If you have hardwood flooring, refinishing the surface is a cost-effective and rewarding way to give your home new life. While you can hire a professional to do the job for you, it's possible to do it on your own. Here is what you can expect if you were to refinish your hardwood floors as a DIY project.
Preparation
Everything starts with preparing the space for the refinishing process. This involves removing everything from the surface of the floor so that it is completely bare. Furniture, rugs, tables, cabinets, and lamps will all need to go since there is no way to work around them in the space.
You may have to move the items into another room of your home, which can make those spaces feel quite cramped. Another option is to rent a storage pod that can be placed in your yard and locked to keep everything out of the way and secure.
It will also help to cover doors leading to rooms where sanding will not occur, which will help reduce the amount of dust that strays from the work area. If there are no physical doors that can be closed, plastic works great as a door covering.
Sanding
The sanding process will definitely require the right tools for the job. A drum sander is going to finish the job in a fraction of the time than if you used hand-operated equipment. Thankfully, there are local home improvement stores that rent drum sanders so that you don't have to buy one.
You'll want to start by using heavy-grit sandpaper to give the surface a first pass and remove the existing stain. Then follow it up with additional passes where the sandpaper becomes more fine. This helps make the surface incredibly smooth, removes scratches, and prepares it to absorb the stain.
Cleaning
It is crucial that you thoroughly clean your floors to remove all of the debris and dust from the sanding process. Even a dustless sander will still allow some dust to escape and require a bit of cleaning. You'll need to wipe down all surfaces with a damp cloth to ensure that the dust is completely gone.
Staining
The staining process will involve the application of a coat of stain across the entire surface, which is why all that dust needs to be removed. The stain can be applied with a brush or rag to ensure that it is on the surface evenly and gets into the grain of the wood and along any floorboard that is not tight against the floorboard next to it. Multiple coats of stain will be necessary to create a darker stain color. Once finished, you can apply a finish like polyurethane to the floor to give the wood a natural shine.
If you need help with hardwood flooring refinishing, reach out to a flooring contractor near you.
You don't always appreciate walking on a smooth, flat surface until you've spent time walking on one that is rough and bumpy. You can try this yourself. Go outside and walk on some gravel, and then come inside and walk over your hardwood floors. You'll enjoy your hardwood floors in a whole new way. In fact, this experiment might inspire you to learn more about flooring. If so, you've come to the right place. This is a blog about flooring, and if you are someone who walks on floors, we promise you'll like the content here. We'll address flooring of many different types.