My GF and I moved into a house. It is fine otherwise other than the fact the office has white paint on the floor. Allegedly the previous owner was going to carpet over the paint..and then the carpet store went out of business..and they were out their money so the owner let it go. Should I use steel wool? It is an older house..floor is not in tip top shape anyways. Just trying to make it look better. The paint is everwhere.

I sanded my hardwood floors down this past weekend after pulling up the carpet and applied Minwax Red Mahogony to the floors. I had the assistance of someone who supposedly knew what to do. I was under the impression we purchased the faster drying water based stain, however that was not the case as we later found out after reading the can, that it was oil based. We applied the stain on Monday evening, and it is now Saturday evening and there are many spots on my floor that are extremely tacky and even wet. What can I do??? -Is this excess stain that needs to be removed? -Can I apply a coat of water based stain over top? -How about the Poly? Water based over oil based stain? -Due to the length of time in drying, there is animal fur and foot prints in the areas that are tacky? I would really like to avoid having to sand these down again. Please, any help would be appreciated!!!