Light spot on hardwood floor?

[tamawrite]

DH and I are seriously considering buying a house with lovely, cherry-colored hardwood floors. There's one large spot on the floor that is lighter than the rest, like it was bleached or was never stained as dark as the rest of the floor. The edges of the spot are kind of indistinct, not sharply delineated. Does this sound like something that can be fixed by sanding and refinishing?

[AndreaU]

I can't speak with 100% assuredness, but DH does a lot of woodworking and is a self-proclaimed wood staining master... it could be sanded and stained to match. Though it may not match exactly, it may not stand out as much. However, is the wood actually cherry? One property of actualy cherry wood is that is darkens with age, so a new patch of stain will age differently.

[tamawrite]

Hi Andrea. :) I'm pretty sure it's not actually cherry -- just stained a bright cherry-like color. Thanks for your DH's advice!!

[funnybone]

How big is the spot? Is it possible there used to be a rug or furniture in the area so the area is lighter for that reason. We have Brazillian cherry and the area in the closet is not as dark as the rest of the area since light does not get in there. This happens to wood all the time. When we moved out of our last house, the area of the floor where the rug and furniture sat was slightly different than the rest. It's just the nature of wood.

[tamawrite]

The spot is smaler than a rug or piece of furniture; also, it's rather dramatically lighter (blond instead of red.) It's about 1' x 2', but irregular like a puddle.

[funnybone]

Hmm, not sure - might have been a spill of some sort (or pet urine??) that was cleaned up, but did some damage. Either way, unless you can cover it up with a rug or furniture, my guess is that you may have to sand and redo the entire floor because you can never match the area with the rest of the floor. Have you/your agent asked the homeowners about the floor? You could always negotiate getting the floor done with the offer.