When his renter moved out, my Son decided to make the hardwood floors in his rental an asset. His house is an older home, that has two living areas. He rents out the upstairs, and lives in the basement apartment; until he can get his homestead finished.
As with all older homes, the floor there had been repaired and patched several times. The back bedroom was the original yellow pine, while the rest of the house had been upgraded to oak floors. The oak floors had four repairs done at different times, and each looked different. Two repairs were done badly, and the repair was higher than the rest of the floor!
He decided to sand and stain all surfaces, and see what the floor looked like then. The floor would have to be sanded level to put flooring over it anyway.
We rented a floor sander and began the war. He sanded the majority of the floors, while I sanded the edges with a hand sander...I'm not sure who had the worst job there! A darker stain gave us the best chance of getting a match with all surfaces, so we put down a darker wiping stain. The advantage of a wiping stain is you can add more, or wipe off some to balance the color.
We did have to resand one area that had something spilled on it, as it wouldn't take the stain. Removing what surface seal allowed that area to be stained to match the rest of the floor.
When the stain was even and dry we added the first layer of polyurethane sealant:
The floor began coming back.
Even the pine was begining to shine:
The room at the top of this picture is the yellow hard pine. Yellow pine has a lot of sap in it, so it doesn't take as much stain quickly, so we had to apply twice there. But the polyurethane has sealed it and added a shine!
The second coat was well worth the effort:
The shine, and the increased wear resistance sure made this second coat worthwhile!
The pine floor joined into the shine:
Even with age showing here, the floor is now stable, and looks good. No more problems with splinters here, and this old girl is strutting her stuff!
The front bedroom is looking good too:
These French doors make this room especially attractive, and the floor doesn't disappoint either!
I don't know if this saved any money due to time and the sheer amount of work required to recover this floor, but the results are gratifying! This enhanced the character of this house, by showing some age while displaying a real shine. All the patches and repairs have become part of a total floor, and are no longer obvious!
With very little left to do, she will rent pretty soon, this floor will last for decades now!