Refinishing Hardwood Floors

Methods Commonly Used for Refinishing Hardwood Floors. Did you know you can enhance the value and charm of your hardwood floor, add, and increase durability simply by refinishing existing hardwood floor? More often than not after a successful hardwood floor refinishing project, the new floor would be as good as new, hence is a cost-effective way to give your flooring a new lease of life, so to speak.

Refinishing hardwood floors can be a very lengthy project, or it can be a quick strip and simple protection project. The duration at which the project would last depends on the extent at which the flooring needs to be worked on. In general though, a typical refinishing project would mostly cover sanding of the floor boards, hardwood staining, and sealing of the already stained floor for a durable and lasting finish. It is also important to keep in mind that the ultimate look on the floor would differ a great deal based on the age of your floor and the type of wood used.

Sanding – as any skilled and experienced hardwood refinishing professional would tell you, sanding, otherwise known as stripping, can be the most time consuming and labour intensive part when it comes to hardwood floor refinishing.  The main aim of sanding is to strip down the old finish thus preparing the floor for its brand new finish. The process generally starts when a drum sander is fitted with course sandpaper and the floor is sanded. As a round of the process is finished, the grit would normally be changed to a lesser course sandpaper, and the process repeated again, until you end up with a smooth floor that shows no traces of its previous finish.

Staining – once all old finish is stripped away, you can decide to seal the floor if you want to attain a natural look of hardwood. Those who prefer a darker look can stain the refinished hardwood floor so as to deepen and enhance the natural colour of hardwood. The process of staining hardwood floors may take a considerable period of time, as well as call for several applications to attain the desired look.

Floor board sealing – sealing of the hardwood floor boards is often the last process of refinishing hardwood floors. The most commonly used sealant is polyurethane; and you may need two or more layers of it to seal the wood completely once you are done with the refinishing. You may need to allow the floor to dry completely for a period of 6-8 hours before you could apply the second layer. Allow a window period of 24 hours after the second layer for any other subsequent layers that would need to be applied.

This is just a short overview of refinishing hardwood floors. If you are a daring do-it-yourselfer and have some basic knowledge on refinishing hardwood floors, then you can do the work for yourself and cut down the cost of having to hire a professional. If on the other hand the project is large and complicated, you might want to leave the work for the experts, if not for anything else, because professional flooring companies or firms may have access to tools that may not be easily accessible to you.