Refinishing The Hardwood Floors

Over the last few days we've been having our hardwood floors refinished on the main floor. We've got birch flooring in the kitchen and butler's pantry, and red oak in the parlour, living room and dining room. When we moved in, the flooring in the parlour/front hall was covered with a layer of old adhesive, some kind of fibre board, and then some lovely linoleum that was in a bad state. We really had no clue what we'd find under that flooring if we ripped it up, but after working in the space for a number of weeks curiosity got the better of us and decided to have a look.

We were having some problems deciding on a stain colour, and opted in the end for Minwax's Golden Oak stain. We wanted something that would be lighter than all the existing panelling and wood, but not too light. Although it hasn't been sealed yet, we're both very happy with the colour and the way it compliments the walls.

Here are some pics of the parlour floor looking towards the back of the house:




These two shots are looking in the opposite direction from the photos above, back towards the front door in the parlour.



The kitchen flooring had considerably more old adhesive than the parlour flooring, and also had lots more water staining. It had layers of fibre board, vinyl tiling, and then its own style of linoleum floor. It was definitely in the worst shape of all the floors:





Butler's pantry:





Tomorrow the guys are coming back for a final layer of urethane to seal the floor, but here are a few other pictures taken this morning while the sun was streaming into the living room and dining room.



As it turns out, the guys had to fill the cracks in the floor between all 5 sandings, and some areas of water damage required a considerable amount of sanding. In the end, most of the dark black colour was removed, but some of those same boards did take the stain a bit differently than the other boards. I'm of the opinion that it just adds some character to a nice old floor.