[SustainableTompkins] Advice on refinishing pine floors

[Thomas Shelley]

At 08:36 AM 5/26/2008 -0400, you wrote:
>A friend has purchased a 100-year-old home downtown and discovered, under 
>a few layers of carpeting and tile, the original tongue-and-groove pine or 
>fir planking, which was painted. She would like advice on whether it is 
>possible for her and her husband to refinish these floors DIY, or whether 
>they should hire professional help. They want to preserve the original 
>floors as well as they can.

Dear Wendy and Friends--I have these floors in my house as well.  They were 
meant to be the underlayment of the day and were never actually used as a 
flooring surface.  The wood used was not the best quality since it was 
meant to be underlayment and never actually seen.  I am not sure how they 
would actually sand down and clean up.  Mine have a lot of nails in them 
which would make sanding very difficult.  The more serious consideration is 
lead.  Your friends can have the paint tested for lead fairly cheaply, but 
I would suspect that it could easily be lead-based paint.  If it is it 
would be very expensive to  have the lead abated by a licensed 
contractor.   I suppose they could legally do this themselves with the 
right safety equipment and procedures, but my advice would be that they 
should not try to remove old paint on their own.  I repainted my 
floors.  This sealed in any old lead paint had added a rather nice touch to 
the room with the exposed pine tongue and groove.  Two other rooms were 
recarpeted as the softwood flooring wasn't in such good condition.  My 
$.02.   Tom

Tom Shelley
118 E. Court St.
Ithaca, NY 14850
607 342-0864
tjs1 at cornell.edu
http://www.myspace.com/99319958
P I thank you for printing this e-mail only if it is necessary

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present 
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own 
needs."

The World Commission on Environment and Development,
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, 1987

MY NOTE:  Sustainable development does not mean "sustainable growth" as 
growth per se is not sustainable.  And the term "sustainable" has to mean 
"for a very long time" (A. Bartlett).

"The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives."        Sioux proverb