Selling your home: Re-finishing your floors

Floors - Great ideas underfoot

Great looking floors are a strong feature of any home. It often makes all the difference. We'll show you how this upgrade can generate a 22% better return on investment than the average.

Start by ripping out that dated wall-to-wall carpet. Then, sand your existing floors down and refinish them, or choose one of the many easy-to-install and affordable laminates now available. A darker stain gives an elegant, yet up to date look. Use area rugs to accent and ground the space.

Sanding is the key to refinishing your hardwood floors successfully
Refinishing your home's hardwood floors can be a big job, but if you do it well the final results will be very rewarding. In fact, its resilience is one the great features of hardwood. Even when the floor is badly scratched and worn, hardwood can be usually be restored with a couple of days' work.

In recent years some “hardwood” floors have actually been made from engineered wood. You can identify these floors by the slight chamfer on each board edge. Don't try to sand this type of floor: the veneer is too thin.
To see what kind of flooring you have, pull up a heating grate from the floor or look at an edge by removing a threshold from a doorway. If it's solid hardwood, you're in business. But if less than 1/8" remains above the tongue, the floor is too thin to sand and will have to be left “as is” or replaced.

What to rent
The rental shop will have either a drum-sanding machine or a belt-sanding machine (or both). Choose a belt-sanding machine if you can: it's easier to control and won't chatter the surface of your floor the way a drum sander can. The belts are also easier to change. You'll also need an edge sander to get into areas that the big machine can't reach. And you'll need a floor buffer for finishing. Before you leave the store, be sure to ask for tips on how to operate each machine.

Room preparation basics

• Remove all furniture from the room and anything hanging on the walls.
• Tape up plastic sheets to close off all the doorways leading into the room.
• Tape plastic around all the heating vents and transitions to other floor surfaces in adjoining rooms.
• Set any nails that are exposed and remove any metal grates or grilles from the floor.

Remove the old finish
The first sanding is not actually intended to resurface the wood, but rather to remove the existing finish. Install a 36-grit belt in the sander and start by moving forward toward the far wall, then turn and retrace the same path back, walking in the same direction as the wood grain. Keep the sander moving. If you rest the machine in one spot for too long, you'll sand a groove in the floor. Sand another row, overlapping your path by one plank of flooring. Check the sanding belt for wear and replace it as needed. Don't try to sand down to completely bare wood.

Once the main portion of the floor is done, sand the parts of the floor that you couldn't reach against the walls. Start back about two feet from the wall, then sand as close to the wall as you can. As you approach the wall, lift the sander to avoid grooving the floor at the wall.

Sand the edges
After completing each step with the floor sander, install the same grit disc you just used in the edge sander. Be sure to start sanding next to the baseboard and work from there out to the area you just sanded.

Smooth it out
The second sanding is intended to remove the scratches left by the previous sanding, as well as any remaining finish or blemishes left on the wood. Switch to 80-grit paper and repeat the steps of the previous sanding. Start the machine close to the wall, but this time at the opposite end of the room so you're not starting in the same spot each time. If sanding in the same direction of the grain is not improving the floor finish, try smoothing it out by making one pass diagonally across the grain (never directly across) with a medium grit. When the floor is completely sanded, use the edge sander to sand the areas near the walls that you couldn't reach with the large machine. After this step, the floor should look like freshly milled planks.

A fine finish
The third and final sanding will remove the scratches left from the previous sanding. Install 100-grit paper and start in the same place in the room as you started your first sanding.
When you get to the edge sanding, add a couple of extra sanding discs under the 100-grit pad. Stacking the discs will provide a bit of a cushion. The cushion will let the sander conform to any irregularities in the floor and help to minimize swirl marks. Sand up to the baseboards and try to feather the edges into the main section of the floor.

Buff it out
Fit the floor buffer with a large 100-grit sanding screen. The motion of the buffer, as you move it back and forth across the floor, will help to even out any blemishes and scratches left by the previous grits.
Move the buffer slowly and overlap each pass. The buffer may seem hard to control, but keep your feet planted and the buffer moving. As with the floor sander, don't run the buffer in any one place for too long or you'll oversand. To finish up, switch to a random-orbit sander with 100-grit paper. Sand up to the baseboards and blend into the main floor.

A good dusting
Let the dust settle in the room for about 45 minutes, then vacuum the room thoroughly. If you're going to apply an oil-based polyurethane, go over the floor with a tack cloth. If you're applying a water-based finish, go over the floor with a lint-free rag that's damp with alcohol instead.

Choosing a finish
There are two basic floor finishes: oil-based and water-based polyurethane. Oil-based polyurethane is available in a satin, semi-gloss or gloss finish. Satin is recommended for floors because it hides small imperfections and lets the beauty of the wood show through without a distracting shine. Oil-based polyurethane produces a warm amber look that enhances the grain of the wood and gives you the traditional glow of wood floors.
Unlike oil-based polyurethane, water-based polyurethane dries clear and resists yellowing. If you're applying an oil-based finish, wear a solvent respirator. You can open the windows in other areas of the house to help ventilate, but keep the windows closed in the room you're working in so dust won't blow around.

The first coat
To spread the finish, you'll need a four-inch paintbrush and a wide floor applicator. Use the paintbrush to apply the finish along the walls. As if you were applying paint, always keep a wet edge so each stroke will blend easily into the next. Using a wide applicator pad, begin applying the finish to the main part of the floor, starting at a wall and always working the pad parallel to the grain direction. As you complete the stroke, lift the pad and pull it back with the grain. Keep working across the room in the same pattern until you get to the other side of the room, feathering the finish where it meets the wall.
Before the next step, let the floor dry, allowing 12 hours for oil-based polyurethane and two hours for water-based poly.

Smooth the rough spots
Once the first coat is dry, sand it smooth with the floor buffer. If the finish has fully dried, the buffer will leave a powdery residue behind. This step dulls the finish before you apply the next coat. Vacuum the floor, then apply the second and then the final coat in the same way you applied the first. (Sand only between the first and second coats.)

Final steps
Don't move any furniture into the room for at least three days. The finish will continue to harden for a few weeks, so keep traffic to a minimum and don't wear shoes in the room for the first week. Finally, wait a month to set down any area rugs. It's a lot of work, but an attractive floor will make your whole house shine.

Squeak repair (see steps above)
If you're about to refinish your hardwood floors, now is the perfect time to make repairs. Here are a few techniques for quieting those squeaks.

1. Sometimes it's not possible to anchor noisy boards from below-the only way to quiet them is to drill countersunk holes into the surface, drive in screws and then cut plugs to cover the holes.
2. If you're limited to repairs from above, another alternative is to drill an angled pilot hole into the floor to prevent the board from splitting, before.
3. Driving a ringshank nail through the pilot hole and into the subfloor.
4. If you have access from below, and the floor joists aren't tight against the subfloor in the noisy area, then close the gap by hammering in wedges between the subfloor and joist.
5. You can pull down loose or bulging boards with screws driven up into the floor from below. The screws should stop 1/4" below the finished floor.