How to Use Polyurethane on Hard Wood Floors
If you have hardwood floors in your home, you must protect them from moisture and you do this by applying hardcoat. In many cases, homeowners use polyurethane as the hardcoat. Polyurethane becomes very hard when it dries and it will protect your floor from moisture and from abuse from people walking on it. You can coat your floors with a hardcoat without the help of a professional. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Prep the floors before applying any hardcoat. To prep the floor, make sure you sand any old hardcoat off the floor with a floor sander. Also, clean the surface of the wood with tack cloth and vacuum cleaner to remove any dust or dirt from the surface.
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Apply a stain to the floor if you plan to change the color of the wood. For example, if your floor is oak, you can stain the floor with a walnut stain to mimic the look of walnut. Allow adequate time for the stain to dry before applying any polyurethane. The floor must be dry before you apply hardcoat.
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Place your polyurethane into a paint tray and apply the polyurethane onto the wood surface with a lamb's wool applicator. Use overlapping stokes and apply a full coat before any of it has time to dry. This will ensure a consistent seal across the floor. Allow the polyurethane 24 to 48 hours to dry before adding a second coat.
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Sand the floor lightly with a pole sander and 120-grit sandpaper. This removes the rubbery "orange peel" from the surface of the polyurethane and gives the second coat something to stick to. When you sand the first coat, it is vital that you collect the sanding dust. If the sanding dust gums up on the sanding pad or you get little white marbles, stop and give the hardcoat more time to dry. Otherwise, you could ruin the first coat by applying the second.
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Add a second, third and fourth coat of polyurethane in the same manner as you applied the first coat and give it adequate time to dry.
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References
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