I have this 102-year-old hardwood floor that I’m refinishing on the cheap. It’s been VERY badly used, especially recently, when it was painted over in parts and burned with hundreds of cigarettes. (This lovely house was formerly the headquarters of Crack Whores, Inc., and I have the crack pipes and used condoms to prove it.)
We’ll sand over the cigarette burns; they’re not too deep. But the paint is proving to be difficult to remove. Turpentine and steel wool is to no avail. I’ve tried a gentle chemical wood stripper, boughten at the Seattle Home Show, but it’s helpless against the layers of paint. You can’t sand it, either; the paint gums up the sandpaper instantly.
So I’m thinking of glopping Strip-Eze on it. I don’t know if that actual brand still exists, but I’m talking about furniture stripper, the extremely toxic rubber-cement-like stuff you apply, then scrape off, then bury at an approved Nuclear Waste Storage Site, which will eat through just about anything, layers of paint included.
It says it’s safe for wood. After all, it’s marketed as Wood Stripper. But what worries me is, none of the websites I’ve visited or books I’ve read say squat about using wood stripper on an old wood floor. They only talk about sanding, then refinishing. But I don’t think they’ve ever dealt with painted wood floors.
Should be OK. Certainly can’t hurt what’s there. Just be mindful of turning off all pilot lights in the area (don’t forget the water heater) and don’t smoke. The last thing you want is to accidentally wind up burning the paint off. :eek:
Before you get too enamored with the idea of stripping the paint and then sanding, keep in mind that a floor that old has probably been sanded once or twice already. You may find that the top-most part of the boards’ grooves comes off with sanding, revealing the previously-hidden tongue. Only fix for that is a lot of wood filler that’ll be visible in long stripes, or to replace the affected boards, which may be nearly all of them.
Be sure to use the recommended protection for whatever product you use. Those fumes hurt your brain, man! Ventilate and wear a respirator. Paper masks won’t do the job. And the stuff burns, so eye, knee, and hand protection are a must.
Check local laws for disposal of the goo. It will be toxic. You’ll want some 5 gallon buckets to collect it in when scraping.
After getting all the goo cleaned up, sand the floor. Because you’ll have little bits and pieces left over and streaks of stuff everywhere.
Man, I wish painting wood floors had never gotten popular.
If you strip it, that’s A LOT of stripper you’re gonna have put down. It ain’t cheap and as others have said, that stuff will eat yer brain. Be prepared to pay about $20 a gallon for the stripper and $25 bucks for a respirator. I recently stripped an oak stairway and it was ZERO fun working with that nasty stuff.
I’d suggest renting a heavy duty floor sander and or screener. They won’t get gunked up by the paint, and they will make the finish sanding much easier (even if you strip the floor, you’re still gonna have to sand the whole thing).
Luckily, if its 100+ years old, you’re dealing with solid wood planking and you don’t have as big a concern about sanding down past the ‘wear layer’ like you do in todays engineered flooring (but its still possible to go too far, even in solid planking, so don’t overdo it!).
Have you tried a drum sander? I can’t imagine that that wouldn’t take off the paint.
The problem with using stripper on a floor is that it seeps through the cracks and into the subfloor and smells up the place for a long time - plus the fumes are not safe. I frequent the forums at That Home Site and I recall a lot of people saying it’s not a good idea to use stripper on floors. YMMV.
Have you tried acetone? If you have some nail polish remover about check the label and see if it’s primary ingredient is acetone, and give it a try. If it works, acetone is pretty inexpensive and is not terrible harmful to bare wood. It evaporates very quickly, but while it is liquid will dissolve quite a lot of stuff. Use a stiff 4" putty knife to scrape the resultant goo up.
All the usual caveats apply as to the fumes, etc. however. And get gloves designed for ‘stripping’. Larex doesn’t get it in this case. Also one of the best things you can do for yourself is get a good set of kneepads. Trust me on this.
Otherwise rent a floor sander and pay close attention to the instructions. They can take a lot of surface off pretty quickly.
Our wood floor looked like the Puget Sound on a windy day after I finished up with a drum sander. I am small and not really strong enough to negotiate the one we rented so every time I stopped - even for for a second, the floor got a band new groove.
As for the stripper, as others have said, ventilate and wear long thick gloves. I refinish furniture as a hobby, so I’m not unfamiliar with handling wood stripper glop, but when I worked on the floor I managed to get some nasty burns on both of my arms.
Finally, when you choose a finish, keep in mind that the glossier it is, the more dirt and smudges show up. Good luck!
I’m glad this topic has come up. The 150-year old farmhouse I’m renovating has plank floors, probably pine. They’re all painted. I doubt they’ve ever been refinished - the same family had lived there from the time it was built until I bought it. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the floors. Some I may just paint over, but I’dd like to try to see what I could do with them.
Sodium Hydroxide (caustic soda) is an inorganic, non-flamable chemical that I have found useful for stripping paint. Simply make a concentrated solution of NaOH and paint onto a small area, leave for a few minutes and strip away using a palate knife. It can be disposed of easily by neutralisation with Hydrochloric acid (HCL) (makes NaCl [table salt] and Water).
On another matter, if the paint has been on the floor for some time, it is likely to be lead-based paint. Heat, in the form of friction (using sanders of any sort) can release free Pb (lead) which can be ingested by inhalation. Heavy metal poisoning is no laughing matter. Take care, please.
I haven’t used it on a floor, but I’m stripping my moldings with Peel Away. You apply a paste, cover it with the special cloth , leave it for up to 24 hours.Then you peel the cloth and paint away, rinse and neutralize with white vinegar. Best things about it are no fumes and the Peel Away encapsulates the lead. There are a few different formulas- the one I’m using is for wood that’s going to be repainted, but there’s another one for projects where the original color of the wood will show.
if the paint is pre '70’s the watch word is LEAD! very, very, important to be sure that there is no lead based paint involved. there are kits to check it. sanding is a no-no on lead based paint. there are serious issues on disposing of lead based paint.
peel away is very good on lead based paint. i’ll be using it in my house this summer. we do have lead paint issues.
Thanks for all the good advice. I’m appropriately paranoid about the most toxic of the toxic fumes, so I’m trying to limit my use of heavy-duty stripper. I’ll use that stuff a bit at a time on areas most covered with paint. I’ve already done a portion of the closet, which is the worst of it. The bedroom itself is more heavy splattering and footprints, with some more painted areas near the walls.
The small bit of the closet I’ve stripped looks beautiful. I’ve applied a colored wax over it, and I’m wondering if I have to de-wax before polyurethaning, if that’s what we eventually decide to do. The boards are somewhat uneven, though; I know it needs a professional sanding job but I am sufficiently scared by koeeoaddi’s post (the Puget Sound/windy day metaphor has stayed with me) to not want to attempt it myself. I suspect we’ll just put up with it and ascribe it to the homey charm and character of an old house.
On the parts of the floor which are less thoroughly painted, I’ve been using (alternately) turpentine and some halfway-environmentally friendly citrus stuff, along with steel wool and elbow grease. I expect it will take a few weekends and I’ll get quite a workout, but it will turn out looking acceptable. Hell, almost anything beats linoleum or cheap carpet, IMO.
I’ll try that Peel Away stuff too, if I can find it. Thanks for the helpful words.
