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We’ve refinished hardwood flooring in 5 of the 6 houses we’ve owned. That doesn’t make us skilled ground refinishers, however as owners and DIYers, we’ve developed experience for what to anticipate, what pitfalls to look out for, and the way a lot refinishing your hardwood flooring may cost. So on this publish, we’ll reply your whole hardwood ground refinishing FAQs together with some earlier than and after photographs of our varied tasks!
Refinishing hardwood flooring could be a daunting and disruptive challenge, however it’s all the time been effectively well worth the effort for us. You possibly can eradicate scratches and discoloration, restore richness and shine, and even change the colour completely! We’re repeatedly stunned by how a lot of a distinction a refinished ground makes to the entire area. Critically, they will virtually make your own home look model new! So let this publish be a supportive-yet-realistic nudge in the direction of taking the plunge.
Hardwood Ground Refinishing FAQS
Listed here are a number of the particular questions we’ll reply on this publish:
- Can I refinish my hardwood ground myself?
- How a lot does refinishing hardwood flooring value?
- Is refinishing your hardwood flooring price it?
- What’s the course of like?
- Do I’ve to maneuver all of my furnishings out?
- Can I keep in my residence whereas getting my ground refinished?
- How lengthy does refinishing hardwood flooring take?
- What questions ought to I ask my ground refinisher?
Please observe that the data on this publish relies on our private expertise throughout 6 homes in 3 totally different cities, every of which offered barely totally different eventualities.
Can I Refinish My Hardwood Ground Myself?
Refinishing hardwood flooring is a challenge you are able to do your self, nevertheless, now we have finished many many issues ourselves (like constructing a deck, putting in a paver patio, and many others) and we like to depart our ground refinishing to the professionals. The precise refinishing course of isn’t difficult – it’s principally sanding and marking! – however professionals deliver particular tools, expertise, and experience that almost all DIYers received’t have – particularly proper off the bat. It’s additionally a process that may be tedious, tiring, and time-consuming, so a talented refinisher can full the challenge quicker and extra effectively.
If the price of utilizing a professional prevents you from hiring out the job, listed here are some normal steps to refinishing hardwood flooring as a DIY challenge:
- Transfer all furnishings, decor, art work, window therapies, and many others
- Take away all quarter-round and/or baseboard molding utilizing a pry bar
- Seal off doorways and air vents with plastic sheeting and painter’s tape
- Patch and restore any broken spots with wooden filler and/or new boards
- Sand the ground, normally 3-4 occasions, utilizing increased grit sandpaper with every move. Use a belt sander or drum sander for the bigger areas and a hand or edge sander to do the perimeter. Remember to all the time sand within the course of the wooden grain.
- Do a ultimate buff with a ground buffer or hand sander with high-grit sandpaper
- Vacuum up all mud
- Apply stain (non-obligatory) to attain your required coloration, following the producer’s directions. Permit 24 hours to dry between coats.
- Apply sealer to guard flooring, following directions. Permit 24 hours earlier than strolling and 72 hours earlier than shifting furnishings or rugs again in.
- Reinstall molding. Caulk and paint as wanted.
As you’ll be able to see, this challenge entails a whole lot of detailed and repetitive work. Plus, duties like working ground sanders could be bodily exhausting, particularly if you’re refinishing a big residence. And in case your challenge entails any particular or troublesome circumstances, an professional could also be higher geared up to deal with them.
For instance, we employed execs to refinish all the first ground of our third residence just a few years in the past. This concerned tearing out the flooring for 2 rooms that didn’t have already got hardwood flooring and “feathering in” new boards to create a seamless look. The skilled refinishers executed these duties a lot quicker and with better success than we may’ve on our personal.
This challenge additionally concerned eradicating slate tile in a single room and laminate in one other. It took three males a complete day to demo and prep these areas utilizing particular demolition instruments. I can solely think about how a lot time it could’ve taken us!
How a lot does refinishing hardwood flooring value?
Consultants say ground refinishing sometimes prices between $3-$8 per sq. foot. Meaning a 200-square-foot room may value anyplace from $600 to $1,600. These prices will differ relying in your space, the scale of your area, and if there are any particular circumstances to your challenge. For example, a few of our tasks have concerned additional demolition or patching of unsalvagable parts (like under).
Personally, now we have paid anyplace from $900 to just about $10,000 for our ground refinishing jobs. The most affordable was an outlier (about $1.50/sq. foot) as a result of we agreed to do a number of the prep and molding restore ourselves. After all for the pricier jobs it was much more flooring (like a complete home – we redid the flooring of the duplex and the pink home completely). On common now we have paid about $5/sq. foot.
