the heads up on finishes and I’ll look them up.

No worries. Any time dude. Like I said, any more questions, feel free to pm/email.

I did it myself once. I hired a sanding machine designed for this work. Huge, heavy and very noisy, but works a treat. Just don’t ever, ever, ever let it stand in one place while it’s on. (Ask me how I  know…)

It looked just like this:

Edges you’ll have to do by hand or with a regular sander.

Then dust it, dust it and dust it again, before putting down a few coats of the toughest varnish you can find.

It’s not that hard to get a reasonable result. I only had to do one room however. As with most things like this though, hiring a specialist will give you results twice as good in half the time.

If you’ve got the money then I’d strongly recommend paying someone else to do it. Yes you can diy but it’s one hell of a job to get a decent finish on a large floor area, you’ll get dust in places you didn’t think possible, it’s noisy sweaty work and the piggin sander belts have a nasty habit of letting go at awkward times.

A different approach – lift the flooring, turn over, re-lay and finish. Should give a great result unless the tiles have previously been turned.

Not parquet granted but i did the floorboards in my last house. Circa 50sqM of Victorian floorboards sanded & varnished with a HSS’s floorsander machine.

I tend to do most DIY myself and reasonably handy. However I will never do that job again myself. Dust in every body cavity, on every ledge, windowsill, light fitting you name it. You need a very good breathing mask and it is back breaking work. Seriously noisy too.

Get the pro’s in, no question .

The problem with doing this is that to get a good finish you need a number of Sanders ( Laglers are the best) which you can’t hire – coarse and fine types plus grades of sandpaper – you really don’t want to bugger up the floor with a bad sander. Bona mega seems to be the recommended polyurethane coating from what I’ve seen.

Hey, thank you for the continued input, especially when earlier today I suggested to the powers that be we get the pro’s in… that’ll be a no and I’ll be doing it! Such joy to come by the sounds of it 🙂

@frankconway, nice idea, however on this occasion the tiles have been bedded on bitumen and furthermore they’re TGV (tongue & grooved) on all <span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>four edges.</span>

Barring equipment failures from scabby hire machines, thanks for the tip @benjamins11, I’m reasonably prepared for the work to come, having done a reasonable amount of sanding and fairing in the wooden boat world, except this ain’t no boat!

Please keep handy hints n tips, finishing product suggestions coming, much appreciated.

Perhaps some pics of before during and after on here might be of interest?! Well, perhaps the ‘after’ ones if the end result is up to snuff! 😉

My only comment, listen carefully to Kieran, have that conversation with the boss again, and get the pros in.  Btw kieran, the floor is still awesome, although 1 yo and 3 to dropping plastic toys have put a few dents and scratches in it .. And M got nail polish on it tonight..  I’m much less precious about marks now….patina… It’s patina.

The hard finishes (varnish/urethane) are hard to apply well but look great when it is done well. Will last a longish time but when they develop problem areas cannot be patched and still look good.  They don’t blend well, so the lap marks and edges show.

Oils are easier to apply well and look great.  Don’t last as long although repair is a doddle.  Most of the time quick wipe, apply more done.

Wax.  Looks good, really easy to apply, requires the most maintenance but is really easy.

Pick which is the most important feature.