The Steps to Refinishing Your Hardwood Flooring in Santa Cruz, CA

Hardwood floors can last for a lifetime, but eventually they’ll need to be refinished. Depending on the state of your floors, this could actually be a fairly straightforward DIY project—it’ll just take some time and a bit of know-how to complete.

Here’s an overview of the main steps involved in refinishing your hardwood flooring in Santa Cruz, CA:

• Collect your equipment: The project will require the use of a variety of equipment, including rags, brushes, a shop vac, tack cloths, finishing nails, flooring sanders, random orbital sanders, nail sets, a hammer, steel wool, painter’s tape, wood putty, stain and varnish.
• Remove the molding: Take off the baseboards, quarter round or shoe molding before beginning the project, taking care not to damage it so you can reuse it if desired.
• Nail in loose boards: If you have any squeaky sections or loose floorboards, take this opportunity to nail them in with finishing nails. Nail into a floor joist, not just the subfloor. Use a nail set to make sure all nails are flush with the surface and fill holes with wood putty.
• Set up dust protection: Close off all doorways and ductwork with plastic sheeting, and set that sheeting up to block off any areas you want to protect from dust. Using painter’s tape to hold up that sheeting can help.
• Sanding the floor: Start out by rough sanding the floor. You’ll probably need to use a drum sander if the floor is in rough shape, otherwise you can just use a vibrating sander for a simpler job. You can rent drum sanders from your local home supply store. Start off with the coarsest grit before working up to 80 or 100 grit. Always work with the grain. Sweep and vacuum when done, then move on to fine sanding. Use a vibrating sander starting with 60 grit sandpaper and moving up to 100 grit.
• Sanding the edges: Sand the corners and edges with an edge sander, which often comes with rental of the other tools. This will help you reach areas you could not get at with the larger sanders. Practice on a hidden area first before moving on. You might find a random orbital sander to be easier to control.
• Apply stain: After you’ve vacuumed up all the dust, begin applying wood stain with a foam applicator. Work one small area at a time and always follow the direction of the grain. Remove excess stain with a cloth, usually about 10 minutes after application.
• Apply finish: Allow the stain to dry, and then apply the first coat of varnish. You can use a polyurethane to get the job done. Then sand the floor lightly with a 220-grit paper or #000 steel wool and vacuum up the dust. Always sand between coats of varnish.

That’s it! For more tips about how you can refinish your hardwood flooring in Santa Cruz, CA and get excellent results from the job, contact the experts at The Wholesale House today.

Categorised in: Hardwood Flooring

This post was written by Writer