@emilybee yes, you’re right-they just need to get someone in to grind it down and refinish it. That’s the beauty of hardwoods 
I should have said ‘they destroyed the finish’
Thanks to this thread, I just Bona’d my floors.
Have any of you tried the homemade Bona recipes that are online? I’m just wondering because Bona gets expensive.
I’ve got carpet, tile and hard wood.
Got rid of most of the carpet except for bedrooms. It’s just cozier.
Hardwood is just a warmer look than tile. It feels warmer too. On your feet and in the look. Tile is noisier.
I find it very easy to care for the tile and hardwood. I dust it mostly rather than vacuum much. Fast and quiet.
Plus less allergy. Carpet just falls apart over the years. Ugh.
Hardwood–over the years there are spots that could use refinishing but nobody will “spot refinish”. It’s all or nothing. And while I understand the reasoning that “it’ll never match” I am not to the point of spending the big bucks just because of a couple bad areas. Plus finding someone (in our area) to refinish is a real headache.
Plus I’d have to move everything and honestly it ain’t worth it.
But I have one REALLY bad spot in my kitchen (yes, I have wood in my kitchen) that got killed by a chair over the years. (Totally my fault.) Let’s just say the finish is pretty gone in one small area… Ugly.
I asked refinish guy who was to give me a quote about it–boss said the only thing was to do the whole floor.
His helper piped up and said “maybe you could deep clean it”. . They left and I never even got a quote from them.
So I asked my young painter (who was busy staining other woodwork in my house and did a phenomenal job) about my horrible floor. Told him my sad story.
He super cleaned the area (using a soft scrub brush and rags)–“My grandmother would get on her hands and knees to get things really clean but I don’t want you to do that !”. He was on his hands and knees cleaning my floor. I felt terrible. My knees aren’t that bad.
Did I remind him of his grandmother? I’m not that old–I think. But I think his mom would be proud.
End of story: After cleaning he used a " Restor-A-Finish" product (guess it comes in different stain colors) and applied it (with my blessing “Go for it!”). About 15 minutes total with cleaning and application.
Not perfect results but unbelievably better. Couldn’t believe my eyes as to how much it improved. Now it’s at least livable versus disaster area. Even my H can live with it now. The spots that still had a decent finish look like new.
All is not lost even if you don’t want to totally refinish your hard wood.
I’m another with hardwood floors in the kitchen. Love them. Warm, easy to clean, much easier on the feet, legs, and back than tile, more forgiving if you drop something.
I definitely recommend felt pads on the bottom of all chairs coming in contact with hardwood floors.
We have felt pads on the legs to our chairs in the kitchen and breakfast room.
Honestly…there is no cafe like sound in this house. It’s not like every surface is hard. We have upholstered couch chairs, etc. no curtains…at all…and no cave like echo sounds. But we do have area rugs in every room.
I just did Bona on my floors today too!
Well I was stupid. I had a rolling chair. dumb, dumb, dumb.
Good thing it was me that did it. Anybody else and they’d still be hearing about it. LOL.
I love my hardwood floors, even in the kitchen. The rooms are small enough that there’s no issue with echoing
I’ve successfully spot-refinished my wood floors by taping off the entire board (s) that was damaged. I carefully sanded just the bad boards, retaped them because I never managed to sand without ruining the edges of the tape, and refinished. Luckily I have natural floors, so there was no matching of stain to deal with.
I can understand why the pros don’t want to bother with this approach. It’s time consuming to sand the old finish to the edges of the boards, much of it by hand. Stain would make the project significantly more challenging. The homeowner may complain about any real or perceived difference between the old and new areas. Probably not worth the hassle.
I recall that @coralbrook’s people used this method in the previous house where there was damage to her new floors.
