How to Refinish Your Hardwood Floor

It is a fact that hardwood flooring will last a lifetime if properly maintained. In our last post we covered how to protect floors from damage, and how to keep floors looking beautiful with regular light cleaning, and occasional deep cleaning when necessary.

However, none of the techniques covered in the last post are any good to you if the finish on your floor has become damaged. Now, the first thing we will say is that the best thing to do in this situation is to get the professionals in, because paying them to do a perfect job with minimal hassle will cost far less than fixing any mistakes you might make, or potentially even having to replace part or all of the floors.

However, below we are going to explain the process of refinishing hardwood floors. This can be looked upon as a Do It Yourself guide or simply so you know what the tradesman will be doing in order that you can judge what a reasonable quote is:

Step 1: Sanding

This can be done with hand sanders, but this is incredibly sore on the back. The best advice is to hire a sander. The old drum sanders are fine, but the orbital sanders are by far the best.

You will also need to get the four different grades of sandpaper, 36, 60, 80, 100, and a dust-mask.

Most importantly: when sanding it is essential that you do not leave the sander standing while switched on, as this will put a recess into the wood that will be irreparable. When you switch the sander on just ensure you keep moving, long, steady strokes along the grain of the wood. Never sand across the grain. If you accidentally make a small gouge in the wood, simply make long strokes back and forth over the affected area to even it out.

Start with the roughest sandpaper, 36 and sand over the floor in the direction of the wood. Then, with a lighter-grain sandpaper (60 grit), sand scratches and lines in the floor as many times as necessary to remove them. Then attach the next grade, and the next, to sand the floor to a beautiful smooth finish.

If your sander doesn’t reach the edges of the floor you will need to use an edging sander, or a hand sander to sand down the edges of the floor in the same way as covered above.

You should then brush up the saw-dust, and then use a hand vacuum to pick up the even finer dust.

Step 2: Staining

By now, you are looking at a smooth, sanded hardwood floor, as bare and beautiful as nature never intended. You have to choose whether you want to keep its natural beauty or give its beauty a different shade, texture and/or tone.

This is a decision you will already have made, and you will have bought the stain in your chosen shade, but no one says you can’t change your mind when presented with the natural beauty of the wood.

If you have decided not to stain you can move on to step 3. Otherwise, the next step is to test your shade on a corner of the floor and leave it 5 minutes to dry, to make sure you like it on.

If you do, the next step is to apply a first coat of stain to the rest of the floor. Use a brush and smooth out with a rag if you want heavier, darker coats. Use only rags for lighter and more controlled strokes. Either way, apply with long, even strokes, going with the grain. Allow the first coat to dry. If necessary, apply a second coat, or touch up light spots.

Step 3: Finishing (AKA Sealing)

Firstly, ensure that you do the opposite of how Bond likes his martinis; stir the polyurethane finishing solution, do not shake. Shaking would create air bubbles which would ruin the finish on your floor.

Apply polyurethane with a brush or roller, using smooth, even strokes with the grain to avoid marks in the finish. Then leave to dry for at least 3 hours, before applying the second coat – check the label for drying times of the brand you have bought.

Add a second coat. Allow the final coat to dry overnight at least, and leave it up to 3 days before moving furniture or rugs back on the floor.

How to Care for and Clean Hardwood Flooring

Properly cared for, hardwood flooring will last a lifetime and beyond; I say that a lot but today I am actually going to explain the first part of that statement.

Protecting Your Hardwood Floors

Place mats at all entrances:

These are to trap dirt and dust which scrape and damage hardwood flooring.

Mop Up Water and Spillages Immediately

Any spillage on hardwood floors must be cleaned up immediately. On carpets spillages of water are not such a big deal, but on hardwood water can cause warping and damage to the finish.

Felt Contacts Under Furniture Legs

It is often tempting to drag furniture when looking for something that may have gone under it, and in households with children it is almost impossible to avoid furniture being scraped along the floor. The damage this can do to hardwood floors is obvious and heartbreaking. That is why we always recommend adding felt contact sheets to the bottom of all furniture legs.

Sheer Drapes and Protection from Direct Sunlight

Direct sunlight can cause awful discoloration of hardwood flooring. Obviously this can be avoided by closing blinds and curtains, but if you want to let the light in, and keep your floors beautiful then sheer drapes are your best bet.

Cleaning Your Hardwood Floors (Regular Care):

Brushing:

Use a soft brush, preferably one with exploded-end bristles.

Vacuuming:

We recommend using bare floor attachments with brushes to avoid damaging the floor. Vacuuming in the traditional sense is very rarely a good idea on hardwood floors.

Dust Mopping:

Dust mopping is a specialist way of cleaning hardwood floors. We recommend a large dust mop with a head of around 12-18 inches. This should be used with a specialist dust-mopping solution, which is applied to the mop 12-24 hours before mopping is carried out.

