Most consumers should consider refinishing their hardwood floors. Why refinish hardwood floors? Before replacing them or worse covering them up! You can save thousands of dollars in work and materials. refinish the floors instead of replacing them or buying carpet to cover the floors because they do not look great. Another tactic that many people will use is that they will purchase area rugs to cover the worst areas and the high traffic areas. Not only do you not see the worst of the wear and tear on the floors, you add protection for the floor and you add warmth to the room.

Purchasing a nice area rug to under a coffee table, down a hallway etc is a great addition to your home and will compliment your furniture and décor. Area rugs can be purchased inexpensively and after a year or two changed to something else if you get tired of it or just want something different. They are not expensive and they make a room look great. But we are getting off the topic of refinishing hardwood floors.

When to Refinish a Hardwood Floor

Other than the obvious observation i.e. the floor looks worn and tired looking. So it is time to refinish it. There are some practical considerations to take into account about deciding when to refinish a hardwood floor.

For example a friend of ours just moved into an older home that they purchased. The home has hardwood floors throughout with the exception of the kitchen and the bathrooms. The floors are in average shape. They are not in terrible shape, nor do they exhibit severe stress in high traffic areas. However they certainly do not have that high gloss brand new look that everyone strives for when they move into a brand new home or have the floors refinished.

Initial Plan

Their initial plan was to have all of the floors refinished before they moved in so that they would have pristine high gloss hardwood floors. The job would be easy to do without the furniture in the rooms and the dust to contend with while living in the home. Once they saw the floors after the previous owner had moved out, washed and cleaned then they realized that the floors were ok, not great but ok. Combined with the fact that they have a cat and they have a young daughter with her toys and friends coming and going, they felt that it might be better to wait until she got a little older and there would be less chance of a brand new floor being scratched the day they move in.

With the existing floors in their present condition, which is really not that bad, they can be much more relaxed in their home and they can have the floors completely refinished sometime in the future. Instead they will judiciously use area rugs under the coffee table, beside their beds and in higher traffic areas at entrances to rooms. They are having fun picking out these rugs and decorating their home together.

Refinishing One Room at a Time

Consumers can do the work themselves by renting the appropriate equipment and working evenings and weekends. By closing the doors, taping up the vents they can prevent dust from getting into the rest of the house and complete one room at a time. While they have no definite plans at this time to start on any of the rooms this is a good approach to take when they are ready to get started. In the mean time they can enjoy their home and look forward to decorating their home while not stressing about scratching the hardwood floor.

If you are unsure of how to do some of the work, talk to experts or review some videos. There are many other posts on this web site about how to refinish your hardwood floors as well as tips about refinishing floors. Comments are welcome.