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We’re Sanding – Again!

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We’re loosing our minds. Seriously. We keep saying that we’ll finish one project before starting another, but for some reason we just can’t help ourselves.

Last week we shared the state of our kitchen floor with you.

Laminate Floor Removal

The pictures really don’t show how bad the dirty, sticky and mouldy mess really is. It’s disgusting.

Laminate Floor Removal

Well no longer! We went completely mad and spent the whole of Friday sanding the floorboards.

The floor was in such an awful state, that we weren’t sure what the floorboards would turn out like. The amount of gunk and dirt made it almost impossible to tell, but we had to do something!

Things didn’t go quite as smoothly as we would have liked and we had a few nasty surprise along the way.

This was nasty surprise number one – Rotten floorboards. Yuk.

Sanding A Floor

They obviously had to be replaced before we could even consider doing anything else. It turns out that there is a downside to having the original floorboards in the house. Whilst they are a great feature, they are a lot thicker and a bit wider than any modern replacement ones that we can buy. So, we decided to replace the rotten ones with ones that we ripped up in the small back bedroom. Admittedly, this might not be the most intelligent thing that we’ve ever done, especially as there are now holes all over the bedroom floor!

Sanding A Floor

Replacing the boards was actually a lot easier than we’d expected. We just prised up the rotten ones with a crowbar and used a saw to cut them off over the centre of a joint. Then we just needed to cut the replacement to size and nail it into place.

Then we sanded the floor. It started on my own and worked flat out for the first 8 hours before Jan had time to help me for the final three hours.

Sanding A Floor

While sanding, we came across our second nasty surprise. Woodworm.

Woodworm

At first it was just a really small patch, but as we sanded the floor, more and more areas popped up. We’ve not done anything about it yet, but we’ll definitely have to look into it in the future.

After hours of sanding, we were desperate to get the floor finished and with the last rays of daylight we applied three coats of varnish to the floor.

Sanding A Floor

We’re still concerned about how well the floorboards will hold up in the kitchen, but it’s such a huge improvement on before and there was no way we could have left it as it was.

Even the patched up area where the floorboards were rotten doesn’t look too bad.

Sanding A Floor

The dining room and kitchen also feel much more like one room now, as the finished floor goes seamlessly from one area to another.

Sanding A Floor

For the first time since moving in to our home, I feel like I can walk barefoot around the house without catching some yucky infection! It’s all just so much cleaner and brighter.

Sanding A Floor

Considering the state of the floor before, we’re really happy with how it turned out.

Have you ever had a woodworm problem? Any ideas on how to treat it?

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Christine 20 Comments

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Comments

  1. Alice says

    04/11/2019 at 09:50

    Hiya, we have just sanded our floorboards and also discovered woodworm scars. Did you ever decide to fill yours in? And if so do you have any advice on the best method? Thanks, Alice

    Reply
    • Christine says

      04/11/2019 at 11:03

      No, we left ours as they were. We only had a couple of spots where there had been a bit of woodworm and decided to leave it as it (partly because we’d planned on ripping out the whole kitchen including the floor at some point). For us, it was part of the history of the house and didn’t really bother us. If you do decide to fill the holes, I’d recommend using a flexible filler as the floorboards will inevitably move slightly and you need the filler to be slightly flexible otherwise it’ll start to break. I’m sure their are some products available that are specifically for floors but we never used any.
      Hope that helps a bit, Alice and good luck with your floors!
      Cx

      Reply
  2. Nicola Le Rougetel says

    02/01/2018 at 15:15

    Hi Christine
    Such a helpful blog – thank you! I’m thinking about sanding our pine Victorian floorboards as they are covered in heel marks and really visible (but I think dead) woodworm. I just wondered, do you think sanding improves or worsens the appearance of the woodworm? We also have big black splotches all around the old nails (I’m guessing they got damp?)-is this something that also stays after sanding?
    Your thoughts much appreciated!
    Cheers, Nicola

    Reply
    • Christine says

      02/01/2018 at 15:38

      Thank you, Nicola! The heal marks should disappear but the woodworm will probably end up looking worse. We had a similar situation in the kitchen and, as most of the woodworm is in the wood, the more of the floor we sanded the more visible it became.
      On the plus side, I assume that the black marks around the nails will disappear, too.
      Hope that helps but let us know if you have any other questions!
      Cx

      Reply
  3. Vanessa says

    27/08/2017 at 01:19

    This is a huge improvement and although the worms are probably not the best, it’s provides an interesting unintentional design on the floor.

