Question: I found out that the flooring is a mix of select and common #1 (sort of odd). The trouble is, how do I know if the Eterna floor has a wide distribution of defects that happen to be exposed frequently b/c there are so many staples, or if it’s the occasionally bad staple that caused the problems in the floor? Doug Answer: Dear Doug Prefinished floors, like I said, are a mis-mash of grades and even species. You’d be surprised what we find when we resand these floors. Take a look at the pics below of an old (but expensive) Bruce prefinished floor. Only when you start to remove the floor will you be able to tell if the wood is defective. Do it row by row until you come across the little floor spears. Then, first lift the tongue side of the board up just a little, and the put two wood shims under that area. Cut the staple off at the subfloor level with a Saws-all with a metal cutting blade. This is so you don’t disturb what has occurred in the wood itself. Keep those pieces and have a wood flooring expert look at them. Or mail them to me. It should be fairly easy to determine if the staple started the crack, or the wood itself is a fault. Some wood flooring is kiln dried too fast and can suffer from what they call honeycomb checks. These internal cracks start inside the plank and some end up at the surface. Often they fill and try to disguise this at the factory, and again at the job site. When really, the board needs to be set aside. Oh, I’m just about to go fishing up North until July 14, so I won’t be able to respond again until after then. Fight the good fight. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: I have several questions. I am refinishing my floors myself and am now having to re-do them because of some problems that have come up. First of all I live in an apartment that was built in 1927 so needless to say the floors are old and a little creeky. I don’t know when the last time was that they were refinished but it was more that 10 years ago. The old finish was over bare unstained wood, a matte finish, was very ambered, hard as steel (almost impossible to scratch and impossible to scrape off) and was very hard to get off. Since I am unable to move out while doing this I am doing the floor in sections. After sanding and staining the floor (to get a deeper color the stain I stained it a few times) I finished it with Minwax oil base polyurethane (it said great on floors). After a few weeks I notice that in various spots where the planks of wood butt up against each other that the finish was lifting off the wood about 1/16th of an inch at the seams. In the spots were this is happening is where the seams of the floor bend slightly as you step on them, it is not happening anywhere else nor is it happening in the center of a plank. The Minwax was not very strong because in these areas it will chip and scrape off very easily. That never happen with the old finish that was on there, how do I keep that from happening? I then switched to using Harco moisture cure urethane to get a stronger finish. I tried using the semi-gloss without and with a retarder and no matter how much I stir it I always end up with an uneven sheen mostly at the lap marks (the lap marks being glossier). I am giving up using this stuff but I am very curious how to achieve an even sheen. Finally, since I now have to re-do the whole apartment I would like to know which brand of oil based polyurethane you recommend using that will give me the strongest finish in semi gloss and what type of finish you think may have been on my floors before. Thank you, Alex Answer: Dear Alex Your first mistake may have been that multiple stainings. Stain contains a binder agent (like glue) that may not have dried properly with this multiple application. You would have had to wait 24 hours or more between stain applications. I use a better stain brand like the Dura Seal stains when I want a really dark color. Their coffee brown is very dark and rich, and one application always does it. You also may not have waited for each coat of poly to dry, and you may not have scuff sanded thoroughly between coats. I never use the Minwax brand, and prefer the Fabulon brand heavy duty poly instead. The dry times listed on ALL these finishes are WAY too optimistic, and I always let stains dry at least 24 hours, and wipe my hand on them to check for transfer. I also smell the stain, to see if it has lost all solvents. I BRUSH on the first coat over the Dura Seal stain carefully, and let it dry 24-48 hours. The test for finish dryness, is to screen or scuff sand and check your screen for any gummy transfer. Also smell the floor, any solvent smell and wait another day. I would never recommend a moisture cured poly for residential use. The toxins in that finish are most awful. You are severely poisoning yourself every time you use it. It’s for industrial use only. And they will never perfect the satin flatteners in this type of finish. We only use gloss, with MC poly. The Fabulon Brand has a very reliable satin or semi gloss finish poly that I use all the time, with great results. But I brush the finish on, I never use lamb’s wool applicators. No bubbles and a even sheen is my result. And happy and paying customers also. So my advice for peeling finish, is to have the floor professionally sanded again and start all over with the finishes and methods I suggest. You will get a more consistent result by sanding all the floors in the house, staining all at once and finishing all at once. Store your furniture and bite the bullet, and hire a pro at least for the sanding, but you certainly can do the staining and finishing of the floor yourself. Oh, and don’t expect any oil modified poly to cure until a month has gone by. And, very old finishes are harder due to the fact that they continue to cross link throughout their life, until they finally become brittle and crack. This takes about 40 years, so don’t worry about it. