How To Refinish Hardwood Floors: Step-By-Step Guide

Although hardwood floors are designed to last the whole life of the building in which they are built, refinishing will inevitably be necessary over time. If you have the required tools and instructions, you may do the task yourself rather than hiring a flooring contractor to do it for you.

Benchmark Abrasives has been supplying abrasive products for stripping and refinishing hardwood floors to both professional contractors and do-it-yourself enthusiasts. This post offers a detailed how-to for achieving exceptional outcomes.

IS HARDWOOD ACTUALLY USED IN YOUR FLOORING?

You must first identify the kind of floor you have before you can properly restore your hardwood floors. Although it may appear apparent that numerous flooring kinds impersonate hardwood, they are composed fully or in part of other materials, necessitating distinct restoration techniques. Hardware emulations consist of:

• LAMINATE: Synthetic materials are laminated and embossed with grain patterns to resemble the appearance and texture of real wood. Laminate flooring is generally easy to recognize since it feels like hard plastic. It is almost impossible to refinish, but recoating can be accomplished with chemical abrasives.
  
  
• ENGINEERED: An inexpensive substance, usually plywood, is bonded to a thin layer of hardwood to create an engineered wood floor. As long as the layer of genuine hardwood is thick enough to sand down without touching plywood, this flooring can be refinished one or two more times.

Because solid hardwood floors are composed of solid wood boards, refinishing them is the finest option. You should still make sure there is enough wood left to sand, though, even with this material. You need at least 3/4" remaining in order to try a full resurfacing.

Taking away the floor grate or vent to see the floorboards is the simplest method to determine how much material remains. Alternatively, as there will usually be spaces between rooms where a board or plank will be exposed, you should remove the threshold from the doorway if there aren't any such holes.

To finish off, if you're still not sure, you can take down a section of baseboard trim from the wall in the area that needs refinishing. If the floor has already been refinished, there should be a little raised area beneath the baseboards.

STEPS TO REFINISH HARDWOOD FLOORS

STEP 1: SET UP THE ROOM

Pro Tip: Is it necessary to finish your floor, or can you just clean and shine it? A simple test to ascertain its condition is the water droplet test. If water seeps through the floor immediately, there are likely exposed wood fibers, and the floor needs to be refinished. However, if there are water droplets on the surface, you can get away with just cleaning and polishing.

Prepare the space for refinishing by doing the following before you begin:

• Move the furniture to a different room and take out any rugs or carpets. 
• After the floor is clear, use finishing nails to fasten any loose floorboards and hammer any nails that are sticking out flat. 
• Dust the floor using a hoover or mop. 
• Make sure the covers on your air vents are shut to keep sanding dust out of your ducting. 
• Cover doors with plastic sheeting to prevent dust from entering the rest of the house. 
• To prevent your equipment from scratching any floor registers, make sure they are taped off.

STEP 2: TAKE OFF THE SHOE MOLD

Before sanding the floor, you should raise the shoe molding along the wall-floor connection. Remove the molding with a pry bar, covering the baseboard with scrap wood. (To avoid damaging the molding, avoid using a heavy crowbar or demolition bar to remove it. Use a putty knife instead of a pry bar if you don't have one. However, it might be less effective.) As you remove each component, identify or number it in some other way to make it simpler to put back in once the floor has been refinished.

Pro Tip: If the space isn't equipped with shoe base molding, take care when using the sander to avoid damaging it or removing the standard molding.

STEP 3: BRUSH AWAY LOOSE PARTICLES AND DISCOLORATION

Although sanding a hardwood floor can remove scratches and stains, it might not be able to remove discoloration, deep gouges, or discolored patches. For this reason, you should use a belt sander or drum sander with a coarser abrasive (about 36 grit) and run it along the length of the boards in the direction of the grain.

Benchmark Abrasives is renowned for providing reasonably priced, high-quality floor sanding abrasives, such as rolls and belts. When sanding floors, we usually advise utilizing abrasives with a zirconia grain. The performance and cost of zirconia are nicely balanced. Compared to aluminum oxide abrasives, zirconia abrasives will help you work more quickly, but unlike ceramic abrasives, they won't be too much for hardwood floors.

Cover a 3-to-4 foot stretch of wood flooring with back-and-forth motions with the sander. After removing the majority of the damage, move on to an abrasive with a grit of 60 and then finish with a finer grit (around 100). Make sure you follow the entire process from coarse to fine grades. Before changing grits, hoover and sweep the floor to keep the workspace clean.

STEP 4: SAND THE CORNERS AND EDGES

Use an orbital sander to sand the borders, stairs, closet flooring, and bathroom floors. Similar to the belt/drum sander mentioned in the preceding phase, begin with an abrasive with a coarser grit and work your way up to increasingly finer grades. Small flooring sections that are inaccessible for the orbital sander can be manually sanded using an 80- or 100-grit sandpaper scraper.

STEP 5: SCREEN-SAND THE FLOOR

Using a floor buffer fitted with a fine-grit screening pad, the flooring should be "screen-sanded." This stage eliminates little irregularities and sanding marks from the orbital and drum sanders. Your do-it-yourself project will look more polished, thanks to this meticulous effort.

When you're finished, give the flooring a thorough sweep and hoover, and then use a tack cloth to wipe away any last bits of dust. If hair and dust linger, the floor's finish may be impacted.

STEP 6: PUT THE STAIN ON

When selecting a floor stain, consider the kind of hardwood flooring in your house and the color you want. Apply the stain in the direction of the wood grain using a foam applicator pad. Do one little, achievable task at a time.

Experts typically advise eliminating extra stains a few minutes following application. Paper towels or clean rags work well for this. Allow the paint to dry as instructed before adding the finish.

Pro Tip: Sand and seal the flooring before applying the polyurethane finish if you opt against staining it.

STEP 7: PUT THE FINISHING TOUCHES

It's now time to apply the finish, which is often polyurethane with an oil or water base. Here are a few things to remember:

• Water-based polyurethane coatings or lacquers can dry quickly, which might cause issues with application. 
• Oil-based polyurethane coatings can produce fumes during application; thus, wearing a mask is necessary. However, they cure more slowly, providing a smoother coat.

These are the steps to apply the finish.

• With a wool applicator, apply in even, smooth strokes, being cautious not to drip.
  Three coats should be applied if using an oil-based finish. Apply four applications if using a water-based finish. 
• As it dries, gently sand each coat with steel wool #000 or 220 grit paper. (Most finishes need a full day to dry.) 
• After collecting the dust with the hoover, apply the next layer. 
• After the finish has cured, reattach the molding.
  

Pro Tip: Before rearranging the furniture in the room, put felt pads under its feet. This will prevent scratches on the floor, and furniture should not be dragged across the floor.

CONCLUSION

 Refinishing old hardwood floors can give them new vitality. If you choose the appropriate woodworking abrasives and grits, you can achieve finishes that give the appearance of newly installed flooring even after decades.