Cleaning Hardwood Floors (Deep Cleaning):

Damp Mopping:

Though some people will tell you that hardwood floors should never be mopped wet or damp, it is the easiest and most efficient way to deep clean hardwood floors. Damp mopping should only be done if the floors are properly and completely sealed; put another way it should not be done if there is any doubt about or damage to the floors finish.

Then you should use a ph neutral wood cleaning product, diluted with water as per the guidelines. The mop should be dipped in the solution and then wrung out so that it is half dry before mopping. I was in two minds as to whether to put this in the regular care section, because some households will need to damp-mop their floors up to once a week, which is perfectly fine, as I said, provided the floor is completely sealed.

Heavy Duty Mopping:

Again this sounds a disastrously bad idea, but again if the floors are properly sealed, the little extra water and solution will do them absolutely no harm. Done properly heavy duty mopping can really bring back the shine.

Waxing:

Also known as a maintenance coat, waxing is a sure-fire, quick and easy way to make damaged or worn floors beautiful once again, and it is something that a layman can do. A coat of wax provides a layer of protection on the wood, and it is the wax that you will be cleaning from then forward, it can also be reapplied as and when needed, keeping floors beautiful.

However, if you are having your floor professionally refinished, waxing should be avoided as a stop-gap measure, as it can lead to problems with adhesion and can limit your refinishing options.

A Look at Laminate Flooring

Everyone knows that we are in absolute love with hardwood flooring, you just can’t beat it. But we also got love for laminate.

Yes, it’s true: laminate flooring does not last as long, it does not have the same satisfying crunch underfoot, and it cannot be sanded and varnished to show you care and make it look good as new.

But it is also a lot less expensive, and just as easy to keep clean, read here to find out why this is important.

Laminate flooring is the perfect solution for those who want wood flooring, but either cannot afford hardwood, or do not want to go to the expense of hardwood because they are in temporary accommodation.

For example, a person who is living in a council house, or privately rented accommodation, while they save up the deposit to buy a house.

People living in a council accommodation as a permanent decision, will very often buy hardwood flooring, but very few people in privately rented accommodation will shell out the expense on the proviso that the landlord could one day give them notice.

Laminate is also perfect for low but solid income earners, who can’t afford the one off outlay for hardwood, who don’t want to go the finance route, and who can afford the periodic replacements of laminate more easily.

Despite the fact that Laminate flooring is slightly more expensive than carpets, and doesn’t offer the value for money of hardwood for lasting a lifetime, laminate is still better value for money, and cheaper than carpets in the long run.

This is because the extra cost is easily covered by the money you save on buying a vacuum cleaner every 2-5 years, not to mention the money you save not having to buy stain removers etc etc. A simple brush, a brush and pan and the ability to polish with your feet (obviously I mean with a duster under-foot) is all you need to keep laminate flooring clean and well cared for.

Yes, laminate flooring does need to be periodically replaced, but depending on its usage and care, it often does not need to be replaced anywhere near as often as carpets do.

And once you get away from its shortcomings compared to hardwood, the appearance is still very satisfying. It is certainly the best floor covering that a person, who can’t or doesn’t want to go for hardwood flooring, can get.

Hardwood Flooring is Just Better All Round - Right

People buy wood floors because of their stylish appearance and some even because it is a lot easier to keep clean, but there is another potential benefit that is more often overlooked. Like everything else nowadays you can buy wood flooring online.

The benefit of wood flooring that you won't read on the label is the potential health benefit from the fact that it is so easy to clean; there is nowhere for dust mites to hide.

Cases of asthma and other similar diseases and ailments have increased greatly especially in children since the use of carpets became widespread. Even some doctors have conceded that the dust-mites clinging to carpet-fibres even after they have been vacuumed are at least part of the problem.

It isn't just the carpets that are at fault; carpets encourage people, especially children to lie on the floor. This puts them even closer to the harmful dust and mites.

As I covered in the last post, you would be surprised just how much dust and dirt your vacuum cleaner is not picking up.

I said:

"We once had a sales rep come round and show us a Kirby hoover (yes it was years ago, when I were just a lad, read in Yorkshire accent).

"The demonstration was scary; he got us to vacuum a square foot of rug as many times as we thought it would take to get all the dust and make it completely clean, so we did. Then he vacuumed the same area once back and forth with the Kirby and proudly showed us the amount of dust and dirt it had collected.

"This was supposed to make us realise that we couldn’t live without the Kirby and buy. Instead it made us wonder how much dust it was leaving behind, and invest in hardwood flooring the following day."

Arguments for carpets include:

• Carpets create a cosier feel
• Carpets make a house easier (and less expensive) to heat
• Carpets are far cheaper at the outset

I'll answer them in reverse order:

Yes, carpets are cheaper than hardwood flooring. But by the time you replace your carpets every five years, they will end up costing you a lot more than the hardwood flooring which would have lasted your lifetime and beyond.

