How do I preserve 130 year old pine floors?
by
Allison
+6
My antique floors, in my antique home, had their final sanding nearly 20 years ago. I have had, and still do have, large dogs who have gouged and scratched the floors beyond repair. I was wondering if I could use gel stain, wood putty and wax with any success. I do not have the means to replace the floors. It would break my heart to rip them out. They are part of the charm of this old mill house. I'm not looking for perfection, just a little 'tidying' of the floors. Any and all suggestions, with the exception of poly, is appreciated.
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I too have an antique home, built in 1872, sanded the wood floors, stained and highly poly'd them years ago with a shiny thick gloss, it worked! I know you said with the exception of poly, but if you don't want to use poly, maybe there are other wood fillers you could use. My floors had far too much square footage. Good luck
“Final sanding” because they’ve been sanded down to nothing over the decades?
They are “beyond repair”?
Getting putty to stick, requires a cleaned up gouge (Dremel tool comes to mind) and the right putty.
Ive been studying pro antique furniture repairing techniques and they use a kneaded epoxy putty.
Here’s some epoxy putty examples
Applying wood putty to fill the gouges would be a very large and laborious job and honestly might not match well once sanded and stained. Have you consulted a floor restoration company? They might have a prooduct/process that will work. Generally refinishing a floor costs about $3 a sq ft to have it done. But as long as you have large dogs you'll be dealing with the same issue on the soft pine floors again in the future.
Try Rejuvenate
Here is a technique, sand the floors and save the sawdust then mix with poly to fill in the gouges..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-MsW89nyfM&t=90s You could also get sawdust from a cabinet maker or sawmill, be sure to get the fine stuff.