It’s not called “Hard Wood” for nothing!
We are refurbishing our 85 year-old house. We are not restoring it to a “like new” state. We want the house to retain the warmth and dignity of its age, just without the infirmities.
So when Carrie started her research on restoring old wood floors, she did so hoping to find an approach that didn’t include the standard “sand it ‘til it looks new” instruction. We want the floors to look good, but not necessarily new. They need to be sealed to minimize wear and to make them easy to clean, but to us the occasional blemish or scratch adds to their character.

Being twenty years Carrie’s senior, I am thrilled with her attitude about the occasional blemish or scratch adding character to the old things in her life.

Carrie found an expert who suggested the old finish on the floors be scraped off rather than sanded off. Scraping should remove the finish without removing the wood. It sounded reasonable and Carrie was able to validate the technique through a variety of online resources.

Is it varnish? Is it shellac? Is it a stain, intentional or otherwise?
She picked the front bedroom, soon to be media room, as the laboratory to test the approach. Or the room somewhat volunteered for its role when a five foot wide patch of floor finish gave up and flaked off. Using a putty-knife looking array of scrapers none with blades more than two inches wide, Carrie spent many an evening on hands and knees patiently and methodically scraping off decades of accumulated finishes, wax, and dirt. Her first high-tech concession to this ancient process was to incorporate her infrared paint softening device, the “Silent Paint Remover”.

This photo shows the contrast between the dark old floor finish and the result of scraping. No sanding, waxing or buffing as yet.


Infrared heat and elbow grease combined to make the effort a success. The entire floor has been scraped which removed all but the smallest and most stubborn residual pockets of old finish. Having scraped first, Carrie was able to gently sand these spots in a way that removed the finish without removing any wood. Her first test patch of hand applied paste wax was also a big success. It added a subtle gloss that appears to be emanating from the wood as opposed to being a finish layer sitting on the wood.

Carrie wanted to hand-buff the waxed floor, but after buffing and buffing and buffing, again on hands and knees this time with a sock on her hand she realized that not only would this method take days, it would wear her out (she needs to preserve her strength to finish shingling the roof). Plus, she was collecting all the loose slivers in her fingers. So the second exception to a completely manual floor restoration is an electric buffer that she bought just for the task at Auto Zone.

I keep complimenting Carrie on how great a job she is doing on her floor, hinting that she should keep going without my help, not that my sense of guilt would allow it. This is only the first of six rooms that have wood floors, and with the way this one turned out we are eager to apply the same techniques to the rest of the floors. But now that Carrie has perfected the process, I will have to help.
Watching Carrie work is a lot easier than trying to keep up.