Parquet floor restoration

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mind_the_goat

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Hello
We have what appears to be a softwood parquet floor in lounge and hallway, Where the varnish is still in place it's a yellowy brown colour in other areas the varnish is worn off and we have a nice worn grey colour. Needs restoring or replacing, I would prefer the first option.
As a test I tried to sand a small area with my belt sander, 60 grit, first at high speed, which clogged the belt in about 2 seconds with a waxy looking substance, then slower, which reduced the clogging bit it took about 20 minutes to get down to clean wood on just 1 tile. Obviously I will need to hire floor sanders for this but wondered if there was some solvent that might be worth using to clean off some of the surface coating first?
Once clean we would like to keep a very light finish to the floor, I was considering a white wood dye or liming product but am a bit concerned that either may concentrate in the joins and leave the floor looking like a chain link fence.
I have seen finishing advice elsewhere in the forum but would still welcome any additional suggestions on this too.

Thanks in advance
Rob
 
You can buy a proprietory brand polish stripper which will get rid of at least some of the crud - you'll need all the help you can get. I did a hardwood one , and I got one square foot to a half sheet of good quality 40 grit. Lovely when done ,though.
 
Thanks.
I did try a little white spirit on the surface with not much result, so it seems likely the clogging is due to the varnish. I'll try some paint stripper on a small patch to see it that lifts the varnish.
I imagine it is Pitch Pine, we one room with a Herring bone pattern and the hallway is done in squares or 3 blocks each. They do look like different wood but that could be due to different coloured finish I guess.
 
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