Wood floor remnants?

[bluedogz]

Mrs. Blue has decided the living room floor needs replacing, and she's right.

It's regular factory-milled 3/4" oak. Previous homeowner installed it and stained it (circa 1975), but never urethaned it. As a result, it's filthy all the time. We're gonna rip it up and lay new stuff.

This seems like it might be a big pile of burnable oak. The reason I think it might be burnable is the lack of urethane. Am I wrong?

 

[DAKSY]

Mrs. Blue has decided the living room floor needs replacing, and she's right.

It's regular factory-milled 3/4" oak. Previous homeowner installed it and stained it (circa 1975), but never urethaned it. As a result, it's filthy all the time. We're gonna rip it up and lay new stuff.

This seems like it might be a big pile of burnable oak. The reason I think it might be burnable is the lack of urethane. Am I wrong?

Maybe. You need to know what the stain base is - chemically...
If that was in my house, I'd have it sanded clean... Then polyed.
Whole lot cheaper than a NEW floor...
My $.02...

 

[bluedogz]

Maybe. You need to know what the stain base is - chemically...
If that was in my house, I'd have it sanded clean... Then polyed.
Whole lot cheaper than a NEW floor...
My $.02...

Not always. In our case, evey plank has a beveled edge down the length, creating a groove between each run about 1/16" deep. If it was straight-up 3/4" oak plank I'd have sanded it myself. Besides, we picked up a job-lot closeout on pre-finished planks so we're in deep cheap.

As far as the stain goes, no idea.

 

[billb3]

Some of that 3/4 laminate can be sanded once or twice and refinished , though.
Kinda depends on how thick the top veneer is/was and how badly gouged you currently have and how perfect you want the surface when done.


If it is real solid wood and the surface protectants are gone you could probably burn it. If it is laminate or engineered with just a photograph that looks like wood on top I wouldn't count on the glues and binders being terribly safe to burn organics.

If it is solid wood 3/4 inch it can be resurfaced. How competitive that cost is by the time you pay someone with decent equipment and know how to do it right is another thread.

 

[Hogwildz]

Damn What a shame! Not good to burn, but good to give away ;-)

 

[begreen]

Why not sand it down and refinish it? That will take off about 1/16" and eliminate the groove. It seems more a shame to dump a good tree's worth of wood flooring than to bring it back to life.

 

[wkpoor]

Usually the micro groove is only on prefinished flooring. Strange to hear of it on what might have been an unfinished floor.

 

[ScotO]

I like the refinish idea that Daksy and BeGreen said about.......like BG said, when you get that sanded down, that 1/16th groove will be gone and that floor would be good to go........if you decide to rip it up and burn it, I would hesitate if your stove is a cat stove. Esp. not knowing the chemical make-up of the stain. More than likely an oil-based stain, with different oxides in it. Just my 2 pennies.....

 

[nate379]

I burned a whole house worth of oak flooring last winter. I just cut all the planks to ~16" and tossed in some to fill the holes when I loaded up the stove.

 

[barn burner]

Or you could split it up and have an infinite supply of kindling. :coolsmile: