The following are the concise steps that you need to follow when planning on how to refinish hardwood floors yourself. We also suggest that consumers speak to a professional before they start to make sure that they are using the right tools and materials. Cleanliness is next to godliness when it comes to refinishing hardwood floors. Do it yourself consumers must remove all dust specks before applying finishing coats.
Otherwise you will have lots of dust specs that will show up in the daylight. This will cause your floor not to look as great as it should. You will also need to sand between coats of varnish or whatever you use to finish your floor. The last coat must be applied to a completely clean floor to avoid any possibility of dust specks leaving marks on your floor.
How to Refinish Hardwood Floors Yourself: Steps to Take
Good luck and follow these steps to refinish your hardwood floors yourself:
- Remove all furniture & window treatments
- Tape all vents
- Open windows
- Turn furnace fan off
- Close door and seal
- Rent power sander with vacuum
- Sand in direction of wood grain
- Use progressively finer sand paper
- Vacuum dust
- Use tack cloth on floors and walks
- Treat with appropriate finish
- Light sanding between coats
How to Refinish Hardwood Floors Yourself: Additional Thoughts
Let it dry for a few days and then move your furniture etc back into the room. This is a lot of work and many consumers must do this work in the evenings and weekends since they must also go to their day jobs. The job can take several weeks depending on how focused you are in getting the job completed, which means you must also have the support of your family as well.
The room you are refinishing cannot be used during this time period and no matter how hard you try there will be lots of fine dust, that will find its way into just about everything. If someone comes in to do the work for you, the job should be completed within a few days in most cases. Many consumers consider this to be a huge benefit and even though it will cost a lot more money they will hire a handy man to complete the job for them.
This scenario is definitely something to think about. If you hire someone, discuss how they will minimize the dust in the rest of the home. Exhaust fans to the outside, taping the door shut and closing return air vents to avoid dust being sucked into the forced air heating system are examples of steps to take to avoid the dust being circulated throughout the home.