Re-finishing Hardwood Floors

If you are unsure about how to refinish a wood floor then please contact us for our specialist advice.

Over time your hardwood floor can become scratched and damaged and areas may become so worn that you can see the bare wood. If you are experiencing these problems, it is time to refinish your floor to get a shiny smooth surface again. It's a messy project but well worth the investment.
 
You will need the following items:

• A wide broom
• Five grades of sand paper (in a range of grits, 36, 60, 80, 100,120)
• Gloves, goggles and mask
• Rollers with a long handle
• Floor wax or a polyurethane finish
• Brushes
• Wood stain
• A few rags
• Dust masks are very important
• Floor sanders and an edger
• A high power Vacuum
• Filler
• Final finish product oil or lacquer

Sanding the floor

1. Remove all rugs and furniture from the room.
2. Inspect the floor for any protruding nails (hammer these down below the surface) and carpet tacks (remove these).

3. Hire a floor sander from a rental shop. Drum sanders do a very good job but are heavy and you need to keep them moving at all times because they work very fast and you would end up with a deep groove that would be impossible to get out. So consider an orbital sander that is designed for floor re-finishing and is easier to control.
Get a supply of sandpaper that will fit your machine in a range of grits (36, 60, 80, 100,120).

4. Before starting knock down all nail heads be careful when doing so as not to drive them into exposed pipes or cables under the floor boards, this is easy to check by lifting a few boards in each room to check where they are before starting, this a good time to secure any lose boards with extra screws or nails.

5. Using the roughest sandpaper first, run the sander over the floor in the direction of the grain. Do not cross the grain and use straight even strokes. Remember to keep the sander in motion whilst its turned on, or you will gouge the floor and will need to go over it again to level it out. If your sander doesn’t reach the very edge of the floor, then use an edging sander, these can also be hired.

6. When the whole floor has been sanded, use a vacuum to pick up the sanding dust, change to smoother grit sandpaper, and repeat the whole process again. Gradually working through the grits sequentially from roughest to smoothest.

Staining the floor

1. Brush all the sanding dust from the floor using a soft broom, and then use your vacuum to collect even finer dust.
2. Wipe your floor down with a tack rag. This is a damp rag sprinkled with a mixture of turpentine or paint thinner and about 3 tbsp. of varnish. This will pick up even finer dust, the cleaner the floor at this stage the better the finish will be.
3. Apply some stain with a rag to a small area of the floor in a corner or on an area normally covered by a piece of furniture to check the colour is the one you want. Allow it to dry before continuing.
4. Apply the first coat to the rest of the floor. Use a brush if you want darker heavier coats then use rags to smooth out. If you want only lighter coats then just use a rag. Apply with long even strokes going with the grain. Work from one corner of your room outward. Use a rag to cover 1 square foot of your room at a time. Cut into the corners and edges with a paintbrush. Allow the stain to penetrate the bare wood for 10 minutes, then wipe with a dry rag. This will remove any excess stain that has not yet penetrated into the wood.
5. If necessary apply a second coat after the first has dried completely.
6. Ensure the floor is completely dried before applying the finish.

TIP: If you are going to use more than one tin of stain, pour them all into one container and mix, this ensures that, even if there are slight variations between the batches of stain, they will not be visible on your floor.

Finishing the floor lacquer finishing

1. Stir the container of polyurethane finish; do not shake, as that will create air bubbles that will spoil the final finish.
2. With a roller or brush, apply the finish using smooth even strokes with the grain.
3. Allow the finish to dry (about 3 hours) then apply a second coat.
4. Its some times required to lightly abrade the floor lightly between each coats.
5. Allow this final coat to dry at least overnight and up to 6 days this can be dependant on the product, before allowing heavy traffic in the room.