Is Refinishing Hardwood Ground Value It?
Sure and sure! Refinishing hardwood flooring is a rewarding residence enchancment for each private and monetary causes. In reality, based on a 2022 Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors report, “Hardwood Ground Refinish” is the #1 inside transforming challenge for resale value restoration – much more than putting in new wooden flooring! The NAR estimates owners will earn again practically 150% of the refinishing value in elevated residence worth.
Resale worth apart, refinished flooring are a high-impact method to replace your own home on your personal enjoyment. In the identical report, the NAR awards ground refinishing an ideal 10 on their “Pleasure Rating” for house owner satisfaction. It’s onerous to articulate how shockingly good the transformation could be – and that is coming from individuals who have finished it 5 occasions! Folks simply don’t understand how a lot worn, light, or outdated flooring can drag down the general look of their residence.
We all know firsthand that the expense and inconvenience of refinishing your flooring isn’t minor. However each time we’ve finished it, we’ve wished we had finished it sooner. Refinishing hardwoods can actually remodel a complete room or home.
What’s the course of like?
So that you’ve determined to have your wooden floors professionally refinished? Nice! Right here’s what to anticipate as a house owner throughout this challenge. Scroll as much as the primary query for our overview of the DIY steps to refinish your hardwood flooring your self (and why we don’t suggest it generally).
Discovering a ground refinishing skilled
We recommend asking mates, neighbors, or different residence enchancment contractors you’ve labored with for advisable ground refinishers. We have now discovered all of our favourite ground refinishers this fashion. Message boards like Nextdoor or Angie’s Checklist may level you to respected tradesmen.
Getting an estimate
Your contractor (or potential contractors) ought to go to to measure the area and focus on any questions with you first. This is a chance so that you can get a really feel for them and higher perceive their course of. We have now prompt questions for them additional down on this publish. We regularly will get 2 or 3 totally different estimates to select the most effective (not essentially least expensive!) particular person for our job.
Acclimating the wooden
A number of of our refinishing tasks concerned including or changing sections of our wooden floors, which meant including new boards (or reclaimed boards, proven above). New hardwood flooring ought to acclimate to the moisture ranges in your house earlier than set up to stop swelling or contracting afterward. This implies new flooring must be delivered and saved indoors no less than 3 days earlier than set up. Some installers suggest as much as 2 weeks of acclimation. (Don’t depart the doorways and home windows open throughout this time).
Emptying your area
Take away all furnishing, rugs, home equipment, and/or different objects obstructing clear and open entry to your flooring. This might additionally contain uninstalling cabinetry or plumbing fixtures as effectively. Additionally, you will wish to take away (or cowl) art work, window coverings, or different objects you don’t wish to get dusty. In case you are solely refinishing one room, you’ll be able to normally transfer these things into a close-by room. In case you are refinishing a complete home, chances are you’ll want to maneuver out virtually completely. We used a POD in our driveway after we refinished our first degree. A storage unit additionally works. Some folks could even rent a shifting firm.
Choosing a stain coloration
Sooner or later in the course of the course of, you need to work along with your refinisher to pick out a stain coloration. You might be happy choosing from a swatch e-book or trusting your skilled to match a sure look. However we suggest having the ground refinisher stain small pattern sections straight onto the ground (which could be sanded off afterward). This lets you see massive swatches in your area, serving to you’re feeling assured about your resolution.
Ready and extra ready
Ground refinishing is a multi-day course of, regardless of the scale of your challenge. Stains and sealers want a lot of drying time (normally no less than 24 hours every) and it’s advisable that you just wait a number of extra days for them to remedy (aka: harden) earlier than shifting heavy furnishings again in. When our first ground was refinished, we slept out of the home for six nights and didn’t absolutely transfer our furnishings again in for one more 10 days.
Cleansing & touch-ups
Whereas our contractors have all the time finished a great job of gathering as a lot mud via the method, we inevitably had mud left on some surfaces that we wanted to scrub ourselves. Moreover, you or your contractor could must reinstall, caulk, and paint any baseboard or quarter spherical that was eliminated. We supplied to do that ourselves in a few situations to economize. Similar goes for home equipment, cupboards, or plumbing fixtures that will have been eliminated.
Do I’ve to maneuver all of my furnishings out?
Sure, you have to to take away all obstructions from any rooms the place you might be refinishing the flooring. This contains furnishings, rugs, home equipment, plumbing fixtures (bogs, sinks, and many others), and possibly even cabinetry. We additionally suggest eradicating art work, window coverings, and different decor you received’t wish to fear about dusting later.
