How to Pick a Hardwood Floor Refinisher

Q: My oak floors are covered in scratches. Exercise I have to sand down to bare wood to get rid of them?

—Susan Bankhead, Elevation, Idaho

A: The Editors of This Erstwhile House reply: Not necessarily. If the scratches don't get all the way through to the woods, you can scuff-sand your floors with a buffer and apply a fresh glaze or ii of finish. The hardwood floor refinishing process is easier and less expensive than sanding down to bare woods and takes less time. In a few hours, your floors will look as good as new.

The task requires using a buffer, which you can hire at a habitation center, and a vacuum to suck up dust. Buffing hardwood floors tin exist tricky, then if y'all've never used a buffer before, practise in the eye of the room until you get a feel for how to maneuver it.

Once the cease is roughed upward, we put on a h2o-based polyurethane, which can be recoated in 3 hours. Oil-based polys are cheaper, but each coat takes about 8 hours to dry out. With either finish, we recommend a fresh coat every ii years or whenever the floor looks worn. Stick to that routine and your floors volition never wear out.

Pro Tip to Foreclose Discoloration: Sometimes the tannins from your forest floor react to h2o-based polyurethane, causing discoloration. To avoid this, apply a base coat earlier applying your water-based poly. Smooth the base coat out evenly around the edges with a paint brush. (Don't brush too fast or y'all may create bubbling, which will show in the finish.) Shine out the residuum of the floor with a synthetic floor end applicator and give your base of operations coat about 2 hours to dry.

Hither are some additional mutual questions we've come across:

How much does information technology cost to sand and refinish hardwood floors yourself?

If you lot plan on DIY-ing your hardwood floors, expect to pay a niggling less than $500 per 275 sq. feet. The average range tends to exist between $one,000 to $2,400.

The full cost includes renting sanding equipment along with purchasing sanding pads, wood stain, brushes and terminate.

Is information technology cheaper to refinish or replace hardwood floors?

You lot can almost always bet that refinishing is cheaper than replacing hardwood floors. With the latter, you'd be paying not only for the new wood but also for the labor of ripping out the old wood and toting information technology away.

What Are The Steps To Refinishing Hardwood Floors?

Read these half-dozen steps for refinishing the wood floors in your home:

1. Clean the Floor with a Hardwood Floor Cleaner

Photo by Reena Bammi

• Remove all the furniture, and spray the flooring with a hardwood flooring cleaner or your own mix of 10 parts water to 1 role white vinegar.
• Gently wipe the flooring with a terry-cloth mop or a towel wrapped around a mop head.
• Close the windows and doors to keep dust contained in the room you're sanding.

2. Prep the Perimeter

Photo past Reena Bammi

• Using 180-grit sandpaper, paw-sand the perimeter of the room and whatever nooks that the buffer can't accomplish.
• Rub with the grain 4 to 6 inches out from the baseboard, working over each board until the stop dulls and a powder forms.

Pro Tip: Don't use a sanding block for refinishing hardwood—it might miss uneven spots in the floor.

three. Scuff-sand the Floor Finishing

Photo by Reena Bammi

• Stick a maroon buffing pad to the buffer, and put on a dust mask.
• Motility the buffer from side to side across the floor in the management of the grain, overlapping each course by half dozen inches.
• The former end turns to powder as y'all get, so it's easy to see the areas you've covered.
• Keep the buffer moving at all times, but stop every 5 minutes or and then and vacuum the pad.

4. Vacuum and Tack

Photo by Reena Bammi

• Leave the room for ten to 15 minutes to allow the pulverisation settle.
• Put a clean filter in the vacuum, and sweep the floor using a felt-bottomed attachment.
• Piece of work in line with the flooring strips, then sweep beyond them to get any powder that settled between the boards.
• Finally, dry out-tack the flooring with a microfiber cloth pushed with the grain.

five. Cut in Along the Edges

Photograph by Reena Bammi

• Cover your shoes with booties and your nose and oral fissure with a respirator that has organic vapor canisters.
• Strain the finish through a cone filter into a clean plastic watering can, minus a sprinkler caput, then cascade some strained end into a minor plastic container.
• Brush a 3-inch-broad stripe abreast the baseboards at a point farthest from your exit door.
• You'll have lap marks if the edge of the stripe starts to dry, and then stop after 10 minutes and become to the next step.

6. Roll Out the Poly

Photo by Reena Bammi

• Pour out a 1-inch-wide stripe of finish in line with the grain—only as much as yous tin can spread in ten minutes.
• Using a long-handled roller with a ¼-inch nap cover, roll out the cease with the grain, then across it.
• Overlap each laissez passer and work quickly to go on a wet border.
• After 10 minutes, castor more finish along the edge, and so pour and whorl again for 10 minutes. Continue until the floor is covered.
• Wait 3 hours before recoating and a calendar week before putting dorsum piece of furniture.

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Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/flooring/21016483/how-to-refinish-wood-floors-without-sanding

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