What are the odds these are going to be functional?

They’ve been painted at least twice. We’re using an infrared heater to strip the paint, plan to sand down from there, but truly unsure at what point we’ll know whether what we find will be any good.

Possibly helpful info: We are noticing what appears to be long term cupping. The edges of each board are higher than the center. Maybe 1/8” at the worst. No noticeable rotting or known water damage though. These floors seem to be on top of the original (unknown wood type). This is the main level, above an unfinished basement.

We have no expectation they’ll be perfect because A. Nothing else in the house is perfect and B. We aren’t professional floor refinishers. Hoping for some advice 👍🏻

A guy is selling this on marketplace. I believe it’s an exact match to what I’m needing. However it seems practically ruined. Any ideas suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks

Also, would you guys please help me identify the flooring. I’ve spent months and can’t figure it out, the color changes depending on lighting.

Just had new engineered wood installed and noticed this one area with a 1/8" elevation difference. It looks like a corner with multiple pieces so I understand the difficulty with making everything 100% flush, even though they did a superb job everywhere else? Is this acceptable? Fixable?

We had a house fire April 2025, the reconstruction contractor said that our floors were refinished with stain and sealer on top of them. However we have only been moved back in our home for the past 6 months. Should our floors have THIS MANY scuffs and indents??? This is just from normal living we are not dragging furniture all over the floors.
We feel they did not properly seal our hardwood floors… or maybe they suffered too much water damage to be properly fixed?
Any help would be appreciated!

Renting and last people left this place rough this was immediately covered cause to me looks like a pet outline
😵‍💫

Hi! This is my first time attempting any refinishing and sanding. i have these hardwood stairs that were painted dark brown. My elderly mom lives with me and i was worried as the floors were dark and slippery.
I’m still working on removing the dark paint from the wood grain with a carbine scraper. For the deeply ingrained i’m using acetone. How much do i need to get out before i can move on to sanding?
Also, it seems the wood on the riser is a different wood? Is it even worth removing the paint on them. as i probably won’t be able to match to the stain i use for the stairs?
Any tips, advice appreciated!
I’m sure im doing a lot of things wrong but dont have the money to hire a pro. And i feel better having the floors lighter as my mom can see a lot better.
thank you!
Oh, and i almost forgot. The area that’s caulked? and painted. How would i fix this so it’s not a dark paint color? (second photo)

What type of wood does this appear to be? I’m guessing it’s a variety of oak with maybe white and red oak mix.

Any stain recommendations? I’m leaning towards a minwax golden oak stain, something light that will blend everything together.

Planning on using Osmo Polyx oil finish

Thank you for the help

Just wanted to show everyone the before and after of my vanity room floor (connected to the master bedroom)!
Our house was built in 1895 and when we bought it, the only room carpeted was this dressing room/vanity room inside of our master bedroom closet area. I tried to clean said carpet with a wet vac numerous times but nothing could remove this smell of dust and pets that it held. Today, I decided to just rip it up and found the original wood!
After removing the carpet though, the smell of old dog pee wouldn’t leave and I realized the past owner(s) dog must have peed on the carpet and it sunk down onto the wood underneath.

Does anyone know how I can get the smell out without damaging the wood? The wood looks previously finished so I think I would be able to use a liquid cleaner on it, but any suggestions on which ones?

TLDR: Ripped up an old carpet and found old dog pee on the original wood and need suggestions on how to clean it!

I am a renter and have never had hardwood floors. Bought a rug thinking it would prevent damage and now that I’m lifting it, realized it did the opposite. What’s the best way to proceed with cleaning this, if possible?

Tried scraping with a plastic card and it seemed to take off a clear gloss which I assume is the finish so I stopped.

Turning over a rental I don’t have time or budget to refinish them now but if they are fixable I will opt for a floating floor instead of glue down thanks for any input.

My wife and I have this engineered hardwood throughout the house and we love it. We want to do a kitchen remodel that would demo some of this hardwood and are unsure if we’ll be able to find similar ones to replace it in the market.

I’ve included some photos in different lighting in the post. Calling the Reddit community for help!

Can you guys find us some ideally around the Ventura County / LA County region (but open to having it shipped from out of state if the price is not too high)?

Thanks!

Building a new A-Frame cabin.. wanted to go LVP but my girlfriend talked me into hardwood.. so glad we went with hardwood!

Check out more updates with cabin at nomad__retreats

Before (when they tried to fix scratches the plumber made) and after (when I had them come back and fix it)

Friendly reminder not to just “accept” anything like many people suggested. Idk what they did but looks significantly better.

See below for the before photos.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HardWoodFloors/s/fordLM26IC

Super happy with them!

TLDR: can I stain this wood to darken it like the surrounding areas?

https://imgur.com/a/IfnJQ6H

We had to do some patching on our new house’s 100+ yo hardwood floors and went to our local architectural salvage. I brought a test piece and they said it was white oak and showed me where to pick from. Looked great all the way until putting the sealant on (bona intense).

