If you're afraid of power tools, prepare to be petrified. The drum sander is loud enough to require ear protection as well as safety goggles and a breathing mask. Although the machine sucks up 90 percent of the sawdust, plenty gets spewed all over your house and you. The drum sander will get everything except a 2-inch margin along each wall. For that, you need a specialized disk sander called an edger.
Let's say you want to refinish a living room and dining room measuring about square feet. You should be able to sand the entire area in less than a day, Brunton said. There's more, though. You need to buy the special sandpaper for the drum sander and the edger. After you've sanded down to the bare wood, you're ready to apply the finish. That requires a third power tool--a floor polisher--which is used to buff the finish between each coat, removing dust and other imperfections.
The cost of tools and supplies from Brunton at Rental Services Corp. Both Brunton and Williams said there is a difference between amateur and professional tools. The drum sanders Williams uses are bigger, more powerful machines that require volt power instead of the volts.
Professional refinishers will do your floors better and faster than you could. Brunton argues that most homeowners will do just fine if they just take their time.
You can almost always bet that refinishing is cheaper than replacing hardwood floors. Pro Tip: Don't use a sanding block for refinishing hardwood—it might miss uneven spots in the floor. Looking for help with repairs around your home? A home warranty may help.
Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. How to Refinish Hardwood Floors.
By the Editors. Pinterest Email Pocket Flipboard. Is it cheaper to refinish or replace hardwood floors? Read these 6 steps for refinishing the wood floors in your home: 1. Clean the Floor with a Hardwood Floor Cleaner Photo by Reena Bammi Remove all the furniture, and spray the floor with a hardwood flooring cleaner or your own mix of 10 parts water to 1 part white vinegar.
Gently wipe the floor with a terry-cloth mop or a towel wrapped around a mop head. Close the windows and doors to keep dust contained in the room you're sanding. Prep the Perimeter Photo by Reena Bammi Using grit sandpaper, hand-sand the perimeter of the room and any nooks that the buffer can't reach.
Rub with the grain 4 to 6 inches out from the baseboard, working over each board until the finish dulls and a powder forms. Move the buffer from side to side across the floor in the direction of the grain, overlapping each course by 6 inches. The old finish turns to powder as you go, so it's easy to see the areas you've covered. And engineered hardwood , which has a layer of hardwood over a plywood core, isn't a much better candidate.
Try re-sealing and buffing engineered floors instead. But basically, only floors with real hardwood throughout can tolerate refinishing. You should've been told what type of floor your home has when you bought it — either in the listing details or in the inspection report. Or you can usually figure it out by pulling up a floor register and looking at the side of a plank to see if it's all wood, laminate, or engineered wood.
Get a demo. Installing the belt on a sander incorrectly can ruin your floor. Ask for a demonstration of how the whole thing works when you rent it.
Test it. Pick a discrete spot to test your process before you ruin your entire living room. Some chemical- or oil-based cleaning products leave a nasty, nearly-invisible residue, which might bubble to the surface once you start to seal the planks.
If anything looks odd during testing, strip your floors using a mixture of ammonia and water, or use a commercial hardwood cleaner. Skip the stain. Keep your wood natural, then finish it with a water-based polyurethane instead.
DeWees says the water-based finish dries quickly, which is a plus. It does mean you'll need to work fast, though, he says. It can start feeling dry to the touch in as little as 15 minutes. If you don't work quickly, you risk visible overlapping strokes on the finished floor.
Not a deal-breaker, but it will look amateurish. Take your time.
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