Replacing HARDWOOD floors?
Question:I just removed the old carpet from my living room and hallway and see that it has hardwood floors. They have paint, scratches and 2 golf ball sized holes.
Is it still possible to renew them with a sanding and stain?
Or are there certain qualities that I should look for to know if its worth saving??
Any help?
Answers:
it is all fixable...get a proffessional in to do it. sanding and refnishing hardwood with no experience and having it turn out looking good is not an easy thing for "joe handyman" to do. there are too many things to consider.
like
1)marks and humps caused by uneven sanding that wont show up until finish is put on
2)color floor is to be stained in (whether its natural, neutral or stained) it all is slightly different to work with
3)type of finish used : oil, water or commercial. they all have different qualities and workabilities
4)is it worth it to resand them? how many times have they been sanded before?
5)has the wood been damaged by water anywhere? these areas will need replacing depending on the degree of damage
6)does the floor squeek? if so sanding wont fix it
these are just some of the things to think about
also cm_gardner55 (above) is not completely right. the sandable surface (top of the board) is only about 1/4 of an inch to begin with and a good sander will only take of about 1/16 of an inch with the initial sand when the floor is new and even less with each refinish. so technically a hardwood floor should be resandable up to 3 times. and the basketball finish she mentioned is the commercial grade finish i mentioned above
If they are solid hardwood which is likely, they can easily be renewed to look like brand new, though this is a lot of work to do yourself. First patches must be placed in the holes. Get a piece of hardwood flooring strip from the home center, it's probably red oak but you may have someone knowledgeable with wood to take a look. Cut the holes from side to side square to the edge using a wood chisel, so you have rectangular holes, not round ones, cut pieces of flooring to fit in the holes, may have to cut the bottom of of the groove to get it in. Glue and nail the pieces in. Don't worry if it is too high. Fill any smaller holes such as nail holes with wood filler made for floors, get this at the home center in the flooring aisle. Rent a drum or belt sander and start with 60 grit, this will level the floor and remove the old finish. The go to 100 grit. Then rent a pad sander and final sand to 120 grit with a screen. Will have to rent an edge sander to do edges. Put on three coats of the most expensive floor finish you can afford, and you have what will look like a brand new hardwood floor.
It depends on how they're put down. If they're tongue/groove it'll be hard to replace a few boards with the hole. If they're nailed straight down, they're replaceable if you can find a match for the grain. If you pull pull those up and replace them, check the sub-floor while they're up to make sure there's no problems that would make you want to pull it all up. If not, replace them, rent a floor sander from Lowe's or somewhere and then re-finish them. They'll have more value than laminate if it comes time to sell.
stevetower had great advice for filling the holes, and for sanding. I would find something that is safe for hardwood and remove the paint first. That will save you $ and sandpaper when you rent the floor sander...the paint won't be there to gunk up the sander and paper, therefore going through LOTS of sandpaper. It'll save a headache if you get the paint off first. You will need to get tack cloth to wipe the dust from the floor once you are completely done sanding (I would get a few...they get VERY dirty!). You will also want to hang drop cloths in the doorways to try and keep the dust minimal in the other rooms while you are sanding. The other thing that I would do is polyurithaine after the stain is completed and dry. We just redid three rooms last summer, and if we had it to do over again, we would have purchased the basketball floor kind, because our floors look very worn already, and the bball kind is VERY resistant! (For obvious reasons.) :) Oh - one other thing...we were told that if the boards are 1/2 an inch or less on the surface, then they cannot be resurfaced again...you will likely go straight through the boards if you try, just because you have to pass over the floor so many times to get it sanded well. Hope that helps. :)
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