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Hello, I have a 3 part question. My husband and I are renovating an 1865 Victorian/farmhouse in the Adirondack Mountains. After replacing the subfloor in 3 rooms we flipped over the tongue and groove 5 inch (pine?) floor boards and reinstalled them. The floor look great, we feel we have saved the integrity of the house along with LOTS of money. We now have to have them sanded and possibly stained and poly. Q1. There are some old nail holes on the planks that we do not intend to plug. Will this jeopardize the final finish greatly? Q2. In your opinion, do you feel pine flooring should be stained or left natural with a protective coating on it? Q3. I am considering stenciling a boarder around room. If I plan on using a stain should I stencil before or after the stain? Thank you in advance for your help. Websites like this one make it possible for do-it-your-selfers to try and make informed decisions. Sharalee Answer: Dear Sharalee Be sure to read my short article on plank floors available in the search box at the top of this web page. You may want to add some screws and pegs, as I suggest in this section. It will prevent warping and separation of the boards. As an alternative to this you can use steel cut nails at http://www.tremontnail.com If they are an Eastern white pine (like I have in one room) be sure to finish it with at last 4 coats of an oil modified polyurethane. The old holes will be fine, just allow enough time for each coat to dry. You can only tell if a coating is dry, when you scuff sand it, and the sandpaper or screen doesn’t clog up. If it clogs wait another 2 days, and be patient. I believe the pine should be just clear finished, as this wood doesn’t have a good appearance when stained. But if stain you must, use a gel stain for sure, it will prevent blotching. Apply at least two coats of finish on the floor before you stencil it. You will have to make sure all the stain, finish and paint are compatible with each other. So here’s the order of things that will work best: Sand the floor to 100 grit sandpaper, remove edger marks, and screen entire floor. If you must stain try using the Old Masters gel stain from http://www.leevalley.com prod. #56Z28.55. Then BRUSH on two coats of OMP (Fabulon Brand Pro Poly 800-263-8108). Don’t use a lamb’s wool applicator. Then use Flecto colors in plastic for the stenciling at http://www.flecto.com/products/var_w_cip.html. Finish the job with 2 more coats of the OMP. Be sure you scuff between the coats of finish and paint, don’t scuff the stain. You should certainly hire a professional floor sander to sand the floor. Be sure to read my article available in the search box at the top of this web page on this very subject. But with time and patience you should be able to do all the finishing yourself. I wouldn’t trust nice stenciling to most of the floormen I see out there. You will find that there is a lot of hand sanding and brush work involved for a good job. Most pros want to put their buffing machines on the floor, and this can whisk away parts of the stains and stencils, I know I’ve seen the results.

Question: I have in my possession a LARGE amount of used teak parquet flooring that I am planning on installing and refinishing myself. Problem #1 – on closer inspection after purchasing this flooring I discovered that most of it was in single strips and not parquet tiles and putting it back together was like putting a 2 sided jigsaw puzzle together, so I’ve decided to go with a herringbone pattern. Question #1 – How do you lay out your markings to keep the pattern straight? Question #2-How do you strip this pattern? Thank you Steven Answer: Dear Steven While it may be OK to convert the mosaic pattern to a herringbone pattern, you will have to have really well milled pieces to make this work. The mosaic pattern is very forgivable when installed in the pyramid fashion that most parquet is installed with, but the herringbone is another matter altogether. Now that all said here is the basic instructions on how to start a herringbone floor. Find the center point of the room, exactly. Lay two chalk lines at right angle to this center to both walls. Test this with the 3′-4′-5′ triangle (remember the Pythagorean theory). You now have a large cross in the room, with it’s intersection exactly in the center. Now snap another exactly 45 degree line through this center. Next snap another chalk line exactly half the width of the herringbone board below this diagonal line. Dry lay the boards (without adhesive) to get a good idea of how it’s done. The first board is laid right on the line below the center diagonal and it’s end (and middle) just touching the center spot. The second one is laid and right angles and on top of this, and so on for three row up. Now lay the boards to the left along the line. You ninth board should be along this same starting line. Go up the diagonal line until you have dry laid about 20 boards. Then make a rough pencil line around these boards, remove them. And now spread the glue. You should be able to see the chalk line through the glue, once it has tacked off (follow Dri-Tac’s excellent instructions). Relay the pieces in the same order. Allow the glue to set up on these 20 pieces for about an hour, then roll, then and wait anther hour until they cannot be moved out of place by hand. Now you can apply more adhesive in any direction you wish and continue, but try to fill most of the one quadrant of the room at a time. And be sure you don’t spread too much glue so that it dries and won’t accept the wood. Sorry but if you find this rather daunting, you will find it more so if this wood is not perfectly milled. As the floor grows, your lines need to stay straight and true. So my best advice is to stick with the original mosaic pattern, and be sure to use the Dri-Tac glue at www.dritac.com. Other glues will fail with this oily wood. As to sanding, have a pro sand this floor. And as to finishing, you will need to wash the wood with naphtha first to remove some oils, then apply 3 coats poly.

