How to Refinish Your Hardwood Floor

This article was written with the help of professional refinishers. Last summer my husband and I tackled refinishing the floors in my parents home. The house was built in the early 1800s on the coast of North Carolina, and every inch of its 1600 square footage of flooring is solid hardwood. However, what type of hardwood it was we did not know at the time, because when my grandparents refinished the floors in the 1940s they used dark varnish, which over the years had darken to nearly black through out the house. The floors had not been refinished since.

If you are not in excellent shape or if you have knee problems, then I would strongly suggest hiring a professional refinisher to do your floors. You will be doing a lot of bending, kneeling, and scraping.

Before you even start, you have to decide what type of finish you want to refinish the floors. The choices in sheen are: flat, medium gloss, and high gloss. All of these wear the same, however, if you have pets or children and high traffic areas, then I would suggest using either the medium gloss or the flat as these will not show scratches as easily as the high glass. Once you have decided on your sheen, you then have to decide whether to use a polyurethane paint or varnishes. Urethane finishes are slightly more durable and are available in clear and non-ambering, which means they wont yellow over time. Make sure that the product states 'non-yellowing' or non-ambering the can. In addition, urethanes are available in either oil or water based. Water-based finishes are easier to use, easier to clean up, and often times have less of an odor.

The following is a list of items you will need: Floor sander Edger sander Paint scrapers Medium grade sandpaper Finish Sheet plastic and tarp

Move out all furniture from the room you will be refinishing.

Hang the plastic sheeting over any door openings and cover all items you want to keep dust free.

Without any furniture in the room, sweep and then vacuum the entire floor.

Using the floor sander, sand the main floor area making sure that you keep the sander moving in same direction. Begin sanding with coarse sandpaper, then switch to finer sandpaper for a second sanding. The first sanding is to remove the majority of the original finish taking you down to bare wood and the second sanding if to provide a finished look.

Once the main floor area is finished, you then want to sand along the edges. By using a rather light touch, you want to rotate the sander in semi-circles to lessen the chance of making sand marks.

Now you will get down on your knees, take the scraper, and scrape the corners, under heater, and all areas where there is still some of the old finish left on the floor. You want to hand sand any area where you have marred the flooring.

Sweep and vacuum the floor. If you notice any sanding marks, hand-sand them until they are gone, making sure that you sand in the direction of the grain. Sweep and vacuum the floor again.

Apply the first coat of sealer, and then wait a minimal of 2 hours before hand sanding the entire floor. Once you have completed this, you will then sweep and vacuum the floor again, before apply the urethane or varnish finish. Allow at least the floor to dry overnight before applying the second coat of finish. It took my husband, and professional refinisher, and myself three weeks to completely refinish my parents floors. The hardwood that had been hidden all these years under ugly chocolate brown varnish was beautiful teakwood, which we later discovered came from salvaged wood when the home was originally being built.

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