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I know this will work if the floors are wax (if they're the original '58 floors it's possible, I suppose). Take a bit of mineral spirit on a cloth and try to wipe away the dark stain. It should come up.
If it appears the floors are waxed, you'd be able to just seal them back up with some good quality floor wax (can buy from a flooring company...they'll sell you a can of it).
Even if the floors are poly, the mineral spirits shoudl be able to lift off at least some of the dark stain.
Great to see people trying to save their floors without sanding.
Try this as a complete method.
Mix up a strong solution of common household soda, use tough rubber gloves for protection, rub this on with a stiff bristle brush say what we call a yard broom.
This has an immediate effect. Soak up with cloth/rag. test by examination to see if clean enough. If clean rinse well many times. Finally wash down with vinegar.
When dry say a day or two later but must be bone dry, treat with a mixture of boiled Linseed oil and genuine Turpentine mixed 50/50.
The Turpentine is a dryer and must not be substitute or white spirit.
In hot weather retreat say after a couple of weeks.
The floor will take up a lovely finish that improves with age and can just be washed occasionally and when dry apply a little more of the mix say every summer.
This finish is impervious to achohol, oil, water(not standing) and almost any thing your floor is likely to meet.
I know this will work if the floors are wax (if they're the original '58 floors it's possible, I suppose). Take a bit of mineral spirit on a cloth and try to wipe away the dark stain. It should come up.
If it appears the floors are waxed, you'd be able to just seal them back up with some good quality floor wax (can buy from a flooring company...they'll sell you a can of it).
Even if the floors are poly, the mineral spirits shoudl be able to lift off at least some of the dark stain.
I'm no expert, but this is what I'd try.
mineral spirit huh. i can definitely give this a try. i can't ruin the floors anymore than they already are.
Great to see people trying to save their floors without sanding.
Try this as a complete method.
Mix up a strong solution of common household soda, use tough rubber gloves for protection, rub this on with a stiff bristle brush say what we call a yard broom.
This has an immediate effect. Soak up with cloth/rag. test by examination to see if clean enough. If clean rinse well many times. Finally wash down with vinegar.
When dry say a day or two later but must be bone dry, treat with a mixture of boiled Linseed oil and genuine Turpentine mixed 50/50.
The Turpentine is a dryer and must not be substitute or white spirit.
In hot weather retreat say after a couple of weeks.
The floor will take up a lovely finish that improves with age and can just be washed occasionally and when dry apply a little more of the mix say every summer.
This finish is impervious to achohol, oil, water(not standing) and almost any thing your floor is likely to meet.
common household soda? do you mean baking soda? a yard broom? do you mean one of those big (wide) push brooms or one of those straw type looking brooms? Okay now my last question (i'm sure you'll get a big laugh out of this one) boiled linseed oil? that's the name of it right, i don't boil it. go ahead laugh.
Oh forgot to add when i treat with the mixture do I just mop it on with a sponge mop or use a cloth and get down on my hands and knees.
That's a lot of work for a house that's going to be sold. I'd go for Easy and Quick.
If I had to put the house on the market in a week then I would DEFINITELY go easy and quick but since i could be looking at a year before the house even hits the market i've got time to try some good old fashion muscle work, heck and if it works it'll cost me a whole lot less. if it doesn't it's not like the floor's gonna get any worse.
I have not read all the posts so if I'm repeating....
I did this and it wasn't too hard and it turned flooring in an 80+ yr old house into a great looking hardwood floor. Not brand new but dam near.
Pulled up 30+ yr. old carpeting and the old foam padding much of which stuck to the floor. Borrowed (you can rent) one of the big round commercial floor buffers,, they make 3M scotch bright type scrubber pads for them in a cpl of abrasive levels. Gallons (10 ,maybe 15 ?) of turpentine, and proceeded to "scrub" the flloor with the floor machine and the turpentine...I couldn't believe the slurry of crud it lifted from the old surface. As I worked the machine my helper slooshed more turpintine around and also with a string mop cleaned up some of the slury crud so we could see our progress. We did an area about 25 x 45 ft in a cpl of hrs. Switched to a less abarasive srub pad and went over the floor again after mopping up the crud. Eventually put machine aside and mopped and mopped untill floor was "clean". Next day on hands and knees we went around cleaning crud outta some of the bigger gaps and around base brds etc.
