apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

YES. Just do it. I live in a rental with similar floors and had them sanded, stained in dark walnut and it looks SO much better. NY Floor King did the job at a great price. I did oil base and the only thing I'd suggest is doing water based since it will not stink up your apt. for days. (My apt. smelled so bad for more than a week.)

Suggest to your landlord that they hot style is now towards dark floors... Trick 'em into thinking it's an investment into the value of the apt... Oh wait you may not want do that save your rent goes up...

i really don't like the look of the small parquet, especcially with a poly finish. i wonder if they would look richer refinished with a wax finish instead of poly?

Even if you can't convince your landlord to stain it darker, it will look better refinished. You may not love it, but I'll bet the floor will look better sanded and polished.

Maybe you can get landlord to store all your stuff in the basement-- maybe even help you move it out? After all, isn't it his fault he didn't get around to finishing the floors before you moved in?

i've actually been thinking about doing the same thing in my apartment. our contractor said that there are movers/storage places that can help move/store out furniture for a few days. does anyone have recommendations for eiher? is this expensive to do?

rsw: Any chance you have a picture of your floors? I have this parquet tile too - I was thinking of having new floors put in, but maybe sanding and staining would be a better option.

Only allow the refinishing if (BIG IF) the landlord uses a matte polyurethane finish ... that mirror-bright stuff is as painful to look at it is it to try to camouflage with carpets, etc.

If your landlord won't help and you find you cannot afford paying for the refinish try using SG floor polish..non-silicone, no-wax. Two coats made my floor look much better

Jane,
I'll look for a picture and post it.

Definitely have them refinished. We used 1800WOODFLOORS.COM to do ours (located in Astoria) using a dark Jacobean stain and the change is absolutley amazing. The contrast of the dark floors and the white walls is great. I definitely agree on the matte poly finish as well. It is much more soothing. It took 2.5 days for the work and we were able to get all of our belongings crammed into the kitchen cabinets and inside the bathroom, so we only needed to find a place to sleep for one night. It was one of the easier parts of our "ongoing" renovation.

Clean the parquet with mineral spirits(ventilate!!!)and lay down bowling alley wax and buff. Carpet or the new snap together flooring is a non fumey way of rectifying the situation. There is also those foamy snap together ergonomic cushions in many colors. Look into industrial floorings also, for a modern look. Jute rugs, grassrugs,& bamboos, are ethnic looking and are neutral and other rugs look good on top. There is always paint, floor paints in acrylic.

I had floors exactly like the ones that you show and they made me nuts. One day I rented a sander, hauled it up to my apartment and refinished the floor myself. It was a huge, huge improvement...before refinishing, the floors always looked dirty. It is worth the pain and agony...especially if you can get the floors stained a dark colour. Although at the time I did mine in a regular gloss and they looked good with the colours I had painted the walls. Also, be sure you cover the contents of your apartment well...the dust has a maddening way of getting into every nook and cranny.

If you are going to have it sanded and polyed, you'll really need to move everything out. The silt from the sanding gets in EVERYTHING. If you stay, you'll find it in drawers that are taped shut, even. The particles are just tiny. It will look much better redone, but it's a pain. Here in Boston, to get floors done professionally it can cost $1 a SF. The water based poly is safer for you, the environment and the guys doing the work.

I say yes - we refinished this exact same parquet, expecting nothing much except less splinters, and fell in love with the movement in the natural wood colors of the different pieces after the nasty 80's-oak orangey original varnish was gone. It is a paris-apartment feeling, and a little busy but in a characterful way that adds to ordinary nothing-interesting architecture. If you don't get full sun in the room, I would stay away from dark stain. (The great dark-floor/white-wall rooms I've seen all have the invisible blessing of sunlight to make it work.) The sawdust is like flour, and the smell of the poly ain't great, and it lingers. And the hassle is like moving all over again. So maybe a lot for a rental, but probably is going to look way nicer than you're thinking. Like, you'll love looking at it every day kind of nice. If you are staying a while, it is unquestionably worth it.

