Can we save our original parquet floors?

and that guy that made an attempt at sanding those wood floors should have realized that they are too thin before he brought the sander into your house. be careful with him, there is either a lot he does not know or a lot he knows but for some reason is not telling you.

pull one of the strips up and confirm it is down to 1/8″. if they are, say 3/16″ you might get away with a sanding. might. i would talk to a flooring shop, new york floors outside lowes or a real floor person. if it were 1/8 in my house, i would not do it as if you do, the edges will begin to lift and curl like paper or thin veneer. and they will tear.

in lieu of sanding you can screen. screening removes damaged finish but does not take the wood down. i screened my floors when we moved in because we had to get it done fast. if you screen them, you can add poly (after tacking them off to remove dust)(if i were not busy doing doors, i would offer to screen yours, but there is not a lot of money in it; it is like stripping wax off any other kind of floor and reapplying the wax (instead this is on wood and we are using poly)). if you screen and want to darken the floors a bit, you can perhaps add a little tint to the poly (tint from a finishing supply house, not home depot or a corner paint store). and then over coat with another clear poly to protec t the tinted poly.

in so far as the missing pieces, i used to replace them, cutting them on site for people. that would not be expensive if it is a few pieces.. also keep in mind, the keys are a different wood. they look only a little different when unfinished, but as soon as you put the poly on, they go dark again (its not that they are stained). i think the keys in my queens house are mahogany inlaid around an oak floor.

i have to repair some damaged spots in my house and will do so by hand sanding. i am then going to seal the sanded spots and put a coat of poly on and then screen the entire floor to blend it. i was thinking of doing a video of this and posting it someplace as a lot of people do not know how to blend a repair in wood, especially in floors. but it can be done with almost perfect results if one screens and over coats the entire floor after working the repaired area.

you cannot stain over existing poly. you cannot stain after screening (stain goes on raw wood; screening leaves poly in the grain of the wood, it is still “sealed” for the most part). you can poly over poly but you should screen first (i used to screen a gymnasium annually with 60/80/100/120/180 grit screens. we might have gone to 220). we have a small kitchen and i wanted to over coat it so instead of bringing in all sorts of equipment in, i violated all sorts of labor laws and what many “experts” in modern parenting think is good for kids these days and i had my then 14 year old son get down on his hands and knees and give the floor a sanding with a dewalt sander. 150/180/220 grit. he dusted it off and i put the finish down. that was two years ago and the floor looks brand new and my now 16 year old knows more about how to service a wood floor (without dragging in machines weighing hundreds of pounds) than anyone reading this right now.

i really wish i had time. i would like to make a video on how to service an either damaged floor or one that might not need a full sanding with my son. this would include either a screening or light sanding with a hand sander and over coating. if i could find a way to do this, i would post it on you tube and would put a link here. servicing floors this way is really easy, so easy even a 14 year old can do it.

A coating of Rejuvinate might make the existing floors easier to live with. The stuff is inexpensive and simple to apply I’ve been using it for years, although my floors were sanded and polyurethaned when I bought my house, so they’re probably in better shape than yours

thanks for your input… We could actually live with them as-is for now… however there’s a few busted or missing keys, do you know if we could replace those and somehow get them to match the others with a stain?

Or would it be possible to add a stain on top of the existing poly to make the areas match more, or must one sand before applying poly and/or stain?

1/8” is much too thin. Your floors are wearing their final finishing.