Refinishing hardwood floors?
Question:How often do I need to refinish my hardwood floors? I remember as a child my parents did it every year or every other year.
I want to just cover the floors with laminate hardwood flooring and forget about it, but my hubby wants to refinish them. I need a good argument on how often he will have to refinish them after he does it the first time. Thanks
Answers:
That depends on a lot of things such as: How often do you clean your floors? Sand and grit will mar the finish very quickly. Do you wear your shoes in the house or do you remove them and wear house slippers or socks? How many pets do you have?
Normally, you will need to refinish your floors every 5 to 9 years depending on the above factors.
Ah, I remember every summer having to empty my bedroom and wax the hardwood floors. I will almost bet that is what you are remembering, waxing, not refinishing.
If you already have hardwood floors by all means refinish them! But they will need to be stripped and/or sanded. Sanding can be a tricky process with the big drum sanders you rent, you need to be careful to not create dips in the floor.
We started with the smallest room first as our practice room. We rented a rotating disc sander, hand sanded around the edges and filled in carpet tack holes. Then cleaned, vacuumed and cleaned some more to make sure you get ALL the dust off the floor. We used 2 coats of Marine Spar polyurethane, the kind you put on boats. Everyone has a different opinion on what product to seal with. A friend of ours used Gym-Seal which has a high gloss finish.
Depending on the wear and tear on your floor, it should last 8-10 years before you need to redo the process. However, it is possible to do just traffic areas, and you will not need to sand down to bare wood.
It takes time and patience. This can be a several day process. Don't rush. They will turn out beautiful!
good luck!
To tell you the truth, you dont have to refinish them very often. You can refinish them once ever like 4 years or so (Depends on the poly you use. But every year, you just have to wax your floors to keep the shine, and if any scratches show up, sand the area and use the same color stain and same poly to cover it. Just like you would do the whole floor) But you do not have to refinish them very often. Also, depends on how many layers of poly you use when you do refinish them. I refinished mine 4 years ago, and it still looks as beautiful as when we first started. I have a good technique to make the floor really beautiful and have it stay beautiful. But yah, dont cover it up. Many people do not have hardwood floors in their houses, and you are one of the lucky ones who does. Keep it, show it off, and love it.
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