If you live in NYC, try getting an estimate on CitiMove.com for what it will cost to move your stuff out, put it in storage for a few days and then move it back in.

I will warn you, it cost me over $2,000 to do exactly that when moving out of an 850 s.f. 1BR (gap in closing dates required me to have my stuff in storage for around 10 days). To be fair, I had a ton of stuff; if you can leave all your dishes, books and clothes stashed around the apartment in closets, the kitchen, bathroom, etc. and just have to move a few big pieces it will probably cost you half of that or less.

That being said, seems like a LOT of effort for a rental. I wouldn't do it unless I was planning to stay there for at least 5 years. Then again, I hate moving!

I hate moving too but would be tempted to do it even if it means having to move out for a while. Try negotiation with the landlord for some assistance with the costs or getting stuff stored - there might be an empty apt elsewhere in the building you could use for a few days. If you don't ask you don't know!

The apartment I bought a year ago in Brussels has just the same floor, with an ugly varnish badly applied: there's dust sealed in it. The color is very dull, a bit yellowish and clashes against my pale grey walls.
I am interested in other members who did the renovation themselves. Can I reasonably consider sanding the floor and treating it myself or is it really difficult to do? I am aware that dust will get everywhere, but aside from that, is it realistic to undertake such a renovation without the help of a professional?
DYI doesn't scare me, but is this too much?

I also had the floors refinished prior to move-in for my last apartment (the 850 s.f. unit mentioned above). I had the luxury of a flexible move-in date but had little dough to spare, so I considered redoing the floors myself.

One of my friends who is a decorator urged me NOT to DIY it. She said it was a dirty, time-consuming job, and would be done faster/look better if I hired someone to do it. Considering the inconvenience involved with moving out your stuff, etc. you're not going to want to get this wrong.

Plus most of these floors are not that thick, so they can only be sanded down/refinished a limited number of times. Overall I would suggest hiring someone to do it, although I know it is not cheap.

I'm about to move into an apartment with the same cheap parquet floors and would love to see pics of how they look stained a dark jacobean or ebony. It's either that or pull them up and put in a new floor, which would be much more expensive, so if they look good stained, I'd rahter do that. DOes anyone have a picture they could post?

222485
Can anyone tell me how to get unfinished white oak floors to look like dark mahogany or very dak flooring. It keeps looking like victorian oak no matter what I apply including Minwax red mahogany oil based stain.

While I agree wholeheartedly on the interior design improvements suggested, the advice is a little off on what the tenants rights are regarding having his floors redone and walls repainted. Here in NYC the landlord is required to repaint the walls and refinish the floors every 3 years, or less is the condition has deteriorated through no fault of the tenant. This refinshing DOES NOT require the tenant to remove all his funiture, the landlord is lying to you as a scare tactic to avoid paying for the required work. Not only do you not have to move all you furniture out, you can have the floor refinisher move the furniture room to room to do the work at the expense of the landlord. Many tenants are elderly or disabled and should not have to pay someone to do this work.

I you do decide to pay for it your self, save the reciepts and send a copy of it to your landlord and request a rent reduction for that amount. I know many tenats so bold as to actually not pay that amount of the rent and just attach the reciept. That is a shortcut as you are supposed to request the rent reduction, but those tenats have been successful as the extra time and effort the landlord would have to go through to force the tenant to submit proper paper work is not worth it as it would just add more cost onto something the landlord will definetly have to pay for.

Lots of free tenants rights groups can help you out with this. The landlord is getting free money in his pocket every time he does not have to provide a service he is required to provide because he bamboozled a tentat into doing for him. Technically this could even be criminal fraud if you could prove he knew that what he said was false.

Every city and community has different laws, but almost all have tenant rights groups to help you, and most are similiar to NYC.

is it possible to sand and paint parquet floors using floor or porch paint? i have the exact floors pictured at the top of the chain and they are dirty and worn. i am not a fan of the ultra-glossy look and instead prefer a something more rustic, however price is an option. i have sanded and painted old wood plank floors myself and love the look.

if anyone has painted parquet successfully and has photos/advice i would be grateful. thanks.