Need Advice on unsanded Baltic Pine Floorboards - Odour & Protecting

Hi,

I am as my name says "a total noob", I am new to this forum and I need the help of you knowledgable people please :D


I am currently in the process of renovating and I have 2 issues with my un-sanded / un-finished / raw Baltic Pine floorboards :

1. They have an unpleasant odour from previous old carpet layed on top of them. Can anyone recommend a product or something that can remove a 'musty' odour from raw floorboards ?
2. They are un-sanded and I am currently living / walking on them and wanting to know whether there is a product I can use to protect the un-sanded boards, that wont interfere with sanding and staining later on down the track ? ........... Or, are calico drop sheets my best option in protecting the floorboards ?

Also, do I only have to worry about oil & water spillages or will dust/sand and general traffic ruin the exposed boards ?

Thanks guys ! :D

With regards to 2. down't worry, sanding will fix all woes. My dad even cooked up some oily sangs inside on the lectric frying pan and the fat marks sanded out..... eventually.

The odour is probably from years of cat wee, mouse poo and skin flakes.. not much can be done until sanding..

Cheers Pulse

Sanding will get out most sins in floor boards so dont worry, mine whilst I am still renovating have had paint, plaster bog, crap etc etc etc etc dropped all over them.

When we pulled the 32 year old carpet up we had that musty smell as well on Cyprus Pine boards but a couple of mops with warm to rather warm water with good old no brand white vinegar (a good cup full per bucket) or cloudy ammonia or both together does the trick, SWIMBO used both and she even put in the final mop 8 or so drops of lavender oil for that nice fresh smell. Just let the floor dry somewhat between mops though.

A lot of the smell may also be coming from the embedded dirt/dust between the floor board joins and the mopping should get most of that as well. Also if the house is old/ish you may find as we did that a lot of the original musty smells were in the curtains, blinds etc.


Chris

Thanks heaps guys for that great info, made me feel so much better because I was really stressing about the boards!

Our house is really old & I have removed every blind, curtain & carpet in sight ! I originally thought the musty smell was coming from the wallpaper, but everytime I move furniture and move closer to the floorboards the smell is very strong :eek:

Is it okay to get the raw floorboards wet ?
Mopping with the water & vinegar idea sounds good but will it dry quickly ?
Is 1 good mop up good enough ?
Will the water get in between the floorboard joins & lift up and make the wood weaker ? The grooves in the floorboards are not perfect and their are stray bits of wood sort of fraying so I worry about the water weakening & making this worse ?

Thanks :D