Refinishing Hardwood Floors

[JackSparrow]

I'm pulling up the carpet in this house to reveal the original 1972 hardwood floors. I'll definitely need to refinish them. Here's my question: Where I pull up the tack strip from the carpet do I just fill all those nail holes with a stainable wood filler?

Thx,
Joe

[HotinOKC]

Hello Capt Sparrow!

Yes, fill the nail holes with wood filler and it will be good to go.

[JackSparrow]

Do you have a preferred product to recommend for filling these holes? Or will any stainable wood filler work?
My concern is that they stain up equally with the rest of the oak floor.

[hrjrkr]

They will never stain equally. Even oak will not stain equally because of the different shades in the wood. It will be less noticeable if you fill them and stain them as opposed to leaving the holes. You can try the colored putty filler but even that will never exactly match. What I trying to say is that no matter what you do it will never match. When I did my sister house the carpet srtip nails had left black stains in the wood and I was not able to sand them out. After stain and coats of poly you can barely see them.