Because of this it’s best – if potential – to refinish your flooring earlier than shifting into a house or as a part of one other renovation (like a kitchen transform) the place your own home is already disrupted. If that’s not potential, deal with it like you might be shifting out quickly. In the event you can’t transfer your furnishings into unaffected rooms or ranges of your own home, chances are you’ll have to hire a storage unit or POD to carry your furnishings.
Transferring out of your area isn’t a small process, we all know. It’s the principle motive we delay refinishing flooring in a few of our homes. And sadly, in contrast to tasks like portray, you’ll be able to’t merely scoot issues into the center of the room and throw a tarp over them. There isn’t a shortcut right here. To get the very best high quality, most effective outcome, it’s finest to present your contract clear, unobstructed entry to each space that wants refinishing.
How lengthy does refinishing hardwood flooring take?
Having your flooring refinished sometimes takes 3 to 14 days or extra, relying on the scope of your challenge. Listed here are some GENERAL time allotments chances are you’ll have to account for.
- Prep (demo previous flooring, take away quarter spherical, uninstall plumbing, and many others): 0-2 days
- Restore, patching, or laying new sections of hardwood: 0-2 days
- Sanding: 1 – 2 days (about 1,000 sq. ft per day)
- Staining: 1 – 2 days (about 1,000 sq. ft per day)
- Sealing: 3 – 6 days (about 1,000 sq. ft per day, 1 coat per day)
- Curing: 1 day
Our shortest challenge solely took 4 days for 600 sq. ft. Our refinisher was in a position to sand and stain on the primary day, then spent the following 3 days making use of one coat of oil-based polyurethane every day. We nonetheless waited one other 3 days to maneuver again in, permitting the end to remedy and the fumes to totally dissipate.
One method to pace up a refinishing challenge is to skip stain and simply clear coat the pure coloration of the ground. You can even shorten the sealing course of by selecting water-based finishes, which dries quicker than oil-based finishes. That will permit your refinisher to use a number of coasts in someday, versus oil-based polyurethane that sometimes requires 24 hours between coats.
It’s finest to debate the timeline along with your contractor upfront and ask in regards to the execs and cons of varied choices. The quickest outcome will not be finest long-term end result for you.
What questions ought to I ask my ground refinisher?
We’ve labored with 4 totally different ground refinishers throughout 5 totally different houses. Listed here are some issues we suggest discussing with them up entrance to ensure you are on the identical web page earlier than the challenge begins.
- Are my flooring good candidates for refinishing?
- Do any areas should be repaired or changed with new wooden?
- How lengthy does any new wooden have to acclimate earlier than you start?
- What must be faraway from every room? Who’s doing that, me otherwise you?
- What must be coated, protected, or sealed off with plastic? Who’s doing that, me otherwise you?
- What different preparation do you recommend / anticipate me to take earlier than you arrive?
- Are you eradicating & reinstalling any baseboard molding? If not, ought to I?
- Are there any duties I may do to cut back the challenge value?
- Are there any duties I may pay you to do to extend the challenge pace?
- How lengthy do you anticipate the challenge to take?
- Are there any choices that might pace up the challenge?
- How a lot time will I should be out of the home?
- How do I partake within the stain coloration choice? Can I see take a look at spots in my residence?
- What different choices will you want me on website for in the course of the challenge?
- What kind of sealer do you suggest? What are the professionals and cons of my choices?
- How lengthy till I’m in a position to stroll on my new flooring?
- How lengthy till my pet can stroll on them?
- How lengthy till I can put furnishings, rugs, or different heavy objects on them?
You possibly can definitely Google a number of the solutions to those questions (some are on this publish!) however we all the time suggest conferring along with your on-site skilled as effectively. This helps them know you’re a considerate consumer and you’ll hopefully get reassurances that they’re a educated refinisher. It additionally helps keep away from confusion round timelines, budgets, and scope of labor.
Our Hardwood Ground Refinishing Initiatives
If you want to learn extra about our particular hardwood ground refinishing tasks, please see the posts under. They vary from matching authentic hardwoods to new prefinished flooring (under) to restoring 100-year-old pine flooring!
Extra Flooring Initiatives
If you want to examine different flooring tasks we’ve finished, please try the posts under:
NOTE: This information was initially printed in 2009 after our first refinishing expertise. We up to date it with extra data and photographs to incorporate a wider vary of tasks in 2024.
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