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Refinishing A Hardwood Floor
by Lee Dobbins
Want to bring your hardwood floors back to their former beauty,
but don’t have the money? Then read on for some tips on how you
can refinish the floor yourself.
If you have the time and don’t mind doing the work, then
refinishing your floors yourself is a great option but before
starting out, it’s not a bad idea to get an estimate from a
professional so you can compare the cost of doing it yourself
to what they would charge. You’ll get quite a shock at the
amount that is charged. It may cost over $1000 to have just 1
room done. You could carpet over it for less, but doesn’t
carpeting over beautiful hardwood floors seem, well, wrong?
It is actually rather easy to refinish a wood floor ? if you
pay attention to what you are doing. To sand the floor, you
need a drum sander and possibly a belt sander which can be
rented at your neighborhood Home Depot or hardware store. They
can help you figure out which machines you need to rent, what
kind of sand paper you should buy and also can help with the
type and amount of stain and finish for the floor. You might
also want to get some dust masks and plastic to section the
room off from the rest of the house. Fine particles of dust
will get everywhere ? even if you section off the room, but you
may be able to minimize the impact on the rest of the house.
The most important part of refinishing your floors is learning
how to control the sander. The key to running the sander is to
make sure it keeps moving at all times, otherwise they are
simple to use, although a bit hard on the ears. If you stop in
1 spot, you will probably get a big gouge in your floor. Equate
it to using an iron on your clothes ? if you stop in 1 spot too
long you’ll burn a hole. The sander is similar since it creates
a lot of heat, keeping it in 1 spot can burn or dent your floor.
You do need to be careful with the sander as it is self
propelled. When you first start it up, make sure you hold on
firmly. Don’t be afraid of the machine but make sure you
maintain complete control. Relax, after a few spins, it may
even start to seem like fun.
After the old finish is removed, you need to apply the stain
and new finish. Think of this as the same as doing your nails ?
first you remove the old finish, then basecoat, color and
topcoat. Sometimes you don’t want color on your nails so you
skip that part. In your floor you might also skip that part
(the stain) but you still want to use a finish to protect the
floor.
When selecting a finish you can pick from an oil based or
polyurethane (water based) finish. When selecting an oil based
finish you will need to decide if you want a satin, gloss or
semi gloss finish. It’s probably best for you to use satin on a
hardwood floor as it will help hide any flaws in the wood and is
much more pleasing then a bright shine Using oil based finish is
better for wood floors as it casts a warm amber glow. Water
based, on the other had dries quicker and resists yellowing.
No matter which you choose, you must let each coat dry before
putting down the next coat. Think back to the nail polish
analogy! Follow the manufacturers instructions on the finish
before you occupy the room again. Usually you can move your
furniture back in after about 24 hours.
As you can see, the task of refinishing your floors need not be
overwhelming. Think of it as giving your room a manicure. Take
it one step at a time and use care in the process and you can
have a great looking floor and save yourself almost $1000 to
boot!
Lee Dobbins is contributing writer at
www.flooring-info-online.com where you can find out more about
how to choose flooring for your home.
Please visit
http://www.isnare.com/?s=author&a=Lee+Dobbins
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