apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I second Citra -- I didn't use it on floors but on wood doors and it worked but not too good where there were many layers of paint. For that, I used a heat gun (about $30), which is much faster -- it kinda curds the old paint and you just scrape it immediately.

Good luck with your project.

I've used acetone which worked really well and didn't seem to take the varnish off with it, but it was on smaller sections of wood.

Whatever you do - take the cost of restoring the floors off the bill from the painters.

oh my!!! the chandelier in the 2nd pic - any idea where it came from??

Sandpaper!

I'd just get a random orbital sander, but that would take off the finish too so you'd have to refinish the floors.

if you've never diy'ed hardwood floors before AND you're planning on staying in your place for a long time AND your place isn't large, I would suggest just hiring someone to sand and refinish the floors. Perhaps you can strike a deal with LL to pay for some, if not most, of the cost.

Probably anything you use will take the finish off the floor. Also, when you strip paint off of wood, it will darken the wood anyway, so you might not be able to tell if you remove the stain. I would try Peel Away first, and then lacquer thinner and a wire brush (which will get anything off) and then refinish the floor with some polyurethane.

Sorry, but there is no easy way to do what you need to do.

You need to sand down the floors, restain (if desired), and reseal. Whether or not you choose to do the job yourself, I would talk with your LL to make sure what her expectations are of the finished product.

Hopefully, she'll pony up most of the cost of materials, if not hire a professional outright.

Good luck!

BEPSF and david are both right on. the contractor should know better and unless you have refinished wood floors or know someone who has that can help you DIY, then it would be best to get a pro to do it.

No no no to acetone! It will most definitely remove varnish. Citrasolv looks like it might help with removing some paint I have on an armchair. Does anyone know any national retailers that carry it?

Good job exposing the nice wood- now you need to sand the floors and revarnish. I'd suggest hiring a pro. I rented a sander and sanded and varnished (pine) floors myself once. It was very difficult job, and they ended up quite uneven. LL should pay for the sanding since the refinishing should last 10 years minimum and it adds greatly to the look and value of the apt. I suppose if you are super broke you could strip and then paint the floors but it seems a shame.... Good luck!

Speaking of painting the floors, if all else fails, maybe you can do something like this: http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/08/lena-corwin-contest-winners.html
I could see a white underlayer, applied, then sanded to get a rough ground, then patterns on top...

i agree with everyone who suggests paying a pro to do this

I would sand and refinish the floors. We recently bought a house and ripped out the carpets. The oak floors were covered in black adhesive and had several stains. We sanded the floors using a random orbital sander and a drum sander that we rented from Home Depot. We also refinished the floors. They look great. It was a lot of work but worth it. The whole thing cost us about $250. It would have cost a lot more if we hired professionals.

Yep! The best way to do this is by sanding the floors down and varnish them again with clear polyurethane.

You can actually rent the sanding machines yourself even though I heard they are pretty difficult to maneuver.

Remember that your floors take up a huge part of the entire decor...it might be worth the cost.

Good luck!

My brother recently painted my daughter's room and although I purchased cloths for him to cover the wood floors he simply covered one section. I should've known better, he's done this before. Now there are small specks of paint in certain sections of her room. Although I've tried to remove them - no luck.
I had her floors done a few years ago after removing the carpeting as well. The buildings porter did them and he did an awful job. If I were to do it again I'd hire a professional.
Good luck!

this is a big job-----those enviro strippers do work but not as well----i.e they take longer. You have to leave them on overnight basically as opposed to an hour or so for Jasco.

Also, mask those walls really well unless youre going to repaint.

Wow - what kind of a-hole painter does that?!

I have found that minor paint splatters, even if they are really old, can be removed using BonAmi, but that is probably not going to cut it for this floor.

I just did a VERY similar job - last weekend that turned out amazin (on 200 year old floors, mind you) I'd suggest just a "buff" sanding with an orbital sander. You can rent one from your home improvement store and they're easy to use even for a novice. The sander will gently take the paint off (along with other surface problems).
I wanted to keep the beauty and charm of the old floors, but a shiny, modern looking finish. Check out the results (and the process) on my blog:
http://projectrowhouse.blogspot.com/2008/12/wood-floor-refinishing-cabinet.html
The cost was less than $200 for this job.

ProjectRowhouse: Your floors look amazing!

Man oh man...that painter was an idiot douchebag! It looks like they used a sprayer too. At least if they had used brushes they wouldn't have made such a mess. That painter should not be allowed to work!

There is only 1 solution: Sand and refinish. PLEASE hire a pro to do this.

My old boyfriend (who is the son of a contractor and very handy) and I refinished the floors in our first home years ago. It was a huge job, and if your floors have any imperfections or other issues (water stains, damage, etc.), you the beginner are not going to be able to handle those appropriately. I would not not recommend it as a DIY project.

Also, anyone recommending use of a 'random orbital sander' for floors is dead wrong. You use a large belt sander, as the sanding has to be done in the same direction as the wood grain. These folks are either mistaken than the resulting floors look good, or they just don't know what kind of equipment they used to do the job. (maybe you use an orbital sander on herringbone patterned floors -- dunno? but your hallway floor is not patterned...)

Again, I strongly recommend that you hire a pro to do the job. It is not going to be that expensive, especially for a small area such as this.

arroyo: I think my method worked quite well for the effect that I wanted - using an orbital sander. While a full sanding and refinishing also can be a good solution, it does not leave the aged effect that some people prefer. I've done it both ways (once each) and both turned out great.

Give Sydney some credit - there are many capable DIY people out there.