Just put oil varnish on top of existing in a room and there's three or four circular light areas about 2" across. I don't know what they are and I'm thinking maybe they're water splashes from something - maybe there was water in the painter's bucket before I poured the varnish in, maybe I dropped some off the mop or a rag I was wiping the skirting with, picking up sawdust.

i don't know. would you have any idea? seen that before? how would i fix it? have to sand it back I guess? if I don't go through to the wood it should fill okay with a new coat?

and i have a small room - closed in verandah really - that has been floored with 4" softwood planks (where the rest of the house is about 2" hardwood planks), untreated.

It is like a sunroom and gets hot.

Over the last 8 years the planks seem to have shrunk a tad and curled up lengthwise. so that the edges of the plank are slightly above the centres.

best way to deal with this?

I am reluctant to varnish any more. after revarnishing this place, my first such experience, i note that it is terribly labour intensive and wasteful.

because you can't patch worn through places you have to strip the whole room.

because of age the planking has settled and whatever and when you've stripped you now find you have to not just sand the old varnish off but actually sand the floor level again.

this means minimum of three sandings: coarse, medium, fine.

the sawdust gets everywhere. throughout the house. all over the walls, all over the ceiling. everything needs washing.

then the varnishing needs three coats....

next door to total madness i'd say.

but what else to do?

in the old days i guess they'd oil and polish the floors to preserve them for a hundred years. guess that's a bit silly now...