I discovered hardwoods under my carpet and was wondering if it is better to refinish them or just wax?
Question:The house is 50 years old and had very old carpet over the floors and they look like they might have been beautiful a long time ago but have alot of marks where wet things have been spilt. I really want to know if completely redoing them is worth the work vs just waxing them
Answers:
Do not just wax over them! you need to sand the floors and clean them up then put a couple coats of poly-urethane, they will shine just like brand new. If you just waxed stains that old it probably would not help and you would have just wasted time and money, just do it right the first time and it will make your home more attractive and raise your property value!
Oooo! Sand them and varnish them (you can't JUST wax) with REAL varnish (NOT, arg, polyurethane) and then wax them. The result will be SO worth it!
matthew is right. waxing over them would just give you shiny stains and watermarks. you can rent sanders if you cannot afford to hire someone. the directions with them are very clear. once that is done, the polyurethane will seal and protect your beautiful new floors.
The other respondant is very correct. I have much the same type of flooring as well. If you do it right, sure, it will cost some bucks but the end will justify the means. Hardwood flooring is beautiful if maintained. Mine weren't and now I need to redo them and refinish them. You will be so pleased if you do it right the first time. If you just wax them, you will be in effect, covering over the dirt. Eventually, you will need to refloor your home if you do that.
Definently refinish the floors first. This will bring out the natural beauty of the wood. Then you can seal the wood afterwords for a long lasting protection. sanding and refinishing gets rid of all the dirt, oils, and scratches. Once you're done, they'll look like new.
you need to prep then befor you wax
you need to sand and restain and then put the expoxy sealer on it and then you could wax it
Sanding is the thing to do, BUT if you have never done it before you will screw it up BIG TIMEand it will look like sh**. You will be much happier if you let a professional do it.
Talk to a flooring company. They do have a product that is supposed to restore the floor. I tried it, and was not satisfied, but my floor was pretty beat up from dog urine and the like. I ended up sanding the floor and staining it to the color of my choosing (red mahogany) and covering it with tongue oil. It came out great.
The only problem is the finish (tongue oil) needs repeating coats, at least twice a year to look beautiful. If I had it to do over again, I would probably use polyeurethane for longevity.
You need someone to determine what kind of surface treatment was applied to the floor.
You probably have either a hard finish such as varnish or polyurethane, or soft penetrating finish such as wax or an oil finish. But never both.
Wax penetrates the wood and can be spot treated easily. But it is far less common these days, because it needs frequent rewaxing every 6 - 12 months. It does not protect the surface from scratches like a hard finish does.
A floor finished with varnish or polyurethane must be sanded to remove the finish, thoroughly swept and vacuumed to remove all dust before as many as 3 coats of polyurethane are applied. It is nearly impossible to spot treat a polyurethane finish and have it blend well with the surrounding floor.
First, you do not even know if that carpet was installed in such a way as it was glued down at one time, or if other floor material had been glued down prior to the carpet. since we are talking 50 years I would not think twice - refinish would be the only option.
It has to be done in steps
1. Using a very rough sandpaper you want to remove all of the finish and get the floor as level as is possible.
2. You want to move to 100 grit sandpaper and go over it all very, very well.
3. You want to move to 180(more or less) grit and do it again getting it all smooth and even.
4. You want to move to about 220 grit sandpaper to smooth it out as well as is possible.
I use water based stain, and I do go over all my wood project with #0000 steel wool before i stain, not everyone does this.
I would wet it down with water so that the stain will seep in very easily. follow direction to stain, but after each coat of stain go over it very lightly with that same steel wool again.
Once you have it as dark as you want, and have gone over it with the steel wool the final time you can apply the final finish but be prepared to use about two or three coats, and I would use the steel wool between coat #1 and #2.
I would allow plenty of time between coats, maybe 24 hours.
After that final coat, I would use a buffer.
Note: if the current floor has holes, scapes, etc that need to be filled in, this is done one the current floor finish is stipped off - you use the wood filler at the bare wood stage and allow the time for that to dry entirely before continueing with the further sanding.
Check out products like Minwax - they have it all the fillers, the putty, the stain, and the finish. You can go oil based or my favorite " water based" products.
I'd also rent the equipment you may need to do the sanding. its a real time saver in the end.
If you wax the floor you won't be happy. remove all nails and staples sand the floor smooth use wood filler for all the holes and dings sand it again and finish it that way. The floors will look great.
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