Question: What type of scraper/tools are used when hand scraping? I am having a hard time achieving the proper look. The sample I’m trying to duplicate has a very smooth flowing look to it. The end result of my work looks very rough.It doesnt have that running water look. Any advice or direction on where I could get some help would be appreciated. Answer: Dear Rich You can either use the normal paint scrapers with the replaceable blades. They are easy to sharpen with a 10″ mill bastard file. I personally use the w-14 model made by Richard at www.richardtools.com. If you sharpen these with a slight rounding of the corners you can get a very smooth scrape. It will still need a hand sanding, screening or vibrator machine sanding after. But if you want to learn how to sharpen a cabinet scraper, you should be able to achieve a smooth surface right away, no sanding. I’ve just bought one made by Lee Valley tools especially made for doing floors. It’s patterned after a version made almost 90 years ago. You can see it and order it at www.leevalley.com. It’s prod. #05K21.01. But you have to order also a file, a file holder, and burnishing tool. And possibly an extra blade. I spent about $100 CDN on all this, but you will also have to learn to sharpen such a tool. Either read the chapter on this matter in the book Understanding Wood Finishing, which can be found in the search box at the top of this web page. Or go to Lee Valley Tools again and check out his books and videos on sharpening. It’s going to take me a while to sharpen these scrapers perfectly, but the results so far have been really encouraging.

Question: I purchased your article on installing hardwood floor on concrete and it really did not answer my question. I want to install a 3′ by 5′ area of solid plank wood floor that will be surrounded by carpeting. This is in a 1 year old home that I have performed a moisture test on for the past 6 months. Since this is such a small area I was hoping to get away with a glue down install to closer match the carpet. The insert that I am installing is a computer generated design that will have only a couple 3′ lengths to it. Should I seal the concrete? I have read about gluing down a plastic sheet? Should I glue a wood border or should I secure a border with screws? It will have nail in carpet tack strips around the insert. Any ideas? Thanks, Brad Answer: Dear Brad Thanks for purchasing the article, but it really did address your situation, in a way. In the third to last paragraph, I talked about gluing down solid wood floor. And the very worst choice for installing wood plank floor (I assume you are using the term plank floor meaning the boards are 4″ and wider) would be to glue it directly to the concrete. But if you must do something unorthodox go ahead. The good thing is that there are only a few boards that are 3 feet long. But do all the boards and designs have a flat bottom ? That would be essential for the glue to get a good grab. And boards that are quarter sawn will have a better chance to resist warping with this poor installation method. If you must glue the floor down I would recommend the DriTac 7500 urethane adhesive. This glue is waterproof in itself, so no sealers are needed. In fact a concrete sealer or plastic will interfere with the glue. You could use Tapcon concrete screws for some of the long planks or boards that just will not stay in place before the glue dries. Dry lay the whole pattern and see how well it hold together. If you find you need to screw a few of the ends down, you could counterbore and screw and cover the screw holes with a wood plug. This assumes that this is an unfinished floor, and that cutting the plugs flush and sanding and finishing the are will be part of the job. But some of the wide boards may still swell and shrink seasonally and even break off this glue layer. So keep this area well coated with oil modified polyurethane, and the house within a narrow humidity range. But to be frank, Brad, I would not do such an installation. If all you want to do is “get away with it” go ahead. I cannot advocate unorthodox methods in my articles, nor address all the possible variations to these installations. But I do appreciate the feedback, and we will in the future provide an easier to reach email address for you wonderful folk who purchased my articles. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: I have a new home with oak hardwood floors. The floor was put down in August and started to separate in December. We can hear nails pop. In some locations, the space is wider than a credit card. Is this normal or was the installation defective. Answer: Dear Martin Summer time installation in hot humid weather can certainly swell the wood a bit. Then when you heat your house to desert dryness in the winter the wood will shrink. That’s the nature of the beast. But you can do lot’s of things to minimize this problem. Humidify the house to at least 40% relative humidity during the heating season. And air condition during the summer. You will need to measure this with a hygrometer, else you will not know. Buy a wet-dry bulb type from