As header.
My 21st birthday party allowed the guests to dance on a pitch pine woodblock floor. Those who can remember 1964 will know that stiletto high heels were fashionable:-) The damage has been covered by carpets since then but the new owners are asking if it can be repaired.
My recollection is that the dents were up to 2mm deep! Rather too much to sand off but I have a vague idea that they can be lifted by
*steaming*.Any suggestions?
I?ve done it once on a pine coffee table, which we still have.
I placed a bit of damp towelling over the area an applied an iron. I experimented with the temperature until the dent, which was only 1 mm or so deep, lifted.
I had to rewax the table etc but the area looked fine.
Unfortunately, a week or so later something was dropped edge on to the corner and made another dent that I had to fill. That does show ;-(
I suspect a steam iron and towel would be better but, at the time, we only had a normal iron.
They might have some luck putting a pellet of wet stuff, e.g. cotton cloth, in the hole, and applying a hot iron to it.
Rather than using a clothes iron, although it might be possible to use the tip, or a back corner, I'd probably heat up a puce of steel of appropriate sise/shape (e.g. metal round bar) to a temperature at which spit will just bounce off, and apply that. The ideais that the steam is forced into the wood fibres, and swells them. I have done similar on dented chair seats, using wet cotton string and an iron.
"You press the hot iron onto the wet material...."
Hmm. Sadly there are rather too many for individual attention. The floor would have had some sort of 1940's finish, stain, shellac etc. Too early for polyurethane.
P'raps they could do the worst 100 or so. Papr tissue might do. It's "wet, scrunch, wet, place, Psssssst! , done".
OTOH, if there are so many, hire a floor sander, and criss-cross , edge, re-finish. With DIY skills these daze, it might be better to Get A Man In., at least for the sanding.
I suppose a wall paper steamer would be too diffuse.
Anyway, I'll pass on the suggestions and they can pull up the carpet and play.
Don't. It may swell the blocks and make them lift. The idea with using water and heat is to zap a small area very hot, for a short time, withougt burning the blocks. Searing heat, briefly, a few seconds. A wallpaper steamer won't be good. If there're that many, sand the whole lot, if there's the thickness to do so.
You can get those hand held steamers that give a very thin jet of steam
- often advertised as the "safe" way to sanitise the back of the loo or behind taps etc.
I wouldn't. The idea is to get a searing blast of steam ito a small area very quickly. Those things, wallpaper steamers, etc, will be lucky to get steam up to much more than boiling point.
Were I to bother to try, I would do a test piece first, then give up!
It will never be perfect, I don't think. It was always an issue with some wood. Not sure, though, whether merely dancing with stilettos would cause such damage. Could it just be either originally very soft or just that its now old? Brian
But with dancing if indeed that was the cause and after such a long time, there will be loads and I'd expect it would be very time consuming and might make parts of it look somewhat mottled. Brian
Yes! to steaming... it tends to ruin the finish though.
If there are many (i.e. as produced by stiletto heels): Sand most of the finish off, wet the floor, wait. The finish usually needs to be off for the water to penetrate. Heat only hurries penetration and swelling along.
Dripping water only on the divots will help. For the most recalcitrant divots: wet rag, suitably sized metal disc, hot iron on the metal disc. Do *not* use steel/iron if there is oak involved, it may turn blue or black on you and that will be very difficult to remove.
Possibly use distilled water? I have never bothered, but I haven't done a whole floor, either...
IME, any wood dent where the fibers are compressed but not torn will come out completely using water, patience/time and heat.
You will need to sand again once the wood swells, else the dimples will protrude.
(There is a Japanese carving technique for carving frog skin: carve frog, pound dimples into wood, sand until smooth, wet wood -- the dimples expand, giving a frogskin texture:-)
Thomas Prufer
OK. Not strictly my problem but they are good neighbours. I think the blocks are around 40mm thick so plenty to sand so long as they don't cook the bitumen holding them down!
In message <sklt22$da0$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, "Brian Gaff (Sofa)" snipped-for-privacy@blueyonder.co.uk> writes
Pitch pine Brian. Much harder than white and with a pronounced grain. Relatively knot free.
In message snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Thomas Prufer snipped-for-privacy@mnet-online.de.invalid> writes
Hmm. Surely light sanding will leave the finish on the dents? Grit blasting?
Long time ago now but my recollection is small circles of dents where a couple rotated on one spot.
Interesting. My Squirrel, carved in Oak for GCE Art was still on display in the school entrance hall last time I visited!
Unless you're very careful I would imagine that steaming might risk loosening some blocks; sanding should be OK. Some of the floors here are 1930s herringbone parquet and, particularly in the dining room, had stiletto and other damage. Lots were loose so I lifted those, scraped off the pitch from the concrete and block, painted the concrete with liquid damp proofing (blinded with fine sand) and relaid them using a modern (sikaflex?) adhesive before sanding and sealing. The floors now look stunning. The blocks are about an inch thick so sanding-off a couple of millimetres is not a problem, and many companies offer the service. (Note: important to use a rotary sander, not a drum sander)
The normal approach is to put a few drops of water on the dent, and let it soak for a bit, then apply the hot iron through a cloth to protect the surface from discolouration. It may need several applications.
On minor dents, just using the iron through a damp tea towel may be enough.
However doing a whole floor may take a while!
OK John. 14 x 14 foot floor!
I think I wound be inclined to remove any finish with a light sand. Then mop or spray water over the whole floor and leave it to dry naturally. Repeat a few times.
That will raise the grain all over a bit, but should also result in more expansion of the particularly compressed bits of wood fibre. Once could then assess and spot treat particularly bad dents that remain.
Finish with a floor sanding machine, and finally rewax / oil / finish as required.
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