Refinish Hardwood Floors

Hardwood floors can add beauty and value to your home, but over time they may become scratched, dull and worn-looking from wear and tear. If your floors look like they've seen better days, or if you have recently removed carpeting or other flooring to expose hard wood, you can refinish it. It's a tough job - one that many leave to professionals - but it is possible to do it yourself and save some money.

Before you start, visit your local True Value hardware store for all the tools, products and expert advice you need to restore the natural beauty of your hardwood floors.

Step 1. Prepare the Room
Start by removing every item from the room in which you'll be working. This means furniture, rugs, decorative items, fixtures, etc. There will be a large amount of dust in this room during sanding, and anything left inside will be exposed to the dust and debris.

You will also want to seal off the room as much as possible so that dust doesn't spread throughout your house. Cover the room's doorways, vents and electrical outlets with plastic sheeting and use masking tape to fasten the sheeting in place. Every opening should be closed or covered to avoid spreading dust throughout your home. Open windows in the room to ventilate and remove some of the dust and residue that will be in the air.

Check the floor for any nails or, if you pulled up carpet, check for any carpet staples or tacks that may be protruding Sharp objects such as these can destroy the sandpaper on a sander, forcing you to change it out. This will make the job longer than it needs to be. Using a hammer or nail setter, pound any nails you find below the surface of the floor as far as you can get them. Remember that your floor's surface will be a little bit lower than it was after you've sanded. Thoroughly sweep and mop the floor before starting any of the work.

Step 2. Get a Floor Sander
Rent an upright electric floor sander. Floors need refinishing approximately every 10 years, so there's no need to buy one. Sanders strip the wood of its old finish and smooth the surface for refinishing. While you can sand your floor with an electric hand sander, an old-fashioned palm sander or pole sander, you're only adding to the overall time of the project, not to mention the amount of backbreaking work. The larger, upright sanding units make the job easier and faster to complete. Make sure that you follow the directions and understand how they work before you start. Ask for a demonstration at your rental location.

The two most-commonly used types of floor sanders are drum sanders and orbital sanders. Of these two large, heavy machines, orbital sanders are the most user-friendly, especially for someone not used to working with sanders. Drum sanders can be a little trickier to control. Both types of sanders need to be kept in motion when the power is on or you risk sanding too deeply and causing grooves in the floor. These grooves are not repairable. Read all instructions carefully to be sure you know how to use the machine.

Step 3. Start Sanding
Attach a high-grit sheet of sandpaper to the sander and begin sanding slowly and evenly with the wood's grain. Move the sander in straight, even strokes. Start in the middle of the room and work your way across one half of the floor, overlapping each pass by a couple inches. Remember to always keep the sander moving when it's on. Repeat the process on the other half of the room.

• Do a practice run where a piece of furniture will be placed to get a feel for the sander and to see what it does to the floor. If you make a mistake, the furniture will cover it.
• Always turn the sander on with the sanding pad off of the floor. Slowly lower it onto the floor to begin.

• Sanding your floors will kick up a lot of dust. Wear safety glasses and a dust mask or respirator while you work to avoid breathing in the dust or getting it in your eyes.
• Sanders operate at a very loud volume. Wear earplugs to protect your ears.

Eventually, you'll start getting too close to the walls and risk potentially bumping your baseboards and damaging them. When this happens, you can give the upright sander a rest and use an electric edge sander or palm sander to sand the rest of the floor near the walls. Be sure you use the same grit that you used when operating the large sander.

Clean up the sanding dust with a shop vacuum. Change out the sandpaper on the sander for a medium-grit sandpaper and repeat the same sanding process. Remember to do the edges along the walls with the medium-grit sandpaper as well. Clean up the dust with the shop vacuum then swap out the sandpaper for a low-grit sandpaper and repeat the process again. Sanding with each type of grit in this way ensures that you get the smoothest end result. Clean dust from all surfaces with the shop vacuum and a tack cloth.

• Be sure to remove as much dust and residue as possible from all surfaces in the room. Besides the floor, check walls, windowsills, etc. Dust is your enemy when you begin to add the new finish.

Step 4. Apply Finish
Carefully follow the instructions on the container of polyurethane finish for direction on how to prepare and apply it. Generally speaking, you will apply the finish to the bare wood using a roller applicator or an extension pole.

• Different brands and different types of finish can give the wood a different tone. So before doing the entire floor, test the finish you'll be using in a corner or other inconspicuous place of the room. This simple test will help to ensure that the finish will look the way you want.

Don't paint yourself into a corner. Start at the farthest corner from the door and apply the finish smoothly and evenly with the grain. Work your way back towards the door until you've covered every inch of floor space. Keep a small, angular-bristle paintbrush handy for any spots that you can't get to with the roller.

Let the first coat dry completely (dry time varies for each brand and each type of finish). This will usually take anywhere from three to eight hours but read the product label and follow the specified instructions for best results. Afterward, use a pole sander and a palm sander with an ultra fine-grit sandpaper to lightly sand the floor again. This will roughen the surface a bit and help the next coat adhere more effectively. Clean up the dust from sanding with the shop vacuum. Apply the next coat like you did the first. In some cases, you may find you need more than two coats. If so, simply follow the method you used for the first and second coats for the next ones.

Once you're done with all your coats, let the floor dry overnight, or for 24 hours. After that, it should be ready to walk on. However, don't move furniture or rugs, etc. back into the room for a couple of days. You want to be sure that the finish has completely dried and won't be marked up by shoes and furniture legs when you move everything back into the room.

Nice job! Now your wood floors look renewed and refreshed. For the rest of your home maintenance projects, visit your local True Value hardware store for the tools, products and expert advice you need to start right.

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