Home Improvement Tips: Removing Antiquing from Hardwood Floors
There was a discussion between my husband and I of whether the floors were separate, yet we noticed that one half of a flooring board was half and half.
Our goal was to refinish the hard wood floors as cheaply and efficiently as possible. Which meant, hand sanding the floors as we did not know how thin the original hardwood floors were sanded down to. Replacing them to new we told everyone during the discussion time of the light versus dark, would take away what we originally had in mind in the first place of refurbishing the old.
The other rooms had sanded beautiful and stripped down with just simple wax remover and a scrub of vinegar water. The stain was wonderful, until I hit the fine line of the dining room and the living room door way.
It was as if no amount of sanding could remove the film that had covered that light colored floor boarding, yet it appeared to be literally stripped to bare wood.
Many of hours of research were spent to the wonder of what covered the flooring and how to remove it, nothing popped up into the search engine. It appeared that we would continue to scratch our heads about the situation, yet we discovered that something coated the flooring, as when it was sanded it gummed up the sand paper immediately.
We finally gave in and rented a floor sander, as we thought the bigger the sander the better to remove it. As the saying goes, the bigger they are the harder they fall, this held true as we went through many numerous sand paper pads. The sand paper was still getting gummed up as soon as we took a foot path wide to a foot path long. This we sat along the wall and collected our information about hardwood floors and what we knew about hardwood floors.
Did I try the paint remover as I had with the other rooms?
Yes, and it removed nothing, but a powdery film which was very little.
The floor sander finished some other rooms that had been stripped and wanted the rental to not go to waste. It then went back to the hardware store, and yet we were still left with our mystery floor.
No stain could penetrate it, it floated. No amount of wax remover, paint remover would remove it. Sand paper gummed up immediately with the powdery, sticky film that was removed from it, but still nothing penetrated the floor.
Finally, it a rage of fighting with the flooring for a total of a month, it was now the last room; I went to work and slapped a thick coat of paint remover. I grabbed the steel wool and began to scrub with all my might.
It worked!
Patiently, yet aggressively I worked for two hours as I went along the large room of 20 feet by 14 feet. A large putty knife was involved that I took the loosened powdery, sticky gunk and placed it in a trash bag close to me.
Methodically working with the paint remover, the steel wool, and then the putty knife, I had removed the foreign coating in sections.
It was a few hours later, that I remembered that there was a term called Antiquing hard wood floors. I cursed the inventor quietly as I continued my rage of work. Slather, scrub and scrape. I finally was finished removing the gunk from the floor and only had a think crystallization of a residue that was left behind.
Not to be beaten by the floor any longer, I reached for the belt sander and again sectioned the room off. It was soon that I had the floor almost down to bare wood, yet I realized with dismay that the belt sander had left streaks, the residue gunk still held on in certain places.
Back to the hardware store, and this time I was equipped with the knowledge of removing antiquing. The hardware store associate laughed at me and told me that they wished me good luck on removing the antiquing and if I accomplished it, then let them know the secret.
I wanted this rental to be worth the time and not waste the time or the money on the floor sander’s rental. I went to work mopping the floor with steaming hot vinegar water, yes, I like my vinegar.
Please, I wish to enforce this, do not sand hard wood floors while they are wet. Please wait for the wood to dry. If you do not wait you will actually burn your flooring to a horrible hard mess. I may appear shiny and smooth, but it is not! If this does happen to occur in places that are not completely dry, wait an hour before resanding the burnt area and sanding it smooth to bare wood.
The majority of the waxy film was gone with the vinegar mopping.
The floor sander brought the hardwood floor to beauty of bare wood. The stains matched perfectly and the polyurethane sealed away the memory of the nightmare of the antiqued flooring.
Antiquing of hard wood floors creates a floor that looks aged, and covered first with a coat of white shellac. Then a glaze is applied. After the glaze then another layer of shellac is also applied.
It is said that antiquing is not advised as the process of first bleaching the wood weakens the wood. The ages of many coats of sealant, shellac, wax, and glaze had finally been peeled off of our hardwoods floors to reveal rich and brilliant hardwood floors that added color and depth to the house.
