Okay, here is the situation: I live in a very old apt. with wooden floors, which were very badly varnished a long time ago. The varnish is scraped off in a good many places, so it’s not only unsightly, but damned hard to clean (waxing only makes it darker, not shinier), and I’ve gotten splinters through bedroom slippers (forget walking barefoot or in socks!).
Area rugs? Tried 'em. I have two cats. They shed, throw up–within six months . . . well, the rugs got pretty ghastly.
My landlord is not going to do anything, so it’s up to me: but the cats and furniture are a problem. I can’t afford to do the job right, so I want cheap-ass shortcuts. I can’t keep the cats out of one room for more than, say, 12 hours (doors and logistics) and I can’t move all the furniture out of any one room (not enough room in the others).
Is there some kind of thick varnish or stain I can just pour over the floor, spread with a–I don’t know, putty-knife kind of tool–and it’ll dry to a thick, shiny and hardy consistency within a few hours? Does such a product exist?
But if I asked them for cheap, lazy-ass shortcuts, wouldn’t that be like coming onto the SDMB as a newbie and saying, “I had a near-death experience where I was kidnapped by aliens, and they were chiropractors!”
I mean, you know what I mean, right? That’s a board for flooring experts, people who take pride in doing things right and giving handyman tips. And here’s cute little me, saying, “Hi, I’m too cheap and lazy to do things right, can you show me how to do it wrong?”
If it’s just the varnish that’s scraped away, I’m pretty sure you could just use regular varnish on the spots in question, probably a few layers of it. Or are the spots actually gouged down to the wood? In that case, I think you’d have to fill/stain/varnish.
The Quick N Dirty Cheapass Solution follows. Handymen, avert your eyes.
Yep, kinda. It’s called polyurethane varnish (also sometimes known as “urethane varnish”), you buy it by the gallon at Wal-Mart or Menards or Lowe’s or Home Depot. But you just paint it on, you don’t trowel it on. It comes in either satin finish or gloss finish. Slap it on, it’ll look great–but only as great as the floor that’s underneath it, which is why folks usually sand down the worst of the stains and splinters first. In my experience a single coat will not glue down splinters, so if the splinter situation is really bad, you will need to sand a bit first, or at least glue down the more shredded boards with Elmer’s Glue.
It dries fairly quickly too, relatively speaking (4 to 6 hours IIRC), so the cats will not need to be confined while it’s drying for longer than, say, an average cat afternoon (depending on how your cats perceive time). A second and third coat will tend to smooth out your ragged boards and make the thick floor you’re apparently hoping for. (It sounds like what you need is something like transparent linoleum, but I’ve never heard of such a thing.)
If you care deeply, here is the by-the-book way to do it.
If you don’t care deeply, just go buy some, move the furniture, and start painting.
Make sure the cats are absolutely confined where they cannot get loose and walk on the wet varnish (“aw, the cute little kitty footprints…”), because it requires mineral spirits to clean up, and I personally would not want to have to use mineral spirits or turpentine to clean varnish off Kitty’s paws.
Maybe I’m missing something in your query, or other replies, but how about cheap linoleum? Just move everything to one side of the room, roll-out and cut the cleared side, then put the stuff on the newly-laid lino and finish.
You can usually find pre-cut peices. It doesn’t hurt if it doesn’t reach to the walls.
You said cheap.
Peace,
mangeorge
[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose]
The Quick N Dirty Cheapass Solution follows. Handymen, avert your eyes.
Yep, kinda. It’s called polyurethane varnish (also sometimes known as “urethane varnish”), you buy it by the gallon at Wal-Mart or Menards or Lowe’s or Home Depot. But you just paint it on, you don’t trowel it on. It comes in either satin finish or gloss finish. Slap it on, it’ll look great–but only as great as the floor that’s underneath it, which is why folks usually sand down the worst of the stains and splinters first.
[QUOTE]
I’m pretty sure that polyurethane isn’t going to do the job without sanding. Even if the old finish is compatible, it won’t do anything for the splinters unless you lay it down a quarter of an inch thick. And if the old finish isn’t compatible, it will just peel off. Given that the floor has been waxed, I’m pretty sure that peeling would be inevitable.
I suppose you could put down some of that acrylic resin stuff they use to cover tables in bars, but that would likely be expensive and I doubt you’d ever be able to sand it off and refinish the floors.
You want cheap and half-assed? Buy inexpensive area rugs and replace them every six months.
Polyurethane varnish? There’s a local hardware store I can get to next weekend, experiment in a corner, then if it looks OK, glop the bad parts of the floor at night and lock the cats (and their food and litterbox) in the bedroom with me all night; one hopes it will be safely dry by morning (cool weather, open windows).
I’m not expecting it to look great, but I am far too broke for even (shudder) linoleum. If I had money, I know someone I could hire to do the job right; but alas, the coffers are perilously low these days.
Doesn’t your state have renters rights. I know that in California they do. I looked it up once for my niece who lives there and she had rights. I don’t remember if maintenance was covered as one of her rights, but it seems likely that it is. Look for renters rights on Google to see if your state or city has renters rights.
I don’t think the polyurethane varnish will do the trick for you. You really should sand the floors down so they are nice and smooth, clean and ready for a new finish. It’s not thick enough to just plow over problems like splinters, and it will bubble, crack and peel all on its own if the surface is no good. Not to mention that cat hair, dust, etc, will likely get stuck to the wet surface.
Granted, it’s an easier finish than most to apply, but refinishing floors is not a quickie task.
I like the carpet tile idea, though you do still have the cat vomit problem, they might have a better anti-stain coating than your average throw rug, and you can pull them up for a thorough cleaning, dry, then put it back down.