http://www.e-sci.com prod# 848N635. Try from now on to keep your indoor humidity to between 40-60% ALL year round. Museums keep their indoor relative humidity to 50% plus or minus only 5%. And they have NO seasonal movement with in their wood furniture displays. This is especially important for prefinished floor, with their open seams they have much more susceptibility to humidity swings. If the boards are wider that 4″ this may be a continuing problem. And lastly if the floor was laid on a thin OSB sublfoor, you will always be hearing nails pop. Some thing are normal, like the seasonal movement. And some things like using staples instead of nails, using OSB instead of plywood as subfloor and a general sparsely nailed floor are now the industry standard. And these will also contribute to your dilemma. So, if you want, describe your wood species, how it is finished, what the subfloor is and thickness, and what the hardwood floor fasteners were. Is there an unheated and damp crawl space under this floor. Was the hardwood floor acclimatized for at least a week in the air conditioned finished house (all drywall and painting done). If you can answer all this I can tell you if the installation was defective. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

HELP! I have an Antique Heartwood Pine Floor. It has recently been sanded 3 times, let me explain. ………………. This was an insurance job and they are as frustrated as I am. Wondering if you do consulting to help solve this problem. just want my floor back. Thank you, Bonnie Dear Bonnie I’m sorry to hear of your troubles with incompetent floor mechanics. The first thing I have to say, is that the 3 re-sandings of that floor have now removed almost half the life of the wood. On a 3/4″ T&G brand new floor there is only 5/16″ of wearable (sandable) wood on the top of the groove. And pine being quite soft tends to get sanded quite deeply each time. So the first thing is to check the ends or side of the pine floor boards and see just how much wood is left. Hopefully at least 3/16″. Otherwise you should not have the floor sanded again, but chemically stripped, and finished properly. And you might consider having these floor guys compensate you for removing 1/2 the value of this floor. Sorry to be such a rabble rouser, but I speak the truth. Oh, and I do have a most excellent article on just how to chemically strip a wood floor, without removing any more wood. I don’t know if you want to go this route but you will find this long and detailed treatise on the Home Page. But now lets get to how exactly to finish a pine floor, if you really want a waxed finish that you can maintain yourself. It’s not a bad idea to do this seeing how pine is a very dent and scratch prone wood, and waxing it yourself once a year is fairly easy to do. But paste wax (and that is what I’ll be discussing here) is not really a wood finish, but merely a top dressing for an already film finished floor. That is because wax by itself will not keep the floor from getting water damaged (from the least little spill) and as you can see, unless the floor is well finished (some say “well sealed”), wax cannot be buffed to the nice satin sheen it is known for. So what would be a good base for pine. Pine is not only a very soft wood (even SYP) but fairly porous and needs multiple coats of some sort of film finish. Although in my opinion 4 coats of satin polyurethane makes the very best finish for a pine floor, there are many alternatives. The most natural (but least water resistant) film finish is shellac. For you purposes at least 5-6 coats of shellac can be brushed or rolled on to a well sanded pine floor. It dries very fast so 2-3 coats can be applied in one day, and is ready ot walk on in 2-3 hours. Shellac is made from the excretions of the Lac bug in India and is picked by hand. It is simply dissolved in alcohol and there is your most natural, least toxic film finish. It’s been adorning furniture for 300-400 years in Europe. Let the shellac cure for about a week or two, then give a final buffing and apply a LIQUID FLOOR paste wax, as described in the second half of my cleaning article, found in the Quick Links in this web site. But the point here is to find a floor mechanic that has some experience in using this very fast drying and flammable finish. It’s tricky to use, but dries reliably and seals pine well on the knots. The floor has to very finely sanded, and then the shellac is mixed from it button or flake form. Apply smooth even coats, and screen and clean the floor between coats. If you choose a orange shellac for the first two coats it will give the floor a decided amber color, so no stain would be needed And that’s the trouble with pine, if you do want it darker, staining pine floor is beyond the capabilities of most wood floor mechanics. I just completed today a set of pine stair treads that I GEL stained and will be finishing with 4 coats of a satin poly. It’s a tricky job, but the point is only gel type stains will prevent the pine from becoming blotchy. But gel stains HAVE to be coated with poly, not shellac. The so called “sealers” that