How to Refinish Hardwood Floors
Refinishing a hardwood floor can take a few forms, depending on how serious the wear is to the existing floor and how involved you want to get. You can take an existing floor down to bare wood and refinish it from scratch, but you can only do that once or twice in the life of the floor, and it's often overkill. More typically, screening the floor -- taking off and replacing the gloss finish but not the stain -- is all you really need to do. See your home improvement store to rent the floor buffer and buy the screens. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Rented floor buffer
- Floor screening pads for the buffer -- heavy, medium and fine abrasion
- Vacuum cleaner
- Polyurethane floor gloss
- Paintbrush
- Extra-fine sandpaper
Instructions
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1
Set up your floor buffer with it heavy screening pad. Start the machine and immediately begin moving it along the floor, with the direction of the floorboards. Across the room in courses, taking off the top layer of the existing finish.
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2
Vacuum thoroughly, getting up all the dust.
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3
Load your buffer with its medium screening pad. Screen it again, in the same manner as before, taking off the remaining finish and then vacuum.
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4
Screen the floor a third time, with a fine screen, to get the surface smooth and flat. Vacuum thoroughly.
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5
Apply a coat of polyurethane with a paintbrush, brushing it with the direction of the floorboards. Keep it in a flat, thin layer, applying it slowly to avoid creating bubbles. Cover the whole floor.
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6
Allow the polyurethane to dry for six hours. Sand it by hand with extra-fine sandpaper, just enough to dull the surface. Vacuum the floor.
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Brush on a second coat of polyurethane. Let it set, hand-sand it, dull the shine, and vacuum the dust. Brush on a third coat and let it set for 24 hours.
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