Construction Zone: building, remodeling, additions: refinishing hardwood floors

Forum: Construction Zone: building, remodeling, additions Replies: 5, Views: 51 Print -

Author Content IO1 Waaaay down south, GA (Zone 8b) August 3, 2007 11:51 AM Post #3813429 I have oak tongue and groove hardwood floors in my bedroom that need to be refinished and my DH is thinking about doing this himself. Anyone done this that might have some tips and tricks or things to watch out for before we get started? Thanks for your help! :-) claypa West Pottsgrove, PA (Zone 6b) August 3, 2007 12:05 PM Post #3813478 The two biggest things to watch out for are nails sticking up, high enough to snag the sander and ruin the sandpaper or worse, and filling your house with sawdust. It's easy to do this wrong and dish out grooves in your floor, too. But it certainly can be done right, especially if the floor is in decent condition, without lots of major gouges, deep pet stains, etc. And don't scrimp, rent an edge sander too. There's probably lots of info on the web. Good luck! Bubba_MoCity Missouri City, TX August 3, 2007 12:28 PM Post #3813567 Renting some professional equipment is a good idea, claypa. Get a top of the line respirator. Remove everything from the room - furniture, curtains, anything on shelves, etc. Dust is going to be everywhere. Hope you have a good vacuum with a hepa filter. And tape a plastic dropcloth covering the doorway - especially at the bottom. Once the floor is "empty", shine a bright light across it - lay a flashlight on the floor and look for any raised obstructions (nails, etc.) that would tear up the sanding pads or drum. A light damp moping may show any splintering boards and remaining debris. Once those are taken care of, sanding should not be much of a problem. Do you know what finish has been used? If it is oil and wax finished, no fear. If varnished or urathaned, you may want to use a chemical stripper first - Soy Gel is the least offensive I know about. Work the power sanders per the instructions - go a little slower and work small areas at first - and quit if you feel tired - you can do a lot of damage when fatigued. The floor will wait patiently for your return. Good luck. It isn't hard to do, just time consuming and messy. IO1 Waaaay down south, GA (Zone 8b) August 3, 2007 12:48 PM Post #3813640 Thanks for these excellent suggestions! Bubba, sounds like you've done it before? I'm thinking the floors have varnish on them, but not sure. I imagine the DH knows. I'm just trying to scout about getting info from people that have tackled this project before. You can read and read, but there's no info like first hand knowledge. You know what I mean! LOL catgal77 Everett, WA (Zone 8a) September 6, 2007 4:33 PM Post #3944678 We just tackled this job with our soft wood (fir) floors in our very old new house (1913). We had to strip 1-2 layers of sticky icky vinyl tiles, then sand... we used masks, but I'm sure we inhaled our share of asbestos from the adhesive on the old vinyl. Ok, so long story short, a few things I would have tried to better... 1. We had grooves and dips in our floors from our sanding job that wasn't noticeable until after we were finished. Too late then. Knowing this, I would now focus more on the sanding, keeping things moving, slowly going down in the paper grit. We rented a drum sander, but perhaps an orbital sander will not create so many grooves? I guess you just have to keep moving. Then we rented a short orbital edge sander for all the edges... we just should have taken our time more on the whole sanding part. 2. I actually found the hardest part to be applying the polyurethane. I researched a bunch and decided on the Varathane oil-based floor finish. Our first few coats were in Satin. We didn't sand between the first few coats... big mistake. It got all bumpy from not cleaning the floors well enough after sanding, and just from particles that get into the wet poly, and bubbles (although not too many bubbles actually). Research told me to apply the layers thin, but that seemed to be bringing out the flaws and everything. So after 3 coats we sanded using finishing sanders (little hand ones, took quite a while, at a very fine grit, 180 I believe), cleaned the residue as best we could, and then changed to semi-gloss finish, and put it on heavier... alot better. Overall it definitely isn't perfect, but looks rustic, and pretty good. I would do it again (cost us less than $1K, and alot of physical labor, rather than the $10K we were quoted), especially now that I know more. We were not living in the house yet, so we didn't have to worry about moving a bunch of stuff or dust or anything. We did have to pull all the trim off, and I didn't like it anyway so we didn't worry about keeping it in good shape, we chucked it. Unfortunately we still haven't gotten new trim put on yet. Ahh. Anyway, good luck! Bubba_MoCity Missouri City, TX September 6, 2007 4:52 PM Post #3944737 catgal77, Bet you're glad it's over. Softwood floors do require a more delicate touch than hard wood, and you're analysis of your errors is accurate - keep power equipment moving - and don't get distracted. A momenatary glance away can cause gouging. Sanders are somewhat forgiving, but planers can really mess things up quickly.

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