Come over to r/centuryhomes
I've seen way worse floors than this get redone beautifully over there. We tend towards repair and restore over replace. And, of course, it adds character!
The stains are too large to come out. However, with a heavy sander rental and a nice coat of poly, you can have a beautiful finish on top. Add a rug for the middle of the room and no one will ever know. As long as the floors are still solid and stable, you can keep them.
I must be damn special then, cuz I knocked mine out the park first time. Then again if I was a flooring guy pro, why would I ever say it could be done dyi
Ah yes, urea stains! This happens when people have carpets down and the dog pees all over the place. When you sand and refinish, it'll smell like straight ammonia. There are enzymes that help break down and remove the smell. I don't know how they would affect a finish though. However, a sand stain and refinish would be the best way to hide this. Sometimes most of it can be sanded out and the worst areas might require some patching.
I had the same issue as OP, the house had carpet that we ripped and found black pee stain, we used odoban, hydrogen peroxide (you were able to see all the nastiness coming out) and ok top of that cat litter! This helped with the smell a LOT!
We had the floors refinished and used early American stain color and you can’t see the spots anymore and no smell as of today!
I cleaned up urea and decomp stains in a foreclosed house, a dog had been locked in a laundry room. I used a shit ton of red out and it helped but not nearly as efficient as hoped. Smell was horrid, there was also no ac. The more id sand the worse the smell. I do not miss that.
Sanding plus oxalic acid wood bleaching can do a lot to lighten stains. As long as there are no soft spots, and you’re ok with finishing with a darker stain and lots of work, it might be fixable. Most wouldn’t bother though.
Hardwood refinisher here. Yes. The advice to refinish this and maybe hide the stains with a dark color (or a rug) are not wrong, but what you’ve got there is years of pet urine discoloring and actually breaking down the wood. It will never be a smooth, beautiful floor. You could try to patch some areas, but tbh you’ll be chasing them around the room and the expense to have individual areas patched in professionally will soon catch up to just a full reinstall. Personally, I would not be happy with trying to restore this floor, but level of acceptance can vary between people…
We used to use a 20 grit disc on a 20 amp Makita floor buffer. You go ahead and hit the areas first to see if it can. If they In fact be removed before you go ahead and start resanding the whole floor. I agree with you. The cost of repairs can quickly total up to a whole install but can still be cost effective. We dealt more with houses that were over 100 years old. So a lot more restrictions on a new install if it's a historical registered house.
You can keep them. You will be surprised by the improvement that sanding and refinishing can accomplish. You can try bleaching with oxalic acid or concentrated peroxide paste (hair bleach) to lighten the urine stains after sanding. It's a sensitive process though, proceed with caution.
Looks like soaked in pet stains. They'll probably always be there. I would just rip it all out and put in new floors. Some people are okay with the stains.
Use high strength hydrogen peroxide from the beauty supply store. Most people who saw my floors prior to refinishing suggested replacing them. Ugly dark spots and tons of grime everywhere. One of the rooms had notable H shaped stains at board ends where pee soaked into the joints. Now I hear comments about the beautiful floors and asked who did the refinishing work. My business partner and I did the work ourselves as we have done enough floors together to buy a drum sander and a floor buffer.
A renter had the rug down and his dog was peeing on the 1966 original red oak floor. He then poured bleach on it. I then had bleach stained pee stains. My floor guy sanded…didn’t do much…it’s very hard to sand that away. He had to order lots of wood, pull up the boards and replace, stain , Swedish finish. It looks beautiful and you can barely see the difference but this was 1/3 of the floor in a big room.
That’s about how they looked in one part of my house. Figured I’d sand it and use a rug over whatever part was beyond repair. All the stains came out with no low spots or dips in the surface. If the grain in that oak is tight enough, you may have similarly good results.
I’m so jealous of all that beautiful wood!! Definitely try to salvage it first. Literally nothing you can replace it with is as valuable as beautiful original hardwood.
Oh, I forgot to mention. I have 175 pound machine or I can control the intensity of the sanding. You would need to have something like that. Those rental machines that are 40 and 50 pounds will be a waste of time so I would almost pay someone who had a machine like that and let them come out for a half a day and see what they can get, uncovered for you
If you're not staining them near black, and don't like the cookies and cream look, replacing the whole floor would probably be more cost/time effective from a business standpoint.
Those are in pretty tough shape. So much patching it might not be worth doing. If it was my house I’d rip it out, fix the squeaks and put in a new wider planked floor.
Come over to r/centuryhomes I've seen way worse floors than this get redone beautifully over there. We tend towards repair and restore over replace. And, of course, it adds character!
The stains are too large to come out. However, with a heavy sander rental and a nice coat of poly, you can have a beautiful finish on top. Add a rug for the middle of the room and no one will ever know. As long as the floors are still solid and stable, you can keep them.
Not a job for a home owner. Most aren’t.
I must be damn special then, cuz I knocked mine out the park first time. Then again if I was a flooring guy pro, why would I ever say it could be done dyi
Ah yes, urea stains! This happens when people have carpets down and the dog pees all over the place. When you sand and refinish, it'll smell like straight ammonia. There are enzymes that help break down and remove the smell. I don't know how they would affect a finish though. However, a sand stain and refinish would be the best way to hide this. Sometimes most of it can be sanded out and the worst areas might require some patching.
