FYI

 

Introduction There are a lot of reasons that wood floor owners have for re-coating and re-finishing their floors. They can range from floor damage or wear, a desire to change the color of the stain, or to increase (or decrease) the sheen of the floor. Re-finishing hardwood floors is not as hard as it may look. The more understanding you have of the process of re-coating and re-finishing, the better you will do and the better your floors will look.

 

Sanding Floor sanding and refinishing is unforgiving work. Make a mistake and it will show. However, a refinished floor can bring beauty to a room like no other project. To hire a pro to sand, seal, stain, and apply several finish coats of an oil-based or water-based poly could cost up to $4 per square foot, or more. Beginning with coarse-grit abrasives sufficient to remove the old finish and most surface scratches. Avoid using grits coarser than 60 if necessary; this will help keep you from damaging the flooring. Proceed with abrasives that are gradually finer until you reach the desired degree of smoothness. (My preferred progression for a hardwood floor such as oak begins with 60-grit abrasive, goes to 80-grit, and finishes with 100- or 120-grit.) Sand as though you are mowing the lawn. Proceed row by row, overlapping runs by half the sander’s width. You will have to make numerous passes with each grit.

 

 

 

Staining Staining is scary because it is permanent! Oil-based stains, which are the most common, consist of dyes and pigments mixed in with mineral spirits. Make sure to stir the can thoroughly before staining to bring the dyes and pigments up off of the bottom, so as to get the full color from the stain. When working with oil-based stains, there will be fumes! Be sure to wipe off all the excess stain going in the direction of the grain of the wood. That will guarantee that the stain gets into the wood, instead of laying on top – and it really shows off the grain of the wood to advantage. 

 

Stain only provides color, not a finish. Always apply a finish on top of stained wood. Or, if time is short, reach for a product that combines both stain and finish with one coat. The product will need to be brushed on more carefully, finishing by brushing with the grain of the wood. Use a higher-quality brush with this type of stain/finish.

 

It is possible to mix stain to make a customized color, provided both stains are made by the same manufacturer and both are either water-based or oil-based. Do not mix oil and water. Measure the amounts of each stain used and write it down, so it can be duplicated if needed.

 

A water-based finish can be put over an oil-based stain, but only after waiting a full 24 hours for all of the mineral spirits to evaporate from the oil-based stain. If it’s rainy out, or cold, give it an additional 24 hours.

 

 

Buffing Your home's beauty is often defined by the appearance of your hardwood floor. More often than not, you can improve the overall quality of your floor by polishing or buffing it rather than refinishing it completely.Buffing wood floors removes minor scratches or scuffs and can also give your floor an attractive and lustrous shine that can last for years. Although the basic process of buffing a floor can be simple, affordable and sometimes even fun, it is still very time-consuming. Hiring a hardwood flooring professional to assist isn't a bad idea if you have more pressing priorities. Buffing is an excellent means of ensuring that the polish on your floor stays intact. In order to ensure that your hardwood floor is properly buffed, you should use a screen with 100-grit at least. 

 

 

Coating Recoating is the process of lightly screening or abrading the top (protective) layer of your floor and adding a new coat of polyurethane or water base finish. This process is the simplest and most cost effective way to make your floors look like new. We recommend that wood floor owners use the re-coating process before their floors get worn or damaged too bad. This will prolong the more costly and tedious task of completely sanding and re-finishing the floor.