Can This Hardwood Floor Be Saved?

Solid hardwood floors can be refinished several times. However, we don't know enough about your floor to answer properly. Some factors:

• How many times it's been done before. Eventually you start getting through to the tongue of the plank, which leaves thin spots and gaps. You might also start seeing nail heads.
• How severe the dark spot damage is. That might be water stains, which can go quite deep. If they're deep and dark enough you won't get them out entirely.
• The color you plan on using. The dark stain that's on there now may have seeped all the way down the vertical faces of the planks. That, along with the water stains, may mean you won't get a nice finish with a light stain or just varnish. You may have to stick to a darker color to mask those things.

I sanded a similar wood floor, a bit older though.

I used a drum sander 8 or 10” in diameter and 14 or 16” long roughly.

I sanded diagonal to the grain with coarse then finer grades of paper. It took about 5 passes in total with 2 at the medium paper.

This produced a lot of dust and I sealed all the doors to prevent other rooms getting covered. Also had a big vac to get the dust.

Stain and finish as preferred.