Houses with hard wood flooring can be just as warm and easy to heat as carpets, because they offer an equal if not greater level of energy saving efficient floor insulation, if properly laid.

As for the cosy feel, you haven't felt cosy till you've been in a room where a living flame (real or fake) is reflecting off Tuscan Big Earth flooring onto cream walls.

But for me the biggest thing is my children's health. We currently have carpets, but this is only because we are buying our own place soon, and plan to invest in some of McKay Floorings finest hardwood flooring then.

Article written by Liam Bailey, of SEO copywriting firm Write About Property.

5 Reasons to Choose Solid (Hard) Wood Flooring

I was talking to the missus the other night, and she made the mistake of asking me what was so much better about having hardwood flooring than anything else. Her asking me this was surprising given that she knows how I love to get up onto my soapbox about hardwood. Here is what I said:

1: Appearance:

Properly laid and looked after, hardwood floor will have a deep glossy shine, and the deep red woods, dark woods and light woods are all beautiful in their own way.

Then there are the mosaic effects that the professionals and designers can create using multiple shades and species of wood, but I always favour the plain, simple beauty of the solid plank.

That covers appearance, but there is also the appearances factor: there is something about a hardwood floor that just oozes class, it is the flooring that people put in a property when they really care about it. That is for the keeping up with the joneses bit in all of us.

2: Value for Money

Properly looked after solid wood flooring will last a lifetime. This is compared to carpets which should really be replaced every 5 years at least, and even laminates will need to be replaced several times in a lifetime.

Therefore, though hardwood flooring will cost more at the outset, the lifespan, on top of all the  other benefits covered here it offers by far the most value for money.

3: Easy to Clean

This one is pretty self explanatory; hardwood flooring does not need to be vacuumed, just brushed and polished. If you spill something you just soak it up and clean the affected area.

Carpets are a nightmare to keep clean, every spill can become a stain, and no matter how good your hoover, you can never be sure you have gotten all of the dust and the dust mites, which can cause asthma and a range of other ailments, which brings me to the next point:

4: Cleanliness, Hygiene

It is a commonly held theory that the wide use of carpets is a large part of the reason why cases of Asthma has grown exponentially in recent years.

We once had a sales rep come round and show us a Kirby hoover (yes it was years ago, when I were just a lad, read in Yorkshire accent).

The demonstration was scary; he got us to vacuum a square foot of rug as many times as we thought it would take to get all the dust and make it completely clean, so we did. Then he vacuumed the same area once back and forth with the Kirby and proudly showed us the amount of dust and dirt it had collected.

This was supposed to make us realise that we couldn’t live without the Kirby and buy. Instead it made us wonder how much dust it was leaving behind, and invest in hardwood flooring the following day.

There is no place for dirt and dust to hide in a hardwood floored house, and if we all started covering floors with solid wood then Asthma cases may well be reduced.

5: Adds Value to a Property

Again, this one explains itself. It is a fact that properly laid, and high quality solid hardwood flooring adds value to a home. Obviously the value added depends on the house, the area, the type of floor and potentially more factors, but it is proven to add value. In the current market who can sniff at that, especially given all the other factors that make hardwood flooring the best floor covering in the world.

Flooring in Focus Part III: Tuscan Big Earth Distressed Oak

Tuscan big earth distressed Oak is most definitely in my top 3 favourites of all time. It is just so beautiful with its rich dark but still glossy shine, though as I said in my previous post, I do lean towards darker woods.

The Mckay Flooring websites says of distressed Oak:

“Hand distressed flooring gives you the best of both worlds.Totally fashionable the dark exotic tones work so well in contemporary interiors. The hand scraped hand distressed look gives you the feel of something precious and time worn.Something beautiful to be treasured”

The Janka rating for Oak is 1360. Janka rating being the force required to embed an 11.28 millimetre (0.444 inch) steel ball into wood to half its diameter; the universal indicator of a wood’s hardness.

1360 means that Tuscan Oak is about the middle of the road, not as hard as Mahogany or Teak, nor as soft as Pine and Fir. This makes Oak one of the most popular and commonly used floors both in the commercial sector. It is a chicken and egg issue, but there is also a wider range of oak products on the market; do they make more flooring products because it is most popular, or is it most popular because of the wider choice?

As for Tuscan distressed Oak it is also one of the best products in terms of affordability and value for money. You can currently buy Tuscan distressed Oak wood flooring from Mckay Flooring for £75.04 per pack. This sounds expensive, especially when you start multiplying it to cover a room-sized area, but when you consider that it will last a lifetime, compared to carpets which are constantly in need of replacing, then you can see the value for money.

Check back next time for a detailed look at the benefits of hardwood flooring above all else, or enter your email address in the right sidebar to get all our posts by email.