I put down 3 coats of hard flooring wax with the machine and although I don't have pictures to post here it was an extremely impressive improvment for little money spent.
A HUGE WORD OF CAUTION !!!!
Turn off all piliot lights in stove, funance etc before you start something like this. You could blow the house up !!...Don't mess around like this unless you can shut everthing like that OFF ! AND I MEAN OFF !!
Secondly you need ventilation...and LOTS of it. I removed all the shades/blinds etc from the area, and oened ALL the windows on one side of the area. On the other end of the area I had 3 big window fans evacuating the fumes. If the area dosen't feel "breezy" then you havn't got enough air flow. If you can get acess to some fume filtering masks (not the cheap dust masks..they're usless) don them. Breathing lots of turpitine or mineral spirits is not something you want to do. Lots of air movement...think wind tunnel
I have not read all the posts so if I'm repeating....
I did this and it wasn't too hard and it turned flooring in an 80+ yr old house into a great looking hardwood floor. Not brand new but dam near.
Pulled up 30+ yr. old carpeting and the old foam padding much of which stuck to the floor. Borrowed (you can rent) one of the big round commercial floor buffers,, they make 3M scotch bright type scrubber pads for them in a cpl of abrasive levels. Gallons (10 ,maybe 15 ?) of turpentine, and proceeded to "scrub" the flloor with the floor machine and the turpentine...I couldn't believe the slurry of crud it lifted from the old surface. As I worked the machine my helper slooshed more turpintine around and also with a string mop cleaned up some of the slury crud so we could see our progress. We did an area about 25 x 45 ft in a cpl of hrs. Switched to a less abarasive srub pad and went over the floor again after mopping up the crud. Eventually put machine aside and mopped and mopped untill floor was "clean". Next day on hands and knees we went around cleaning crud outta some of the bigger gaps and around base brds etc.
I put down 3 coats of hard flooring wax with the machine and although I don't have pictures to post here it was an extremely impressive improvment for little money spent.
A HUGE WORD OF CAUTION !!!!
Turn off all piliot lights in stove, funance etc before you start something like this. You could blow the house up !!...Don't mess around like this unless you can shut everthing like that OFF ! AND I MEAN OFF !!
Secondly you need ventilation...and LOTS of it. I removed all the shades/blinds etc from the area, and oened ALL the windows on one side of the area. On the other end of the area I had 3 big window fans evacuating the fumes. If the area dosen't feel "breezy" then you havn't got enough air flow. If you can get acess to some fume filtering masks (not the cheap dust masks..they're usless) don them. Breathing lots of turpitine or mineral spirits is not something you want to do. Lots of air movement...think wind tunnel
good luck
jb
thanks for this suggestion jb. dh and i have in the past rented those floor buffers but unfortunately neither of us had any luck correctly working the thing (height issues with it - dh is 5'4" and i'm just barely 5'). working with that much turpintine would make me extremely nervousbut good for you though for being able to do it. the bedroom is at the end of the house and only has 2 windows and it's only 10x10 (maybe a bit bigger). I'll make sure to wear a mask though when I'm using the mineral spirits. thanks for that tip. this will be a new project for me. I'm looking forward to it especially because up to now all i've done is painting (which i actually like to do).
The height issue: Understood...The handles on the floor machines adjust in&out (telescope) and up and down...ie,,,the angle upward. You don't want to adjust the in/out telescoping thing...it cuts down on the length of the lever and actually makes it harder for you to "steer": the machine. Since you're not real tall you want to adjust the angle dowward. The gets the handles down near your waist where you want them without giving up the leverage factor. The rental place should set the machine up to fit you . We have a cpl of latino guys on the cleaning crew where I work and they're no bigger than you.
Ventilation: The two windows are fine...open them up all the way..no curtains etc to get in your way...if you can take the door off it's hinges and set aside. Else where in the house mount window fans blowing in. Keep all other doors and windows shut.CLose firelace damper if you got one. You will in effect pressuize the house and the only way for the air to escape will be thru the doorway and out the two windows. Beg, borrow, steal as many fans as you can get
One other thing I remebered...I wore an old pair of sneaks while doing this as it can get pretty sloppy, but I put my feet into large plastic lunch size bags before putting on the sneaks. Yeah it made my feet sweat but they weren't wet with turpintine all day...
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