Hardwood Flooring Installation

Instead of replacing your hardwood floor, an excellent alternative can be to just refinish them. You don’t necessarily have to hire a professional to refinish your hardwood floors. Refinishing hardwood floors can be a rewarding experience, and can save you a lot of money. The investment of time can also be rewarding in the long-term, saving you from replacing your wood flooring frequently.

The tools required for refinishing a hardwood floor yourself are a sander and some sandpaper of various grades. You can rent a belt sander or a drum sander at a hardware store, and get suggestions for various grades of sand paper to use for your special type of flooring. While you’re in the store, get yourself some plastic sheets to cover entrances, vents, furniture, and just places you don’t want to clean off the dust from. Also, get yourself a dust mask, since sanding the hardwood is a very dusty process.

Before you go ahead and begin, make sure to remove all furniture and paintings (or anything else on the walls) and cover the vents with the plastic sheeting. You should have some ventilation in the room, but it’s preferable that it is to the outside and not into the house.

Also, make sure the floor is clean of nails that are sticking out, staples or anything that may damage the sander during the work. These things can put the sander out of commission, so make sure you keep an eye out. Also, when sanding, don’t go against the wood grain, rather go with it. Make sure to have your safety goggles, dust mask, and preferably earplugs (sanders are very loud), and gloves.

After sanding, it is important to make sure the area is clean before applying any coatings to the wood. Clean up the place with a broom, then a vacuum cleaner, and later with a damp mop to remove all hints of dust particles. Make sure to keep the room ventilated after mopping to let the moisture out anywhere between 6-10 hours.

Now it’s time to apply the finish. You’ll need to put on a base coat first. This is usually done very simply by roughly coating the area with a roller. Then you’ll need to pick a color coat. It is recommended you try the color out in a remote corner of the floor to see if the color matches your expectations. If it does, you can keep coating the entire floor with it. The last coat should be applied after the color coat has dried (allow 4-5 hours and remember to ventilate).

Lastly, the last finish should be applied, usually either a glossy or satin finish is recommended (or their semi). After you apply the last coat, make sure to even it out with a cloth rag, and make sure it dries according to the instructions on the label.

Refinishing hardwood floors is a great way to enhance your floor’s appearance and maintain it for many years. You can do the process of Sanding, Staining, and Finishing yourself; it’s that easy, and that much more rewarding.

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