How To Restore A Painted Wood Floor

Q: My oak floors are covered in scratches. Practice I have to sand down to blank wood to get rid of them?

—Susan Bankhead, Tiptop, Idaho

A: The Editors of This One-time House reply: Non necessarily. If the scratches don't go all the way through to the wood, you can scuff-sand your floors with a buffer and employ a fresh coat or two of terminate. The hardwood flooring refinishing process is easier and less expensive than sanding down to blank wood and takes less time. In a few hours, your floors volition look as adept as new.

The chore requires using a buffer, which you can hire at a home center, and a vacuum to suck up grit. Buffing hardwood floors can be tricky, then if yous've never used a buffer before, exercise in the middle of the room until you lot get a feel for how to maneuver information technology.

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

Pro Tip to Forbid Discoloration: Sometimes the tannins from your wood floor react to water-based polyurethane, causing discoloration. To avoid this, apply a base of operations coat before applying your water-based poly. Polish the base of operations glaze out evenly around the edges with a paint brush. (Don't brush too fast or y'all may create bubbles, which will show in the finish.) Smooth out the rest of the floor with a synthetic floor terminate applicator and give your base coat about two hours to dry.

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

How much does it toll to sand and refinish hardwood floors yourself?

If you plan on DIY-ing your hardwood floors, await to pay a fiddling less than $500 per 275 sq. feet. The average range tends to exist betwixt $1,000 to $2,400.

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

Is it cheaper to refinish or replace hardwood floors?

You tin can about always bet that refinishing is cheaper than replacing hardwood floors. With the latter, y'all'd exist paying not but for the new wood only too for the labor of ripping out the old wood and toting it abroad.

What Are The Steps To Refinishing Hardwood Floors?

Read these 6 steps for refinishing the wood floors in your domicile:

ane. Clean the Floor with a Hardwood Floor Cleaner

Person Using Microfiber Flat Mop On Hardwood Floor

Remove all the piece of furniture, and spray the floor with a hardwood flooring cleaner or your own mix of 10 parts water to one part white vinegar.
Gently wipe the floor with a terry-cloth mop or a towel wrapped around a mop head.
Shut the windows and doors to keep dust contained in the room y'all're sanding.

2. Prep the Perimeter

Man Hand-Sanding Perimeter Of Hardwood Floor With SandPaper

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

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

3. Scuff-sand the Floor Finishing

Stick a maroon buffing pad to the buffer, and put on a dust mask.
Move the buffer from side to side across the floor in the management of the grain, overlapping each course by half dozen inches.
The quondam end turns to powder equally y'all go, and so information technology'south easy to see the areas you lot've covered.
Keep the buffer moving at all times, but cease every 5 minutes or so and vacuum the pad.

iv. Vacuum and Tack

Man Dry-Tacking The Floor With Microfiber Cloth

Leave the room for 10 to 15 minutes to let the powder settle.
Put a clean filter in the vacuum, and sweep the flooring using a felt-bottomed attachment.
Work in line with the floor strips, then sweep across them to become any pulverization that settled betwixt the boards.
Finally, dry-tack the floor with a microfiber cloth pushed with the grain.

5. Cut in Along the Edges

Paint Brush Applying Finish Around Corners Of Hardwood Floor

Encompass your shoes with booties and your nose and rima oris 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, then cascade some strained stop into a small plastic container.
Brush a 3-inch-wide stripe beside the baseboards at a signal farthest from your go out door.
You'll have lap marks if the edge of the stripe starts to dry out, so stop after x minutes and go to the next pace.

vi. Roll Out the Poly

Man Using Paint Roller With Extension To Apply Polyurethane On Hardwood Floor

Pour out a one-inch-wide stripe of finish in line with the grain—only as much every bit you can spread in 10 minutes.
Using a long-handled roller with a ¼-inch nap comprehend, roll out the finish with the grain, then beyond it.
Overlap each pass and work quickly to proceed a wet edge.
Afterwards 10 minutes, brush more than cease along the border, so pour and ringlet again for ten minutes. Continue until the floor is covered.
Await 3 hours before recoating and a week earlier putting back furniture.