Written By Tessa Kirby
Hey guys! It’s been a few weeks since we finished refinishing (that’s a tongue twister!) our hardwood floors and now we want to share with you the 14 DO'S & DON’TS we learned along the way! Keep in mind, we are NOT professionals at this craft but have done this enough times (ahem….4 and counting) that we feel we have some wisdom we could share with any of you brave enough to tackle this sort of project. If you want to be entertained/be a little more informed on each of these, watch the video below. Hope you are all doing well and staying healthy during this COVID-19 crisis.
14 Do's & Don'ts of Refinishing Your Hardwood Floors
DO: move everything and anything out of the area you’re sanding. Dust literally reaches to the high heavens when you’re doing this so taking everything off shelves, walls, floors, etc is absolutely necessary for easier clean up at the end.
DON’T: Use a vibrating/orbital drum sander. Instead to get the best result possible use a belt drum sander. This is a much more aggressive sander but does the best job lifting the finish off to expose the natural wood.
DO: Use a vibrating/orbital sander for your final pass, as a means of evening out the finish.
DON’T: Use a palm sander to do the bulk of your edge work, instead rent an industrial edging sander instead.
DO: vacuum between passes.
DON’: start and stop in the same place or you’ll create a noticeable line. And don’t start in the middle of a room, instead start at one wall.
DO: sand all floors simultaneously.
DON’T: sand against the grain, UNLESS you feel skilled enough to sand diagonally or across the grain.
DO: start with 20 grit paper and work your way up to 120 grit paper.
DON’T: Go too high in grit or it can cause you to over sand your floors leaving them unable to absorb stain or poly adequately.
DO: clean your floors with mineral spirits before adding your finish to the floors. Also make sure to vacuum a good amount of times prior and wipe baseboards, trim, counters, etc down.
DON’T: Use a wool pad applicator when working with water-based poly like the Matte finish Varathane that we used. You should use a synthetic pad instead.
DO: lightly sand & vacuum in between every coat of poly. We used a 120 grit paper on a pole to lightly sand in between each coat we did. This helps to get rid of air bubbles or any other imperfection.
DO: follow the instructions of your can of finish or stain (aka. READ THE FINE PRINT). Every floor is different and every refinishing job is unique. Make sure you don’t go off of what somebody else did without reading the label for yourself!
We hope this helps and remember, we are not professionals just some avid DIY-ers sharing what we’ve learned along the way!
Watch a fun mashup of our floor refinishing process
I am a wife. I am a mother. I am a blogger. And I am a lover of all things made new. I focus on taking something old and bringing it to life again, with an additional emphasis in typography. I believe that words have a way of changing the atmosphere.