    Reply
    • Christine says

      27/08/2017 at 20:26

      Yep, it really couldn’t get much worse, could it? Varnishing the floor has essentially killed any woodworm, so nothing to worry about!
      Cx

      Reply
  4. Anyssa says

    29/07/2016 at 19:04

    I’ve read all your blog posts about sanding the floor (looks amazing!) but can’t figure out if you sanded between varnishings. Did you?

    Reply
    • Christine says

      30/07/2016 at 15:08

      Thanks, Anyssa! Normally we would sand between varnishing but because it’s the floor we didn’t bother. Yes, it’s the silky smooth finish you get when you sand between coats of varnish but we figured that it’s only the floor and that we wouldn’t be touching it too much.
      Cx

      Reply
  5. Me says

    24/01/2014 at 22:47

    Very nice. Would love to know about the sanding and staining process though. Details? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Christine says

      25/01/2014 at 08:54

      Thanks! It’s such an improvement on the horrible laminate flooring that used to be there. We shared a long post on how we sanded the floors here. None of our floorboards are stained, they’re just varnished with clear varnish (Granwax Aquathane in Satin).
      Hope that’s some help!
      Cx

      Reply
  6. Aaron FitzGerald says

    15/11/2013 at 13:10

    Hi Christine, your floors look great, well done! I noticed you decide not to fill the gaps in your floorboards. Was this because you preferred the natural look? I’d like to leave my gaps unfilled as they aren’t too wide, just 2-3mm at worst. I’m a bit concerned about all the dust and dirt that will disappear down them though, especially in the hallway. Any tips or experience on that front?

    thanks,
    Aaron

    Reply
    • Christine says

      15/11/2013 at 15:41

      Thanks Aaron! We didn’t fill the gaps for a few reasons. First of all we couldn’t decide on a method. Some say that you should fill the gaps with a mixture of glue and sawdust (from the floorboards), but we heard that over time the mixture in the gap will come loose and fall through. Other methods include cutting thin strips of wood to fill the gaps (which sounds like a lot of work) or there are specialised products available (which can be expensive).
      But overall we didn’t fill the gaps because we like the natural floorboard look. We’ve also insulated under our floors, so don’t need to worry about draughts.
      Unless you’re a complete clean freak, I wouldn’t worry about the dirt and dust. Of course there is some, but you don’t really see it in the gaps as they are fairly dark. More importantly though, it just gets sucked up like all of the other dust and dirt when vacuuming.
      Hope that’s some help!
      Cx

      Reply
  7. Leslie Porter says

    23/08/2013 at 06:13

    This project is absolutely so impressive. Two thumbs up for this. Hardwood floor maintenance is indeed so important in order to avoid scratching and dirt to settle in it that would make it dull and ugly. Floor sanding is so beneficial when it comes to floor maintenance. This helps in restoring floors without replacing everything. And what is more interesting about this, this can be done with low cost. This is one way of making floors beautiful again with less hassle of course.

    Reply
  8. Louise says

    08/08/2013 at 12:25

    Good choice, and impressive carpenting. All the rest actually looks better now, not worse, so I guess that effect can go both ways? Now it looks more like a happy colorful kitchen rather than a kitchen trying to faults with eye-catching paint. The woodworms are most likely gone, you can mix wood-glue with sawdust to make an invisible filler in the same color. It will show a bit but not so much after the varnish.

    Reply
    • Christine says

      08/08/2013 at 12:54

      Thanks Louise! We also think the room looks so much nicer, at least the awful floor isn’t the first thing you notice. The biggest difference to us is that it’s so much cleaner now. I know that sounds weird, because we’d obviously cleaned the kitchen a lot, it just feels so much better.
      Cx

      Reply
  9. Sarah says

    07/08/2013 at 22:39

    The before and after are night and day! That floor looks great!

    Reply
    • Christine says

      07/08/2013 at 23:07

      Thanks Sarah! We’re really pleased with how it turned out – especially considering the state it was in before.
      Cx

      Reply
  10. Magali@TheLittleWhiteHouse says

    07/08/2013 at 17:31

    You did an amazing job. And it gives me hope as I would like one day to remove whatever is on the upstairs wood floor in my cottage. Everybody says I’m nuts and the floor will be ugly, but I know you can make it beautiful.
    I bought a shelf eaten by woodworms, so if you find a natural idea to get rid of them, please share!

    Reply
    • Christine says

      07/08/2013 at 18:01

      Thanks Magali! It seems like wooden floorboards are really forgiving, so it sounds like yours could come up fine, too.
      I’ll keep you posted on the woodworm
      Cx

      Reply
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