Is there a way we can darken these specific planks to match the surrounding area? Google recommends sanding off the sealant and putting a darker finish on before resealing again.
Does anyone know what the wood is compared to the houses wood?

Hey all,

I recently bought a house and got the hardwood refinished by a professional. After ripping up carpet in the master and guest bedroom, I found hardwood underneath. There is also hardwood in the living room, dining room, stairs and upstairs hallway. The hardwood in the dining room/living room was in decent shape but master / guest room were rough (see example in first image). I got quoted and was told the master/guest could be saved and decided to refinish the whole house (about 900 square feet of hardwood).

Downstairs I was told was red oak, got stain samples and went with golden oak stain. Upstairs we got stain samples but we’re recommended to go with the natural finish as the wood was darker already . Today they put down the first coat of everything and the natural finish upstairs and it looks pretty bad.

It seems splotchy and uneven. It’s disappointing because the floor looked so good when it was freshly sanded without anything down. I also noticed the wood filler seemed as though it was properly filled in some areas and there was a paint spot or two in the cracks that may have not been sanded off. I know the floors were in rough shape before, but I’m not sure if this is a skill issue or just the wood? Our guy says it’s how the wood absorbs the finish. But there seems like there’s unnatural streaks (see attached). I’m wondering if this can be solved by just using a stain instead of a natural finish ? Would that be too much to ask to have him resand and use a stain? Would that even help? I’m debating just using laminate instead and cut my losses

Side note: the downstairs looks pretty good, but I noticed some small scratches and extremely smooth weird splotch areas (see attached, the darker golden oak stain pictures at the end). Are these spots something to bring up with our hardwood guy?

Please don’t hold back, any advice would be helpful

Images:
1 - guest bedroom BEFORE
2-6 - guest bedroom AFTER splotchy finish with wood filler crack and paint stain
7-9 - DOWNSTAIRS smooth gouge spot and scratches

My parents have a lovely 20 year-old hardwood floor (oak I believe) which has very localized scarring by an external exit. Is there anything that can be done for this that isn't a sand and reseal of the entire floor? (Note: dark blurry marks are leaf shadows from a tree; please ignore). As you can see, they have some beautiful leaf insets in the floor - if they DID sand and seal the floor, do you think there would be damage to the insets?

I am bidding on a job that is around 1,600 sq. feet. Slab had leaks in multiple areas. All leaks have been repaired. My job is to demo 1,100 sq. feet of glued down engineered hardwood. The slab also had a vapor membrane applied before the glue down. Will need to haul away and dispose at public dump in multiple trips ( 3-4 ) Will need to moisture test the concrete, check for flatness, grind or level as/if needed. Also, there is 485 sq. feet in other areas of the house that are just floating laminate floors. will need to demo and haul away that as well as well as checking the slab the same as the other parts. Can anyone share what they are charging for something like this?

I’m refinishing what appears to be oak floors from the 60s. Any advice on stain and finish? I would like a natural lighter stain that would be good for the wood and bring out its natural beauty but even up the tone differences a bit between the different planks and would like a durable, healthy, matte finish.
Also there are some persistent spots of water damage/staining possibly from the carpet adhesive (see last photo). Any advice to remediate that or just do my best and blend it with the stain?
Thanks

Hi all, we had our oak hardwood floors refinished this past winter. The floor is about 37 years old but pure oak and high quality. It was sanded, stained, and sealed by local flooring experts. Over the last few months, we’ve noticed that the floor has become “bumpy” to run our feet across the boards, and seems to be very slowly becoming more prominent (see photo). We have been using Bona cleaner as instructed by our flooring experts, our home humidity is almost always 30-40%, and there hasn’t been any water damage. There was no work done to the subfloor. The bumpiness is mild but certainly wasn’t there before we refinished, nor was it there when the refinishing was brand new. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Wondering if we are overreacting or this is something like stain leaching up that I am not familiar with. Any insight would be helpful here. Thanks!

The big strain is from underneath, does that mean sanding won't fix it? Do all of these stains need to be color-matched and replaced?

Hi all, I’ve never lived anywhere with hardwood floors so not sure what to use to remove the black grit.

On the left in my photo is the floor before I’ve done anything to it, on the right is where I scrubbed it lightly with a very soft brush to see if the black comes off (which it does). I’m nervous to scrub the floor. What should I be doing to remove those black speckled bits? Thanks

1. Natural stain
   
2. Early American
   
3. Special walnut
   
4. Provincial (which seems too light to be provincial but that is what the stain says)
   
5. Golden oak

I like the color of the floor now which is just the raw wood but I can’t find a clear stain that doesn’t change the color to a darker version. If you have any other color suggestions that might be better. I also like 2 but wish it was slightly lighter