How to treat salvaged maple flooring

Hi, We have bought some salvaged maple flooring that was once a basket ball court. Does anyone have any ideas as to how we should get it rejuvenated? there seem to be two schools of thought, one which says that the individual planks it should be planed before it is put down, which means that there will be no need for heavy sanding, and the other view seems to be that it is a waste of time and money to plane them as they will require 3 sandings at least anyway once they are in situ.

I'd be grateful for any advices. they are pretty grimey at the moment. My feeling is that they should be planed to get off the heavy grime and markings and then they can be soft sanded then after each layer of lacquer is applied.

Many thanks, Brigid.

It sounds ok as you suggest, take the heavy grime off first and when laid sand lightly after each coat and they should come up very well. It mostly requires elbow grease and patience.

thanks for your reply, my problem is that my husband keeps on meeting people who tell him just to put them down and sand them then. I think it will be hugely labour intensive and we will have to miss corners etc. have to try to persuade him a bit more! thanks for your thoughts.

How are the undersides of the boards? If they are clean and smooth, then running the boards through a [broken link removed] is the way to go. This will plane them all to a uniform thickness and leave a perfectly smooth surface. You will need to be sure there are no nails/screws in the boards.

Sanding once they are in place will be a tougher and dirtier job. And while an experienced operator will get very good results with a floor sander, it would be impossible get the uniform results a thicknesser will. Of course, if you want an aged look, then the results of the floor sander might fit the bill.
Leo

Thanks Leo, the undersides of the boards are in good condition, but with secret nails bent over. Taking them out is a tedious and painstaking job and seems to be taking forever. However, I have proven my self to be inept at it so I am exempt from even trying! (DG!!)The guy who was fitting the kitchen asked if we wanted to get them planed as he has the right machine, presumably a thicknesser. He is charging €350 for taking them away, doing them and bringing them back - which I think is money well spent. thanks for your comment.

No problem Brigid, sounds like you got a good result there.

I put down a reclaimed pine floor a few years ago. One side of the wood was really grimy and built up with years worth of dirt, and the other side of the wood was new-ish looking. I has assumed that it would be laid the new side up, but the floor fitter said that by doing that you would lose all the character of the old wood and you may as well just put down new boards.

He did a sample board for me: the side with new wood was just coated in clear varnish, and then he gave the old side a quick sand and then coated it with the same clear varnish. The difference was amazing. The wood on the old side was absolutely stunning, turned a beautiful rich red colour, and brought out all the character of the wood, the other side looked very plain and ordinary.

I would definately recommend getting a sample of both finishes before you make a final decision.

Thanks hfp, we had the wood already planed before I read your post. My next question is - is it better to treat the wood with oil or lacquer? I have heard that if you give it three coats of lacquer it gives it really good protection, but I have also heard that to oil it a few times also gives good protection and is perhaps more natural. Lacquer can chip i presume and it will look shabbier sooner, the oil, I am assuming soaks in and you can keep applying for as long as necessary.

Any thoughts on the matter would be gratefully appreciated. Many thanks.

this is a great topic very interesting, fair play to you for using reclaimed wood,im by no means a tree hugger but here in ireland we are so useless at reclaiming stuff, there is the most beautiful old woods and fittings out there which have such character,in the us and uk salvage is huge buissness and nothing much gets thrown out,here we waste so much and everything has to be new,
anyway i have done a good few floors in my time and i started using dulux diamond glaze, its water based extreamly tough and is dry in no time,i used the 2 packs for ages as well but with the smell and other things the diamond glaze is the job for me

thanks for your encouraging words - the cost of it was what encouraged us to buy - 15 euro a square yard and afterwards my husband who spent ages taking out the secret nails and cleaning each tongue and groove of the dust and dirt, very much regretted ever buying salvage! however, it is now going down and is looking good. Labour costs will be increase but probably not as much as if we had bought new, and it is nice to know htat we are re-using good wood. Anyway, I assume that you dont usually oil the wood, is that because of the finish or for any other reason?

thanks.

i have never used oil for anything, so i cant comment on it. and its hard to use a product that you dont have experience with.i really like the diamond glaze and never had an issue with it,or from the customer, so no need to change from it,any chance you would upload a few pics of the floor in progress,it would be great to see it..you could get a small pot of the diamond glaze and a small pot of the oil do the back of one of the boards, with each, put on at least 3 coats of each, and see which you prefer, thats the best way to make up your mind on the finish

Oil and varnish will give you two very different finishes. Varnish, particularly in the case of products like diamond glaze, will give a hard wearing layer of protection over the surface of the wood. Downside is it can look a little un-natural and plastic like. Scratches will generally appear as white marks in the surface. Often, a number of coats are required with careful sanding, and even more careful removal of the dust in between coats.

Oil will impregnate the wood and really bring out its character with a matt finish. It really is a beautiful finish on good wood, example here. The downside is it doesn't offer the same level of protection as a varnish, scratches and dents however won't stand out and often add to the character. It will however need to be re-oilled much more regularly than you would need to re-varnish, but oiling is easy.

The choice probably comes down to where it's to be used, what kind of traffic you expect in that area and what level of maintenance you're prepared to put in.

excatly,and thats why doing a sample of each is probably the best bet..

Hi, just wanted to up date anyone who is interested. We finally put down the flooring. I thought that I had saved loads of time by getting it planed before having it put down but since we ran out of the planed stuff some of the unplaned planks had to be put down and they looked just like the others after a few minutes of planning. therefore I question my wisdom of spending the extra money, which went up from the original quote as I think the guy mis calculated how may were there.

Putting down the salvaged wood meant that there were quite large gaps between a number of the boards. I was worried about this as it was going into the kitchen area but we got these filled by mixing the sanding dust from the sanding to get rid of any glue residue, with some substance and filling in the gaps. therefore it was all the same colour and looked much better. We then did varnish it with an oil based varnish I think, it is a ronseal diamond something product. It has really brought out the richness of the maple and looks great. I did none of this my self from a practical point of view so the 'we' I use is a royal 'we'!! if any one wants more specific information i can get it for you.

Well done Brigid, glad to hear it turned out well.

Brigid said:

therefore I question my wisdom of spending the extra money

Click to expand...

I'd be confident the end result is down to the majority of the boards having been planed first. If you had to fill across the whole floor, it would be very difficult and time consuming to get a decent finish.

well done bridget,it was worth it..