My newly rented studio has wooden floors which was varnished and no polyurethane was used. Everything scratch!

Question

I am not going to stay in my studio for longer than 1 year. Because of varnish they put, everything that touches it, like chairs, tables, scratch the finish, and it's awful to look at. I don't want to spend so much because I did already spent a lot to get this. What should I do? A wooden floor is nice even without a varnish as long as it does not scratch. Any suggestion? Thanks.

Answer 1

Varnish is simply too soft for an interior floor. The best way to solve problem and protect it from further scratching is to overcoat it with a product that does not have hot solvents in it such as lacquer, xylene or urethane. These hot solvents may cause an unwanted reaction with the varnish so select your top coating wisely. If you are up for sanding you will get better results and adherence. Top Secret Coatings 1 Part Epoxy Clear coating is non toxic, economical to use, easy to apply and uses "cool" solvents that will not react with the varnish. It has excellent hardness, will prevent scratches, retain its gloss, has excellent UV properties, and will protect the wood from any further deterioration. See it on line at Top Secret's on line store. Good luck.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Finishes are often misnamed. What some might call varnish is a stain and what others might call varnish is poly-varnish.

Whatever goes on these wooden floors, short of a coat of glass, is going to scratch. If you mean that they stained the wood but didn't apply a sealer, yeah, that's going to be a problem.

You can buy felt stickers that basically go on the bottom of furniture legs, silver plated tea pots and other things to keep from forming scratches.

You can buy crayon like wax markers that's designed to cover scratches and there's products out there that's a stain like wax material.

To remove deep scratches requires sanding and refinishing. You can only remove so much of a wooden floor before it gets "spongy." That is, enough of the wood is removed, to get away from the scratches that the wood is now too thin to properly support the weight of anyone walking upon it.

Always go the simplest route first. A good wax might just cover things up and then apply the felt stickers or the glass saucers that's made for furniture legs. You don't see those much anymore but you can find them in glass and plastic.

If that doesn't work, there's a product called Olde English sold in the U.S. That's applied with a rag, gloves and darkens the stain. The next step would be either the colored wax or marker pencils sold to cover such scratches.

If you have sucess in any of these methods, to prolong the look, coat it twice with a good floor wax. And, you have to wait 24 hours or more before rpplying a second coat of wax.

Answer 4

With all due respect...consider that a "FLOOR" endures more abuse than anything in your home.

VARNISH,,,, If that's TRULY what is on the floor, is no worse in suffering scuffs and gouges, that any POLY you can apply,,,sigh.

Again, and with no offense meant,,,what causes the scratches and the need to move furniture often enough to cause them?

I suggest you could spend Millions and still notice similar issues. It may be that you need to re-define, not the why of the product scratching, but the cause. Certainly there are Gliders/sliders, STUFF on the base of furniture LEG "Add ons" that aid in the issue NEVER becoming one.

Steven Wolf

Answer 5

If you have knots falling out of the floorboards then the boards were never any good to start with. I worked on the rule of all knots should be able to be covererd with a 2 pence piece, there should be a maximum of two knots per square foot and none of them should have a black edge. This edge is bark and will ensure the knot falls out after a bit of shrinkage. to fill in the holes you could make up some wooden spikes and after driving them into the holes cut them off with a fine toothed saw. Or carefully mark out and cut out a square around the knothole but only half way through the board. fit inserts in these square holes with a good glue and after a couple of days for the glue to dry, plane the inserts down level with the floorboards. To make a really good job of this project, now get a quality carpet fitted over the floorboards. Or move house. enjoy doing the work and don't kneel on the odd screw lying around... they hurt like buggery. Until you get the job done, don't allow any old sailors with wooden legs to walk over it, you may get a sailor on a permanent basis.

Answer 6

Lots of throw rugs!
Go to a home improvement store and get some felt pads made to go on the bottoms of chairs and table legs. These are inexpensive, nearly invisible and will keep the floor from getting worse.
As for the floor, you could spend lots on different products to make it look new. But you probably have something already that will work. In a small area try dabbing vegetable oil on the floor and letting it soak in for a few minutes. Try different times until you get something that is similar to the tone of the stain on the floor already.

Answer 7

Put down an almost same size of the floor carpet. Because varnish is similar to poly, that and shellac. Have you tried furniture polish? Like Liquid Gold? To have them polyuethaned now, they would have to be completely sanded.