Is there a special name for the discolouration of wooden floors under furniture, rugs, etc. where the light hasn’t been?

Also is it a major job to return the whole floor to the same colour?

Many thanks

remove furniture, add light. Sorted.

Get yourself wall to wall carpeting in the rooms affected. Cut out a hole in the carpet when the rug once was, exposing the wooden floor. Leave for two-three years with shutters-open. Remove remaining carpet.

dave

Actually there are two ways to return the floor to the same colour but both depend on the floor being wooden and not a laminate. You can stain it darker than the darkest colour or your can sand off the entire surface and recoat it. Note the latter solution is the special reason why you buy parquet!

I can tell you my floors adjust within 2-3 weeks of good light. No treatment necessary - but the material is oiled Jatoba wood so it might behave differently

Thanks guys

I like the idea of the carpet with holes . As the agent said, "I was surprised how marked it was, but I soon got use to it."

It is a lovely, virtually unscratched parquet floor, but either a rich dark oak colour or pale beech, depending where someone else's furniture has been. I was given an estimate of CHF45 per square meter to have it sanded and retreated, does that sound reasonable? If anything its less than I expected.

Thanks

are you moving? I am not sure that they can make an issue of this to be honest - it's reasonable wear-and-tear in my opinion.

Teak Oil might help. You can get teak oil that does not darken wood but might help where it has dried out and oxidised as you describe. But it is better if this is put on when the floor was new. It might soak into the dry areas too much if you tried it now. I have used it on parts of my floor and I hope to complete the lounge in a few weeks time.

If you were to try this then you would have to test it on a patch of wood where if it got too dark then it wouldn't notice.

Given the cost of parquet has fallen to around SFr. 50 m2 and the cost of fitting is around 25m2 and that you live in Basel so you pretty well half these costs in Germany I guess you can answer the question yourself... That said if the parquet is really oak then you would pay an arm and a leg for that - but I guess it is just stained...

To do it yourself is possible you can hire the machines in Toommarkt for the day and that is about how long it would take you -max to sand it down) and return it. Then the sealing is also fairly cheap but the work is quite dirty and dusty so you might not want to do it...

What is "fair wear and tear" here in Switzerland?
It seems to mean something significantly different to the UK rental market.I rented my UK house to some American family(could have been any nationality - just happened to be US folks) and returned to find they had cut a catflap through the fire door into the garage! This I made them pay for of course but they did give the house a good going over.
Following that we had a Brazilian couple in who left the washer leaking for 3 months - ruined a lot of flooring - excuse? they did not know what they were doing as back home the maid to care of it...geeez!
Had to pay 500chf for small water stain on parket when i left my last place - unbelieveable.

here you go, cricketer:
http://www.englishforum.ch/apartment....html#post8758