When searching for the perfect home, people’s checklists often include having hardwood floors. As this is a must, you may have noticed the hardwood floors in your home are a little worse for wear. From pet’s claws to kids, sliding furniture and more, hardwoods can receive damage over time. The wonderful thing is, your hardwood floors can be restored to their beautiful, original patina. To give you a starting point, we’ll help you find out what you need to know and walk you through the steps. Here is how to refinish your hardwood floors.
Steps To Refinish Your Hardwood Floors
When you are looking to refinish your hardwood floors, follow these steps to get the perfect look. Don’t forget to work in a well ventilated area and to wear a dust mask.
- Remove all furniture and carpet from your hardwood floors.
- Hang plastic sheeting over the door frames to block the dust from going into the other rooms of your home.
- Sand the entire floor with the grain using a floor buffer or floor sander.
- Replace the sandpaper with a finer 220-grit sandpaper and re-sand the floor.
- Remove all the dust with a vacuum and mop, moving in the direction of the grain.
- Starting from the perimeter of the room, pour and wipe your wood stain in sections across the whole room.
- After that has dried, add a protective wood finish to the entire floor.
- Wait at least three hours before recoating and at least a week before replacing the furniture.
Refinishing your floor is not always a quick or inexpensive process. Know that it will take you time and money to get the whole thing done.
When to Call in the Professionals
Refinishing your hardwood floors is a time-consuming process — especially if DIY projects are not up your alley. It requires a lot of different tools, stains, finishes, and a ton of elbow grease. That can often translate into lots of dollars out of your pocket. So when do you know when to call in reinforcements?
One factor in calling a professional is how experienced you are at home improvement projects. Are you going to be able to accomplish the job yourself? Or will it cost you extra time and money when you can’t complete the project and need to call a professional anyway?
The next thing to think about is the size of your space. Do you have one room of flooring that you need to refinish? Maybe you have an entire house of gorgeous, original hardwoods that you do not want to ruin. Calling in a professional for a bigger job is often a smart choice.
Last, how soon do you need the job completed? If your house is on the market or you are under a time crunch, calling in the professionals will save you time (and in the long run probably money, too)!
We recommend that you always talk to a professional before getting started on your beautiful floors. It may end up that they are less expensive or the same price as doing it yourself. On top of that, they can give you helpful information for getting it done if you want to go it alone.
Start Today
As with any home improvement project, turn to HFS Financial to receive help with your financing to restore your hardwood floors to their days of splendor. Instead of having to go broke to finish your floors, let us help you create a plan to save money and refinish those floors. To get started, take just 60-seconds to complete our online application. We will match you with the perfect loan to complete the project in the way that suits your needs the best. “You Dream It, We Finance It.”