Frequently Lucid Mom

I have an entire house full of oak flooring that has been urine-stained over a period of 40 years. We had the floors refinished 3 years ago, but many of the stains were too deep and would not sand out (without gouging the wood).

Since then I find that I **cannot stand** the stains -- they completely ruin my enjoyment of the wood floors. They are very heavy in the living room and dining room, and in odd spots on the stairs and down the bedroom hall, and odd spots in each bedroom. I don't want a rug under the dining room table (3 young sons), but I have covered the worst living room spots with an area rug. The only way to cover the odd spots down the hall and stairs would be wall-to-wall carpet, which we don't want (3 cats, those same 3 young sons, allergies, etc.).

Any suggestions from anyone who has dealt with this problem?

Can I strip or sand the polyurethane off the stained areas and somehow bleach the stains? I have read about using oxalic acid...? How do I get the polyurethane off? (3 coats) If I remove the finish from just the stained areas, and then re-coat with polyurethane, will the re-coated areas blend with the neighboring areas? I have always heard that polyurethane can't be spot-repaired like this....

Help!!!!

Big Dave

You can bleach out the stains if they're not too bad but from the sounds of it this will not work. Your next best option is to remove the offending boards and weave new wood back into it's place. You can spot repair polyurethand but what you need to do is to do it to a joint in the flooring. You can't stop in the middle of a board and expect the lap mark to dissappear.

I'm not a floor refinisher but these are suggestions that I've read on a flooring forum. I only install and finish new pine flooring.

Hope this helps at least a little.

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