removing the black stuff from nails

[Leslie Ap]

Phil,

I'm not sure if either of these products would be useful or harmful, but have you looked into iron out, or naval jelly? I have similar stains on my floors, in a few spots. I think they are from a pet urine- maybe soaking through old carpet or something, then sitting on the wood.

[philsvintageradios]

Thanks Leslie , I have used Naval gelly quite a bit for rust removal on irom parts but I think the active ingredient is a different type of acid ( phosphoric ? ) I'm scared to use that on the floors.
The Iron out might work ? .. Maybe if I can get to MSDS doc for it , it might give a clue as to what's in it.
Phil

[philsvintageradios]

I checked with Mohawk finishing supplies and they have the Oxalic acid for this purpose. Planning to pick some up tomorrow.
I did a bit of searching and this is the stuff usually recommended for this issue, and evidently it affects oak as well as in my case Fir. I am not sure if all woods have this issue to the same extent. Ill try it out and report back my findings.

Phil

[melissakd]

YAY, IRON OUT! They make that stuff around here! (I won't be more specific for fear someone might use the information to track me down. [Yeah, track you down and what, Mel? Steal your ten-year-old computer? Murder you for your farmhouse sink? Not bloody likely.] )

Phil, your floor patches....they really look that good?! Wow. DH and I are redoing our kitchen right now, and have the same basically good wood floor with a modest assortment of holes from past appliances and systems. Hmmmm...you've given me an idea...the places under the base cabinets won't matter....so maybe we could use them to patch the places which ARE going to show!

MKD

P.S. You can throw your dishes in with mine. Just give me a minute to fill the bathtub!

P.P.S. That was a bald-faced lie. I do the dishes in a dishtub which is sitting inside the bathtub. And only when I absolutely can't avoid it any longer.

[philsvintageradios]

Hi Melissa , Thanks for the compliment. The patches I thought were going to be really hard but That part wasn't so bad , the sanding and especially all the puttying is taking quite a while.
I think it depends on your floor, but I would check your local old house parts place for flooring. I paid 1.50 a foot and .75 a foot for stuff with nails still in it. I had some splits etc to glue up. make sure you measure the thickness as some of it has been sanded. The drum sanding will take care of that anyway. once you re-install it you can set the nails low enough so they don't get in your way. I found it difficult to pull it up without breaking it, but your milage amy vary.

Remember the nails are always on the side with the tongue. you can face nail it if you need to when you get to the edge of your patch. I used a router with a 1/4 straight bit to cut them off where they were staggered. I had quite a few single boards near the edges where they had drilled a hole for a pipe or something and instead of trying to make a plug I just cut away a foot or so and replaced it. I found this is much less noticeable than any kind of plug. I found a couple out in the middle of the floor that i missed though and I just don't have the ambition to replace any more so oh well , those ones are patina I guess

I looked up the Iron out. I got to the MSDS doc on the company's site. It has the ingredients and none are oxalic acid so I don't think that is the stuff for the black marks. They aren't rust stains, it is a chemical reaction with the iron that turns the wood black. rust stains are brown. The oxalic acid is poisonous so not that readily available, in concentrated form anyway. I read a lot of posts where people had gotten it from drug stores and had to sign some sort of waiver when picking it up. I couldn't think of a drug store that sells weird stuff like this so I am happy Mohawk has it.

They had a map too and I printed it out. I am near Vancouver Canada so It'll take me a couple of weeks to drive my dishes there but I'll be on my way just as soon as I can

Phil

[Mury]

It's looking great! The marks that go across the boards don't look bad to me. You won't see them as much once it's stained. I'd chalk those up to "character" definitely.

[melissakd]

Hi, Phil. Gee, thanks for all that advice! I'll send this thread to my DH; he might be up for taking a crack at it. Iron Out is meant for laundry, so I'm not at all offended if you don't use it on a wood floor. : )

MelissaKD

[philsvintageradios]

well I picked up some stuff for this purpose (oxalic acid) they had small tubs, and with the mixing proportion I think was 8 oz to a liter. so it would have made 2 liters. they also had it in a 4 litre can (of powder) so I got the 4 L can and I'll give it a whirl and report back to the thread in a few days. it was something like 7 bucks for the tub and 32 bucks for the 4L can of powder.

Phil

[philsvintageradios]

couple more shots of the floor.
- I treated the whole floor with oxalic acid and hot water,
- let it dry a bit then went over with just hot water, to reactivate it and doing that picked most of it up
- following day I washed the floor with water and baking soda to neutralize it.
- today I rented the pad sander again and did a final sanding, pics are before the final sanding.
Next Ill put danish oil on it and see how the color looks. It's a bit lighter now but the oil will darken it a lot and after a coat of clear I might do another coat with a bit of color if it needs it.
I sure like the light color better than the dirty looking black marks all over the kitchen floor.

I can't wait to put the fridge and stove back in the kitchen. I can't begin to describe how awkward this is , never try this at home ..

Phil

[melissakd]

Boy, does that look fabulous, Phil. And don't strain yourself---get a furniture mover or a hand truck or something for that fridge. : )

MKD