New hardwood floor questions

[RogerT]

I am re-doing a second floor apartment that a tenant just moved out of.

Unfortunately, the previous tenant had cats and there are cat urine stains everywhere on the existing old hardwood floors. There were rugs on top of the old hardwood floors, but the urine stains went through the rugs to the hardwood floors. So, barring some miracle way of getting rid of lots of cat urine stains and smell, it looks like I am going to have to rip up the existing old hardwood floors to get rid of the smell.

If I go that route, I want to put new 3/4-inch hardwood down -- not Pergo, laminate, vinyl, etc.

My questions are related to what type of hardwood to get.

I was thinking of maybe putting down pre-finished 3/4-inch hardwood -- such as Bruce prefinished hardwood. But, my concern about that is that the prefinished "colors" are apparently a stain and finish -- so if the floor gets scratched or damaged in the future (hopefully not by cat urine), I would need to sand out the damaged area and then have to figure out how to match the stain so the color would match. Instead, I was wondering if there is some particular type of finished or unfinished hardwood floor that would look good with just a clear polyurethane finish. That way, to repair any damage, I could sand it out and apply a clear finish again and hopefully that would match the original finish.

If I go with that approach, is there any particular type of hardwood flooring that I should consider getting -- oak, maple, something else? -- either finished or unfinished?

NOTE: I posted this on the alt.home.repair newsgroup earlier today but later thought that this group may also be a good place to get feedback and ideas on this.

[FrozenNorth]

Go to a real flooring company, my house (built in 52) had hardwood throughout, living room was covered in orange shag carpet when we bought it. Needless to say the shag left as our first reno, called in a sanding guy, stained oak underneath, sanded down and a natural clear urethane finish. That was over 14 years ago, we still love it.

[Eric]

I am re-doing a second floor apartment that a tenant just moved out of.

Unfortunately, the previous tenant had cats and there are cat urine stains everywhere on the existing old hardwood floors. There were rugs on top of the old hardwood floors, but the urine stains went through the rugs to the hardwood floors. So, barring some miracle way of getting rid of lots of cat urine stains and smell, it looks like I am going to have to rip up the existing old hardwood floors to get rid of the smell.

If I go that route, I want to put new 3/4-inch hardwood down -- not Pergo, laminate, vinyl, etc.

My questions are related to what type of hardwood to get.

I was thinking of maybe putting down pre-finished 3/4-inch hardwood -- such as Bruce prefinished hardwood. But, my concern about that is that the prefinished "colors" are apparently a stain and finish -- so if the floor gets scratched or damaged in the future (hopefully not by cat urine), I would need to sand out the damaged area and then have to figure out how to match the stain so the color would match. Instead, I was wondering if there is some particular type of finished or unfinished hardwood floor that would look good with just a clear polyurethane finish. That way, to repair any damage, I could sand it out and apply a clear finish again and hopefully that would match the original finish.

If I go with that approach, is there any particular type of hardwood flooring that I should consider getting -- oak, maple, something else? -- either finished or unfinished?

===================

Forget the new hardwood. If the hardwood is fastened firmly yet get a pro and sand the wood down, stain and urethane with about 3-4 coats.

I had an old floor that had been water damaged by the open windows and the previous owner was insane and used a million pieces of carpet from 9x12' down to 1 inch square and stapled every one down to the oak flooring. He duplicated this underneath with matching pieces of underlay. What a mess. The cracks seemed to be black and open up to 1/4" in the water damaged areas.

I had a guy come in and redo the whole thing for around $200 about 20 years back and I wouldn't trade the quality of my prefinished Tigerwood hardwood floor for it. The thing looked flawless when it was done and every crack was sealed up without a trace of water damage. I wouldn't attempt a sanding job like this on my own. This guy knew how to use the various screens and control that machine flawlessly. For a dark oak stain to not show a scratch is impressive.

Now the whole thing squeeked and popped before this job but some PL-400 forced up between the plywood and the joists from underneath with the wife rocking her weight back and forth on the floor above to work the adhesive into the joints made this floor a rock solid work of art when it was done.

Usually there is a reason to use 3/4" oak in the first place. It can be refinished a few times.

[Dave]

On Fri, 9 Sep 2011 23:05:35 -0400, "Eric"

There are chemicals available that can break up the enzymes from cat urine.

[dadiOH]

Skip stain, any hardwood will look great without it...hickory, maple, oak, walnut, etc. The imports too...mahogany, jatoba, etc. However, any wood changes color with exposure to light over time so that means if a repair requires sanding wood the repair will be visible for a while. For that matter, the finish itself changes color. Nevertheless, I think it best to use solid, unfinished wood as you won't be able to nail it so boards are flush with each other, you need to sand them flush.

[Leon]

Totally agree with skipping getting or adding a stain. Stain simply adds a consistent color that hides the subtle beauty of the wood. IMHO you might as well paint the floor if going for a stain.

I would however look at hard wood hardness ratings, walnut is going to scuff and dent almost immediately and IMHO mahogany will too. I would suggest nothing softer than oak.

Oaks ar approximately 30% harder than walnut, and in some instances 50% harder than some mahoganies

[Lew Hodgett]

------------------------------------------------ As others have suggested, time for the pros.

They will sand and refinish with 3-4 coats of poly and all will be well with the world.

Lew

[whit3rd]

Go to a pet-supplies store and inquire about enzyme cleaners; Nature's Miracle is one brand, there are several others. The odor and stain will be the easy part of the job, just spritz, wait, mop, repeat..

[Josepi]

Baking Soda is usually the main ingredient.

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