how to best clean and protect very old and unfinished floorboards?

by **tinytinsoldier** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 6:03 pm

I’m the the process of ripping up the carpet in my bedroom and exposing the floorboards underneath. I'm guessing they’ve been living under carpet for anywhere between 10-50 years and they’re in need of some TLC.
They’re naked, unfinished wood (I can't tell what type of wood) with years of dirt and dust that I can’t manage to sweep up, there's gaps between most of them and a couple have splintered away a bit at the joins (see attached image) I want to clean them to bring out the colour and grain of the wood and to make them smooth so I won't end up with splinters in my feet but i don't want to sand them down (big room, lot of heavy furniture, lots of dust), I don't want to damage them and i don't want to risk warping them as a few are already a bit curved.

by **thedoctor** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 10:45 am

As far as cleaning them goes you can try scrubbing them with warm water but sanding is the only way to get them smooth and bring out the grain is to sand them. There are no short cuts here I'm afraid.