Refinish hardwood floors

Restoring hardwood isn’t easy, but it is definitely worth the trouble. If your floor has been covered with carpet, then be sure to remove all the carpet and tack strips. Then you will need to see if there are any nail holes that need to be filled.

If you are resurfacing your hardwood floors because they are old looking, then you will start out with a heavy duty sander called a drum sander. You will be able to rent this sander at any rental stores or building centers because they are very popular and frequently used. To strip off the finish you will need 24 grit sand paper on the drum sander. A drum sander goes in a straight line so you will need to head toward a wall and go in a straight direction until you come to the wall, then you will need to turn around and head for the opposite wall. Do this until the entire floor is done.

You don’t need to be worried about sanding completely through your floor because most hardwood floors, especially the older floors are about 3/4 “thick. You should be able to sand your hardwood floor over a dozen times before it wears through.

You will need to do a second sanding to smooth the rough gouges made by the finish-stripping sand paper. This will also remove any of the remaining patches of finish left behind. You can accomplish this with 36 grit sand paper. Go over the floor the same way you did with the heavier sand paper.

You won’t be able to get very close to the walls with the drum sander so you will need a smaller sander to sand next to the walls and corners. An orbital hand sander will work really well for this. You will use the same grit of sand paper for the hand sander as you will use for the drum sander at each phase of the sanding process.

The third step of the sanding process will be the smoothing phase where the sand paper will sand out all the rough cuts from the heavier sand paper. You will use 60 grit sand paper for this. This grit of paper won’t strip off any remaining finish materials so you will have to make sure that you get it all with the second sanding.