We have been very fortunate to have had hardwood in every house that we have owned. Our current is what some people think is large, 4000 square feet. The entry hall is magnasite. The bathrooms have tile or marble. First, we do not have hollow sounds. We do have some area rugs. The hardwood was done in 1935. It has been refinished once before. And that was it. We wanted to redo it but now…I can’t imagine moving or hiring someone to move all the furniture . We have two pianos, one a concert grand and that is for starters.
@gouf78, I used Rejuvenate on the bad spots before I got the all refinished. It did a pretty good job of restoring some luster to the wood.
I put felt pads on everything after getting floors refinished.
My kitchen is hardwood, also.
I can imagine that if you currently have carpet, that in getting hardwoods there would be an adjustment to the sounds and look. Even just for a short while.
I must say that I have been in friends house that have all carpeting- and sometimes THAT can feel a little claustrophobic to me! Almost too much of an “airtight” feeling. Silly I know.
Re: spot refinishing hardwood floors. The floors are in incredibly good shape, 20 years after we refinished them. (Sanded down completely and recoated.) The only issue is that there are a couple of wear spots where the color has faded: directly in front of the refrigerator and the landing at the top of the stairs. Repeated footfall in same location has worn away the stain.
As others commented, too lazy to move everything out for the weeks it would take to refinish two floors, but don’t know of a solution for the faded area.
I find hardwood to be forgiving (a glass dropped on the kitchen floor does not break the way it would on tile), and easy to stand on while prepping food.
Yes, I like the feel of wood under my feet–more so than tile, vinyl or carpet. The few areas of our floor that gave marks or wear show “character.” That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
So I have a question for the wood floor aficionados. We’ll be selling our classic colonial house within the next couple of years. The wood floors in the living room, dining room and master bedroom, which have what I’d call an oak stain (not so good at this) are somewhat yellowed to my eyes–I guess with age–and unattractive. I’d much prefer a deeper, richer stain. From the point of view of a potential buyer, is there a preferred way to go–back to a non-yellowed oak, a different stain, or just leave the floors as they are and let the new owner decide what to do? (I do like very light stains or natural wood, too, but I don’t think they would look right with the style of the house.)
@MommaJ without seeing your house I couldn’t give you good advice. Dark stained floors are popular right now but may not be in tune with the character of your house. If the floors are in good shape I’d leave them as is.
Might be worth asking a RE agent or two in your area for an opinion.
Darker floors are in right now, but it could be a trend that is on its way out. Personally, I like lighter floors. Dark floors show too much dust and dirt, plus they don’t go with a lot of furniture.
We only like light floors–clear finish over white oak. If you want the space to look as big and bright as possible, light color helps vs dark. I agree that speaking with a realtor or two could be helpful to guide you on potential resale options.
We toured a bunch of new construction townhomes recently, and all of them had dark wood or wood-like floors with white or off-white cabinetry. I do not find that appealing: the floors will show every speck of dust, and the cabinets will show every little spill and smudge. I would be compelled to scrub them daily instead of weekly. Hope that trend is on its way out!
I’ll chime in on the desireability of your home in a sale situation. Buyers really like when original wood floors have been refinished for the sale. Buyers do not want to have to think about finishing the floors for obvious reasons… it can really only be done when all the furniture is moved out. So, your home would not be ‘move in’ ready. Smart buyers would refinish the floors before they moved into the home. And then their mind starts spinning “Oh… we will need to repaint everything before we do the floors… Oh… and then we need to do XYZ before the floors” and then it starts snow balling in their head.
Stain color for the floors should not be ‘yellow’, it is not appealing to today’s buyers. The varnish used on your floors has yellowed with age or it was purposely stained or varnished with a ‘honey’ tone which was popular awhile ago. The color tone of the floors would depend on the style of the home and/or what is popular in your neighborhood.
Personally I am in love with a Driftwood color stain with a low sheen or matte finish.
A friend refinished her oak floors with a dark stain and in my opinion they looked odd. The dark stain just didn’t work with the oak grain. It didn’t create the modern dark floor look they were after. If you do refinish, I’d suggest something more medium toned, not yellowish but not too dark.