Sanding & Restoration of Oak Parquet Floor With Black Stains

There are floors and floors. Some are better and some are worse. Their condition varies depending on the type of wood, the structure of the floor, the way it has been maintained and the type of damage it has suffered. This particular floor had it pretty bad. Its surface wasn’t simply worn, it was discoloured and a few places were covered in stains which suspiciously resembled those from a pet which had an ‘accident’. Given that the owner had a cat and a dog we thought it’s pointless to ask. In the end, it doesn’t matter, a stain is a stain and there is only one way to remove it, right?

The problem with urine stains is that they contain ammonia. This makes them capable of not only penetrating the floor finish but also soaking into the wood itself and remaining there as a black/grey stain which is very, very hard to remove. Such a stain can only be erased by thorough floor sanding but not always completely. Some stains are just too persistent.

One small complication was the fact that we had to sand a parquet. Why was this a problem? Well, the basic idea when sanding is that you have always to follow the grain of the wood in order to strip the surface evenly. If you attempt to go opposite of the grain, you risk tearing it and ruining the floor. How do you proceed, when the parquet is made from multiple wooden blocks with half facing a different direction? No matter what you do, one side of the blocks will always be sanded in the wrong direction. The answer is simple, we sand diagonally and strip both sides evenly. This way both receive the same treatment.

That was the hard part. The easy one is applying those 4 coats of Junckers HP Commercial. As the name suggests, this is a product intended for commercial purposes and able to withstand heavy traffic. Given that the homeowner has pets, the extra coats of such a hardwearing finish won't go to waste.

It wasn’t easy but we managed to get rid of those horrible grey and black stains. After taking a look at what it was before, can you really say it is the same floor if you didn’t know better? The transformation is complete. Sure seems like a brand new floor. Two days of hard work erased the decay of two decades! (Or at least this is how long it feels). We did a good job and we are proud of it!