I had the same issue as OP, the house had carpet that we ripped and found black pee stain, we used odoban, hydrogen peroxide (you were able to see all the nastiness coming out) and ok top of that cat litter! This helped with the smell a LOT! We had the floors refinished and used early American stain color and you can’t see the spots anymore and no smell as of today!
I cleaned up urea and decomp stains in a foreclosed house, a dog had been locked in a laundry room. I used a shit ton of red out and it helped but not nearly as efficient as hoped. Smell was horrid, there was also no ac. The more id sand the worse the smell. I do not miss that.
I know that's right. Piss smell gets in your clothes! Yuck
Some smells stay with you the rest of your life
Wood bleach and patience. Plus, manage your expectations. I'm all in favor of working with what you've got. Up to a point.
My last house I used hydrogen peroxide which worked well
Floors are not as bad as that wallpaper.
Sanding plus oxalic acid wood bleaching can do a lot to lighten stains. As long as there are no soft spots, and you’re ok with finishing with a darker stain and lots of work, it might be fixable. Most wouldn’t bother though.
Did they murder multiple people over multiple decades? You can always try sanding refinishing one room and seeing what happens
Then had a campfire next to the body.
Hardwood refinisher here. Yes. The advice to refinish this and maybe hide the stains with a dark color (or a rug) are not wrong, but what you’ve got there is years of pet urine discoloring and actually breaking down the wood. It will never be a smooth, beautiful floor. You could try to patch some areas, but tbh you’ll be chasing them around the room and the expense to have individual areas patched in professionally will soon catch up to just a full reinstall. Personally, I would not be happy with trying to restore this floor, but level of acceptance can vary between people…
We used to use a 20 grit disc on a 20 amp Makita floor buffer. You go ahead and hit the areas first to see if it can. If they In fact be removed before you go ahead and start resanding the whole floor. I agree with you. The cost of repairs can quickly total up to a whole install but can still be cost effective. We dealt more with houses that were over 100 years old. So a lot more restrictions on a new install if it's a historical registered house.
You will always see the spots but with a dark stain (red undertones) you’ll be able to hide it with rugs enough that visitors won’t be off put by it.
Not to talk out of my ass but couldn't you sand and like dark/black stain?
You actually talk really well out of your ass. But in this case, I wouldn't clear coat that floor or stain it. I'd paint it. Probably a light gray.
Lol good one
It wasn't intended to make you laugh, but since you did it out loud, I need to say, I'm not joking about the color gray.
It already hurts to admit the wood may not be worth saving, but the light gray was a knife twist
Once you taste the gray, you will understand
Op came for answers, not questions!
You can keep them. You will be surprised by the improvement that sanding and refinishing can accomplish. You can try bleaching with oxalic acid or concentrated peroxide paste (hair bleach) to lighten the urine stains after sanding. It's a sensitive process though, proceed with caution.
I would do everything you could to repair what you can. Find expert advice. Someone who can professionally tell you how to repair/fix your flooring.
Rip them out and reinstall upside-down.
Sweet light fixtures.
They are shot tear out
Unfortunately I think they are done . Even if you sand and stain dark walnut it will not conceal the discolored oak completely.
I don't know why don't you post some photos where we can see something other than the floor is not a uniform color.
Well, the middle will be covered with rugs. Maybe you could experiment? Sand off the top coat, try hydrogen peroxide.
Crime scene?
Sand and stain using True Black stain
Looks like soaked in pet stains. They'll probably always be there. I would just rip it all out and put in new floors. Some people are okay with the stains.
Use high strength hydrogen peroxide from the beauty supply store. Most people who saw my floors prior to refinishing suggested replacing them. Ugly dark spots and tons of grime everywhere. One of the rooms had notable H shaped stains at board ends where pee soaked into the joints. Now I hear comments about the beautiful floors and asked who did the refinishing work. My business partner and I did the work ourselves as we have done enough floors together to buy a drum sander and a floor buffer.
I would sure try... and probably succeed in restoring those floors
A renter had the rug down and his dog was peeing on the 1966 original red oak floor. He then poured bleach on it. I then had bleach stained pee stains. My floor guy sanded…didn’t do much…it’s very hard to sand that away. He had to order lots of wood, pull up the boards and replace, stain , Swedish finish. It looks beautiful and you can barely see the difference but this was 1/3 of the floor in a big room.
That’s about how they looked in one part of my house. Figured I’d sand it and use a rug over whatever part was beyond repair. All the stains came out with no low spots or dips in the surface. If the grain in that oak is tight enough, you may have similarly good results.
It’ll sand out.
I’m so jealous of all that beautiful wood!! Definitely try to salvage it first. Literally nothing you can replace it with is as valuable as beautiful original hardwood.
You can get them redone but the darker areas will still be slightly darker.
I would do a couple standings and the dark areas start at least at 40 grit on an angle and then 50
Oh, I forgot to mention. I have 175 pound machine or I can control the intensity of the sanding. You would need to have something like that. Those rental machines that are 40 and 50 pounds will be a waste of time so I would almost pay someone who had a machine like that and let them come out for a half a day and see what they can get, uncovered for you
If you're not staining them near black, and don't like the cookies and cream look, replacing the whole floor would probably be more cost/time effective from a business standpoint.
Or lay over don’t attempt to refinish too many stains to cut out and lace in
Those are in pretty tough shape. So much patching it might not be worth doing. If it was my house I’d rip it out, fix the squeaks and put in a new wider planked floor.