Refinishing Heart Pine Floors
Flooring, Painting & Finishing, Video by Danny Lipford
Nowhere is the charm of an older home more apparent than in the rich look of heart pine floors. Cut from the dense heartwood near the center of virgin longleaf pine trees, heart pine is prized for its fine grain, durability, and lasting beauty.
The floor in this century old house had been hidden under a layer of glued down carpet. Since trying to dissolve the adhesive with solvent would only have forced it further into the grain and cracks, it was decided to sand it off instead.
Once the glue had been removed with a floor sander and course grit sandpaper, the floor was sanded again using finer grits of paper.
Sanding dust from the floor was mixed with lacquer sealer and toweled over the entire surface to fill any cracks between the boards.
After it had dried, the floor was sanded again to remove any excess sealer then stained with Early American wood stain to reduce the yellow tones in the wood.
When the stain had dried, a semi gloss finish was applied to the floor with a lamb’s wool applicator.
The beautiful look and durable surface of this heart pine floor is one the homeowners will enjoy for years to come.
January 27th, 2008 at 9:42 am
we have pergal wood flooring it says to clean with water damp cloth. Do you know what I need to buy to clean this flooring. I believe water will damage flooring after using several months. thanks debbie
February 27th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
We are currently refinishing heart pine floors in our home, but we have alot of cracks in between boards some as large as 1/4″. Could you specify a little more on instructions for filling them? Thanks
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:43 pm
We have a 200 yr old house, with wide pine tongue & groove flooring. We used clear latex caulk for the cracks, and rubbed off the excess. We did this years ago, and it still is working fine.
April 15th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Metal wheels on dining room chairs have left grooves in heartpine floors. Any suggestions on how to fix these grooves?
June 4th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Help Needed ASAP: We have a 1922 bungalow and just got the floors sanded. Against the advice of my spouse! But there were so many gouges and raw chips. Thougt I had got a good contractor, yadda yadda; and now the caramel colored heart pine and yellow pine floors are skinned bald, have one coat of poly and the contractor is on hold until we resolve the issue. Went from caramel and cinnamon color to bright butterscotch like a basketball court. The mixed woods - so nice with patina - look calico and are way too bright. If the contractor had not gone so deep, no problem but there it is. We feel like our puppy has just gotten killed. I need to salvage this mess and want to see if we can add a tint to darken the next coat and try and better match the original color. Or do I hand glaze then then varnish. Or (and I don’t want to go any deeper and do more damage then I have) do we have to re-sand and start over with some sort of tint/stain then finish. The contract refused to stain the pine - which I bought - but his efficient machines took off too much of the old surface. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
September 26th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
We are refinishing heart pine wood floors 100+ yrs. old. Could you please recommend a finish for these beautiful floor? Thank You
October 11th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
we are refinishing our heart pine floors in our late 1890’s kitchen. the floor had a sub-floor stappled on with armstrong flooring attached to it. we have pulled it all off but have a million staples. any suggestions on removing them easily (ha)at least a better way than each one removed by hand? we have refinished three other rooms and they are so worth the trouble….