Is It worth It to Refinish Hardwood Floors Yourself Domain_10

Q: My oak floors are covered in scratches. Do I have to sand down to bare forest to get rid of them?

—Susan Bankhead, Meridian, Idaho

A: The Editors of This Former House reply: Non necessarily. If the scratches don't get all the way through to the wood, you can scuff-sand your floors with a buffer and apply a fresh coat or two of finish. The hardwood flooring refinishing procedure is easier and less expensive than sanding downward to bare wood and takes less time. In a few hours, your floors will expect equally expert as new.

The job requires using a buffer, which you can rent at a domicile center, and a vacuum to suck up dust. Buffing hardwood floors tin can be catchy, and so if you've never used a buffer earlier, practice in the middle of the room until you become a feel for how to maneuver it.

Once the finish is roughed up, we put on a water-based polyurethane, which can exist recoated in three hours. Oil-based polys are cheaper, but each coat takes about 8 hours to dry. With either stop, we recommend a fresh coat every ii years or whenever the floor looks worn. Stick to that routine and your floors will never wear out.

Pro Tip to Prevent Discoloration: Sometimes the tannins from your wood floor react to water-based polyurethane, causing discoloration. To avoid this, apply a base coat before applying your h2o-based poly. Polish the base coat out evenly effectually the edges with a paint brush. (Don't brush too fast or you lot may create bubbles, which will evidence in the stop.) Smooth out the residual of the floor with a synthetic flooring finish applicator and requite your base coat about 2 hours to dry.

Hither are some additional common questions we've come beyond:

How much does information technology price to sand and refinish hardwood floors yourself?

If you program on DIY-ing your hardwood floors, expect to pay a piffling less than $500 per 275 sq. anxiety. The average range tends to be between $one,000 to $2,400.

The total cost includes renting sanding equipment along with purchasing sanding pads, forest stain, brushes and finish.

Is it cheaper to refinish or replace hardwood floors?

You can almost always bet that refinishing is cheaper than replacing hardwood floors. With the latter, yous'd be paying not only for the new wood simply also for the labor of ripping out the old forest and toting information technology abroad.

What Are The Steps To Refinishing Hardwood Floors?

Read these 6 steps for refinishing the woods floors in your dwelling house:

1. Clean the Floor with a Hardwood Flooring Cleaner

Photo past Reena Bammi

• Remove all the furniture, and spray the floor with a hardwood floor cleaner or your own mix of 10 parts h2o to 1 part white vinegar.
• Gently wipe the floor with a terry-cloth mop or a towel wrapped around a mop caput.
• Close the windows and doors to continue dust contained in the room y'all're sanding.

2. Prep the Perimeter

Photo by Reena Bammi

• Using 180-grit sandpaper, paw-sand the perimeter of the room and any nooks that the buffer can't reach.
• Rub with the grain 4 to 6 inches out from the baseboard, working over each board until the cease dulls and a powder forms.

Pro Tip: Don't employ a sanding block for refinishing hardwood—it might miss uneven spots in the floor.

3. Scuff-sand the Floor Finishing

Photograph by Reena Bammi

• Stick a maroon buffing pad to the buffer, and put on a dust mask.
• Move the buffer from side to side beyond the floor in the management of the grain, overlapping each course by 6 inches.
• The sometime finish turns to powder equally you go, so information technology's easy to see the areas you've covered.
• Keep the buffer moving at all times, but stop every v minutes or then and vacuum the pad.

4. Vacuum and Tack

Photo by Reena Bammi

• Go out the room for 10 to 15 minutes to let the powder settle.
• Put a make clean filter in the vacuum, and sweep the floor using a felt-bottomed attachment.
• Piece of work in line with the flooring strips, and so sweep across them to go any powder that settled between the boards.
• Finally, dry-tack the flooring with a microfiber cloth pushed with the grain.

5. Cut in Along the Edges

Photo past Reena Bammi

• Comprehend your shoes with booties and your olfactory organ and mouth with a respirator that has organic vapor canisters.
• Strain the finish through a cone filter into a clean plastic watering can, minus a sprinkler head, and then pour some strained finish into a modest plastic container.
• Brush a 3-inch-broad stripe beside the baseboards at a point farthest from your leave door.
• You'll have lap marks if the edge of the stripe starts to dry, and so stop later 10 minutes and get to the next stride.

6. Roll Out the Poly

Photo by Reena Bammi

• Pour out a 1-inch-broad stripe of terminate in line with the grain—only every bit much as you tin can spread in 10 minutes.
• Using a long-handled roller with a ¼-inch nap cover, roll out the end with the grain, then beyond it.
• Overlap each pass and work quickly to go along a wet edge.
• After ten minutes, brush more terminate along the border, then pour and roll over again for 10 minutes. Go along until the floor is covered.
• Wait three hours earlier recoating and a week earlier putting back furniture.

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Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/flooring/21016483/how-to-refinish-wood-floors-without-sanding

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