Hardwood Sanding & Refinishing
Hardwood floors are beautiful and can raise the value of your home significantly. They can also make your home look roomier and more luxurious. Unfortunately, even the highest quality wood planks are subject to wear over time. This is especially true in high-traffic areas where friends and family love to gather. The key to keeping your floors shiny and attractive is to employ professionals to sand and refinish them when needed. In most cases, we recommend sanding and refinishing your floors once every 7-10 years. This is often enough to keep them looking fresh and new without wearing them down too quickly. The process doesn’t take long when done by a hardwood flooring contractor and can restore the luster in your worn-out floors.
Professional Sanding & Refinishing Services
Whether you’re planning to sell your home or you’re just tired of looking at your dull hardwood floors, we would love to help. If you’re tempted to take care of the sanding and refinishing processes on your own, keep in mind that the job can be cumbersome and tiring when you don’t have professional tools and experience. It’s also easy for inexperienced homeowners to sand down the wood too much. This can affect the life of your wood and can even cause your floor to feel uneven in spots.
When it comes to sanding and refinishing hardwood floors, Blue Ridge Floors is the leader in customer service, quality of the product, the durability of the material, and provider of eco-friendly finishes in the greater Asheville & Charleston areas. You can expect a dust-free sanding and finishing experience at no extra charge. You can also expect us to move your furniture (if you prefer), to remove unwanted carpet or other old floorings, and hang plastic to protect areas that are not under construction. Lastly, but certainly not least, you can expect your friends and family to see be astonished by the difference in your newly refinished hardwood floors.
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The Hardwood Sanding & Refinishing Process
Wood floors are one of the most popular home upgrades because they provide a warm aesthetic while also handling abuse better than carpeting. While your wooden flooring can handle the rigors of heavy foot traffic, it will begin to eventually show its age. The good news: you don’t have to completely replace your floor covering or grind it down to bare material when the surface begins to fade or lose its shine. Here’s a look at how the hardwood floor refinishing process works without sanding.
Will This Technique Work With All Floors?
One of the best things about the refinishing technique is its ability to work on any type of flooring material. The biggest variable that could diminish this treatment’s effectiveness is the type of finish on your floors. If your wood has a coating made out of wax, shellac or another type of old-fashioned varnish, the new polyurethane won’t adhere properly.
Even if your flooring is currently coated with polyurethane, chemical buildup from cleaning and spills could make this technique less effective. The only way to be completely sure is to conduct a test. Choose a 6-square-inch area in both a high-traffic region and a less-traveled spot such as a closet or along a wall. Clean thoroughly with wood floor cleaner, sand with a screen, wipe away residue and apply a coating of polyurethane with a masking tape border. After a 24-hour curing period, the coating should be smooth and not flake away if you lightly scratch it with a coin.
Gather Your Supplies
Once you’ve confirmed the suitability of your floors, it’s time to start this project. If you have multiple rooms in need of attention, it’s best to do it all at once so the colors match and you aren’t stuck with another day’s rental of tools in the future. Before starting, you’ll need to gather the right supplies:
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Scouring pads made from synthetic steel wool
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Wood floor cleaner
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Bristle brush to apply finish
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Floor buffer
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Finish applicator pad with a long handle
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Mineral spirits
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Rags
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Respirator
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Sanding screens sized for both the buffing machine and handheld use
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Kneepads
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Putty knife
Prepare Your Floors
The first thing to do on this project is thoroughly clean your entire floor with a liquid cleaner. Scrape up any buildups or other materials that could stop your new finish from adhering. Once you’re finished cleaning, it’s time to rough the floor with a sanding screen. Use handheld screens in corners and along edges, but switch to the buffer to make things move faster. With this step complete, vacuum up any sawdust, buff the entire floor and wipe it down with a rag coated with mineral spirits.
Apply the Finish
Once you’ve cleaned and roughed your floors, it’s time to complete the project by applying a new coat of finish. While you should use polyurethane, you have the choice between oil-based or water-based products. Finishes based on oil give you more time to work because they dry slower, but they have much stronger fumes. A water-based finish will create a stronger coating but dries much faster. Pour your polyurethane into a paint tray and use an applicator pad to spread it evenly across the floor. Start in the corners with an applicator brush and move to the center of the room.
Restore Your Floors the Right Way
If the refinishing process sounds too complicated or your existing finish calls for sanding hardwood down and starting over, let the experts at Blue Ridge Floors restore your flooring to its former glory. For a free quote, stop by any of our three locations or call us today.