Introduction: Refinishing Hardwood Floors

About: I love designing things and then building them. For me just making a design on a CAD software is half the fun. I love motorcycles, cars, trucks, tractors, anything that moves and that I can work on, modify, …

I'd like to start this off by saying that I am by no means a professional, and this floor turned out far from perfect, but for a non-professional, I think it turned out alright.

This will be just a basic overview of what it looks like to refinish hardwood flooring. There are plenty of other instructables on this but I liked the method we used and don't think I saw it on here.

What you'll need:

Floor stripper

Edger

Buffer

Polishing pads

Carpet Scraps

Stain

Topcoat

Step 1: Sanding, Sanding, and More Sanding

Using your floor sander, strip the old finish off the floors. I made a full pass for the first run, and then overlapped 50% on every following pass. Once your down to the raw wood use the edger to go around the perimeter of the room.

Then your going to want to use your buffer, or if you have it a random orbit sander to progressively work through the different grits and get to a smooth base.

Your going to want to really spend some good time on this, as with every project prep-work is key. If you do lousy prep work no matter how great of a job you do with your finish it's going to look lousy. I don't know how to stress it enough, but you really need to spend time doing good prep.

Step 2: Stain

Next up is the part that I found to be pretty cool that an old flooring guy showed me. We took a buffer with an interface pad, and cut out a piece of carpet face down. Pre soak the carpet with some stain (I just used a minwax stain) and then Use a sprayer to spray stain on the ground and buff it into the floor. If you don't have a sprayer you can also just pour it on the floor. Make sure that you really spend some time getting it rubbed in very well or you'll end up with lines in the finish. The first half of the room went great but for the second half I had a guy show up who started pouring and was really rushing me. I should have just told him to leave me be and just taken my time, but I felt bad and just kept going. Next time I know.

Step 3: Top Coat

For the topcoat theres an applicator you can use that will make the process extremely easy. You can just poor the topcoat out on the floor and drag it down from one side of the room to the other following the grain. When you drag it, there should be a puddle that forms on the dry side of your applicator. When you get to the other end of the room just drag it back and add more top coat as you need it. You can apply multiple coats if needed. Make sure to plan ahead and work your way out of the room, don't trap yourself in a corner.

Before and After Contest 2017

Participated in the
Before and After Contest 2017