these guys used are sealers in name only, and did not give the wood enough film to provide a surface for the wax to build any sheen. The first guys using “fast dry” stain (it has very little binders in it, no film build here), was the most poor choice for pine. Then, the second job with poly was just sloppy, and if done correctly should have come out beautifully. It’s roughness would have been corrected by a thorough screening and 2 more coats applied, they way I describe in my “Applying Polyurethane Without the Bubbles”. An absolute must read before using this great finish. Oh, and poly once cured for 30 days can be waxed if you wish, no problem. And the last job with the Dura Seal natural finish ( just a really expensive diluted oil/varnish) might have been OK, but these finishes have to have about 4-5 coats applied and 2 days cure between each coat application, and 30 days of curing before applying wax. You can see why we don’t use this stuff. Water based finishes are not safe, and will give the pine a pale washed out look, so don’t let anyone talk you into that. I’m going to send you two pictures. The first is my own Eastern White Pine floor that I sanded and finished about 22 years ago with 4 coats of satin poly. It’s dinged and dented, but holding up just fine. The second picture is a the same species GEL stained to give it a more antique look. I’m right in the middle of this job, and will finish the treads with a nice satin poly, no plastic look here. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.    

Question: I read your article on DuraSeal water based finishes and when my new Maple floor was put down I requeated that this product be used on the floor. My finisher said that the final coat was a special catalyzed coat that was “not used friendly” and if”I WANTED” to put down another coat it would be very unwise. How much of this was finisher sczre tactics and how much was the truth? He also said that the ‘tread wear’ coating only came in a semi-gloss and that if I wanted to get a high gloss I would have to use something else. Please comment on these answers to my questions that he gave me. Jim Answer: Dear Jim Anyway as for the instruction on how to use the Dura Seal 1000 water based finish, it’s very specific. After sanding you must first apply the Dura Seal 1000 water based sealer, this has pH modifier to eliminate a uneven coloring during the first coat. The sealer is allow to dry 3 hours and buffed with a maroon pad to prepare it. Next the Dura Seal 1000 water based finish is applied and left to dry 3 hours again. Maroon pad buffed and two more coats of the same is applied. I always use 4 coats of water based finishes, to equal the wearability of my standard of 3 coats of oil based finishes. Not all contractors go this far. Dura Seal 1000 comes in gloss, semi and satin. The job is complete just as is, if it was done correctly this way. And this type of Oil-modified urethane dispersion (in water) finish is about as durable as most oil modified polyurethane (oil) finishes. Water based finishes in general have a limited life because of the tendency to whiten instead of yellowing as they age. Strong sunlight exposure does this. But these newer water based finish should give you about 10 years of use. There are several other like brands available called Mega (Bona Kemi) and Emulsion (Basic Coatings). Now some flooring contractors will suggest that you add a stronger more scratch resistant top coat for the last coat. That would give you the advantage of having the nice amber tone of the Dura Seal’s 1000 urethane, together with a more durable (these are really industrial finishes) catalyzed water based finish. So the top coat could be either Dura Seal “2000 ZC-2”, Bona Kemi’s “Traffic” or “Street Shoe” by Basic Coatings. This is not needed in most cases in normal residential use. If your contractor has already done this, that’s fine. You can get any of these finishes in all the sheens I mentioned before, gloss, semi and satin. I really suggest you stay with the semi or satin, it will look better longer. High gloss is a bear to keep glossy. It will loose it’s gloss in the high use areas first, long before the finish is wearing out. The main thing is that you should have 4 coats total, including the sealer. Don’t add any more coating than this at this time, wear the finish down, then re-coat 5-10 years from now instead.

Question: I have an area of plywood (I know, sorry, not real wood) that has been soaked due to a slow plumbing leak. How do I dry it up? Many thanks Answer: Dear Jeanette Plywood is real wood. And to dry it you must expose as many sides as you can to moving, dry air. The heating season we are now in will help a lot. But put fans on it, and under the area in the basement too. This will prevent mold from growing. It will take several weeks to a month to fully dry. After it has dried out you may find that the plywood has delaminated, and may need a piece of it replaced. You can tell if it has delaminated when you push hard on the surface and the plywood feels spongy. This is a simple project anyone with basic carpentry skill can do.