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refinish wood floor
how do i refinish wood floor for cheap?

studio rental from the 1950′s

If you’re lucky enough to find hardwood floors hiding under your tired carpeting, you might feel like covering the wood back up. That’s understandable because refinishing the floors yourself seems like an impossible task.

Hardwood floors were a common feature in houses until the 1960s. Before that, having wall-to-wall carpet was considered a luxury upgrade. From the 1970s on, most homes had wall-to-wall carpet in nearly every room. However, tastes change, and over the last couple decades, hardwood floors have once again become fashionable and desirable.

Oftentimes, when I’m talking with someone about fixing houses, they ask if refinishing hardwood floors is something they can do themselves. Unless the person has a physical reason why they can’t do it, I generally say yes. However, I also remind them that redoing hardwood floors takes a great deal of time, sweat, and elbow grease.

As a general rule, floors of fifty square feet or less can be sanded by hand, but for any floor larger than that, rent or buy a small orbital sander. Everything necessary for doing it yourself will be available at your local hardware store. You can buy a pretty good electric sander nowadays for less than $100, which can be a good investment, especially if you’re planning to work on your home on a regular basis.

The first layer to be removed is often a thick wax coating, followed by a coat of either polyurethane or varnish. A heavy duty commercial wax stripper can remove the wax, and then a lacquer thinner or acetone can be wiped on to prepare the wood for the next step.

If there are any carpet tacks or pieces of old nails in the wood, remove them first. The remnant of a nail can tear up sandpaper, damage a sanding pad, and do serious damage to the palm of your hand, so check carefully to make sure all remnants of tacks and nails are gone before you begin sanding.

Fill all nail holes with a quality wood filler, matching the color as closely as you can, and let it dry. Then you’re ready to begin sanding the floor with 220-grit sandpaper, whether by hand or with a sander.

When you’re done sanding, wipe the entire floor with a damp cloth to remove as much sanding dust as possible. Damp cloths work better than vacuum cleaners. Let the floor dry, and then wipe it again with a tack rag, which is a cloth impregnated with resin to pick up fine dust particles. Again, your local hardware store will have what you need.

After the floor is as clean as you can get it, apply three coats of polyurethane with a paint pad, allowing each coat to dry thoroughly, lightly sanding with 220-grit paper, and wiping the floor with a damp cloth and a tack rag between coats. If you prefer an old-fashioned finish, you can use a 50/50 mixture of linseed oil and mineral spirits and then wax the floors with beeswax or paste wax. Take caution with the chemical mixture and the rags because they can catch on fire.

You can refinish hardwood floors yourself. It just takes time and effort–and a good set of kneepads wouldn’t hurt, either! Once you finish, you’ll have a gorgeous floor to be proud of and ready for that next “do it yourself” project–perhaps the next room with hardwood floors.

refinish wood floor

Wood Floors Add A Touch Of Class

When you determine the style and material for your flooring, it is important to consider the areas to be floored, type of subfloor, your preference for pre-finished or unfinished flooring and stain color. The state-of-the-art technology coupled with an almost limitless choice of stains, finishes, styles and designs makes hardwood flooring one of the most practical and versatile floor coverings available. So if you want a home that is beautiful, if you want a home that stops people in their tracks when they walk in, then you need to put down exotic hardwood flooring.

The exotic hardwood flooring will give you that stopping power that you desire and crave. Hardwood flooring has an inverse relation with the moisture inherent in the wood and is independent of the engineering. Low hardness is chestnut, douglas fir, and north american cherry while hardwood from brazilian walnut, caribbean cherry and bloodwood is extremely hard.

Hopefully you can buy one of the popular types of flooring. As the cost of vinyl flooring and carpeting become lower the wooden floors were reserved for high-end applications. The ratio has changed slightly and now with a good quality engineered flooring it can be refinished two or three times depending on the subfloor’s smoothness and the experience of refinisher.

Laminate floors are ideal for those who want the style and look of hard wood floors but cannot afford the price. These floors are built with a core, sandwiched between a hardwood finish layer on the top and soft wood ply below.

Wood floors on the other hand is not so much more expensive but need to be installed in the rooms. Actually the entire house can now have wood floors but it is always a good idea to leave the bathroom aside. Except for the cost, another drawback of wood floors is that they can be easily gouged and scratched. But, there are century old homes that still have the original wood floors.

Wood floors have great value in several ways as they need no replacement over even a long time and their installment in a house can bring about an enhancement in the value of the house. This in turn will seriously affect the resell value of your home and make your home a health hazard to its occupants. Of course the appeal lies not only in its aesthetic value of its representation of real hardwood, but also due to its incredible durability and ease of maintenance. A good looking floor will add a lot of value to a home.

If you are interested in design a personally customized floor is easy to create by combining a choice of colors, colored chips, and even glitter options. You have dozens of colors to choose from. The darker colors are often found in formal or traditional interiors while lighter shades go well with a casual and contemporary set-up. Draw attention to your floors with dramatic coverings or soften the feel of the room with soft colors on the floor.

About the Author

Keith George always writes about valuable news & reviews.
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Wood Floors

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Can i refinish a SPOT of a wood floor because i stained it with some perfume =/?

My backpack had perfume in the bottom which exploded and leaked through… there is now an area where the stain of the floor was eaten away. It looks like dry wood. Is it possible to sand this spot a little bit and then refinish it to make it look like the floor around it.

Try Old English, put some on and wipe it off, the longer you leave it on the darker, the less, lighter. it works on all wood.
You can feather it into the original color.

Restore your furniture’s natural beauty with Old English(R)
www.oldenglishpolish.com/ – 13k

Refinishing Hardwood Floors

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