| How to Refinish Hardwood Floors |
| Page: Refinishing Hardwood Floors the Do It Yourself Way |
Lets face it, hardwood floors take quite a pounding in the average family home. After about ten years of use you get to the point where all normal housekeeping measures of cleaning clearly becomes indaequate. This is the point at which the floor needs refinishing. So, we all tend to go out and get a few estimates from professionals for the work. images/hardwood-floor_doorways.jpg
If you are like me you’ll need to sit down to
recover when they tell you it will cost you as much as
$1300 just to have your living room redone. At that point
one tends to cast about for alternatives and someone will
no doubt suggest that you carpet over it for less. Yes,
its true, you can do that, but somehow to my mind the act
of carpeting over such beautiful and irreplaceable
hardwood flooring as ours seems, quite appalling.
The answer is that you can actually do this for yourself. It is
not that difficult. Clear the room early and jump in the car
one Saturday when yo have the day free. Run over to your local
home improvement store. We have a Lowe’s quite close, but others
like Menard’s, and Home Depot will provide the same service,
and rent a sander.
You may have heard that the finish takes days and days to dry, but in reasonably good weather I have not found that to be true. It’s the actual task of sanding is quite simple. Make sure you get a drum sander, a belt sander or both. The hirer will explain to you how to use the machine, and provide Health & Safety instructions. If they don’t offer this, they should so just ask and wait until you receive a good explanation from someone who has done this themselves. Make sure they tell you the right kind of sandpapaer to use and how much to purchase.
The next step is to choose the stain, with the
color and finish in mind which you prefer. Again advice
should be forthcoming to those that ask. Make sure you
also pick up some dust masks because you will have
sawdust everywhere. Again, this should be explained in
the Health & Safety instructions with the type of
mask described as well.
Once you get home you will find that the sanders are very easy
to use. They make a lot of noise of course but wear ear
defenders and don’t concern yourself about that. The key is to
keep the sanding head moving at all times. Do not stop or you
will cut a divot in your hardwood. I like to think of the
sander head being much like a clothes iron. You know that will
brun your clothese if it stops and how often do you burn you
clothes? You don’t burn your clothes do you? Well, don’t be
intimidated by the sander then, just control it, keep it
moving, and everything will be dandy!
The same goes for all the sander types. They
creates a lot of heat and will burn or dint your floors if
you hesitate in one place for too long.
You will indeed need to maintain full control of the machine at
all of the time. Being self propelled, like a powered lawn
mower it only needs you to pull back on the handle and it will
stop though. But, do be prepared when you power it up. It is a
case of holding on to the machine tightly. It ain’t got nothing
on a bucking bronco, but some get alarmed at this first start.
Don’t be afraid of it and after a few passes, you’ll start to
relax into the task.
In afunny sort of way, refinishing your floors is like doing
your fingernail varnish.There is a very definite sequence to
it, and it goes like this:
1. Remove the old finish, basecoat, color, and top coat.
2. Continue in areas of high wear and damage to sand more to get to a smooth surface which will take the stain evenly
3. Apply the stain
4. Wait to dry
5. Apply the finish and polish
You may, of course, opt to forgo the stain
(color) and just use the natural color of the wood. Then
whatever you do, you will still need to apply a finish to
it.
Choose from the two types of floor finishes commonly available.
One is oil-based and the other is water-based polyurethane.
Oil-based is available in a satin, semi-gloss or gloss finish.
Satin works well on floors because it hides small flaws and
lets the natural beauty of the wood show without a bright
shine. Oil-based also produces a warm amber look that gives you
the traditional glow of wood floors. Water-based polyurethane
dries clear and resists yellowing. If time is especially
important and you need to get the room back into use as fast as
possible then a water-based finish generally dries the
quickest.
Finally, my tip is to always be patiet and make sure you allow
each coat to dry competely before applying the next. You would
not put another nail polish coat on until the first was well
dry now would you? That means you will need to give your floor
at least twenty four to thirty six hours before moving all your
things back onto it. Take care with it for the first while as
well as it will continue to harden-off for the first two weeks
or so.
When the job is done you will have a lovely floor in which you
can be proud and you will have saved yourself about $1,000 by
doing it yourself. Not bad eh!
