Hardwood floor refinishing is often considered to be the aplication of a new coat of finish on a previously finished floor. Well, it is not. That process is called floor recoating, and you can learn more about it here.
Floor refinishing refers to sanding a pre
viously finished hardwood floor, down to the raw wood, in order to remove all the existing stain color and finish. This process will remove dents, scratches and other floor imperfections that a quick recoat will not. Machines are used to sand the flooring. For a proper refinish, at least two passes are needed.
First, your hardwood floors will be sanded with a coarse grit sandpaper, to remove any finish and stain color, and to level any high board ends or unlevel spots. After this step is complete, any protruding nails are set, to avoid damaging our machines. Then, a specific wood putty is used to fill all the gaps and nail holes your hardwood floor might present. In some cases, if the floor boards present movement against each-other, or the gapping is very extensive, especially on really old floors, this step is not included. That's because once it dries, the woold filler will become hard and non-elastic. Any movement of any adjacent boards, caused by simply walking on the floors, will cause the filler to crack and fall through or come out during the first cleaning of your floors.
After the filler is applied and it dries, a new sanding is performed, this time using a fine grit sand paper. This will smooth out your hardwood floors, also removing any excess filler that was spread on top of the boards.
Sanding complete, the next step is buffing the floors. This is done by using an open abrasive
mesh under a paded floor buffer. By carefully covering the entire surface of your hardwood floor with the buffer, we ensure an even smoothness, vital to the even penetration of the new stain and finish.
The last step before applying the stain and finish is thoroughly removing any remaining dust by vacuuming the entire floor with a powerful back vacuum. If necessary ,the floors are also tacked with a damp rag to remove finer particles missed by the vacuum.
Next we have an optional step. On very dark colors, like dark walnut, jacobean, ebony, red mahogany, sedona red or english chestnut(all stains produced by Minwax), the floors are sprayed with a mixture of alcohol and water .This will open the pores of the wood, allowing for a more even penetration of stain.
The last step if the application of the finish. This is done using a brush for the edges and a T-bar foam applicator for the rest of your hardwood floors. Depending on the type of finish used, the drying time can vary anywhere from 2-3 hours(for water borne finishes), to 8-12 hours(for oil based finishes). Extreme moisture and temperature variations can greatly increase those drying times.
A hardwood floor needs at least two coats of quality finish (3 coats for water borne), to ensure good protection and appearance. Water based finishes are applied in thinner coats than oilbased ones ,that's why more coats are needed to achieve the desired "look".
All moldings sitting on the floors need to be removed prior to sanding, in order to provide a thorough, even sand. New moldings can be applied after all the coats of finish have been applied.
Visit this page for an example of a refinishing project. Forrest Park Refinish.
Dustless Floor Refinishing in Atlanta
We recently upgraded our floor sanding system with the Clarke CAV 26 Dust Control System. Clarke American Sanders manufactures quality dust control equipment that captures dust at the source, before it ever gets released into the air. The CAV 26 120V vacuum attaches directly to multiple wood sanding machines. The special wood dust filters inside the vacuum ensure that all dust is contained within the machine.
It's time to stop worrying about all the mess and trouble involved with traditional floor sanding. No more headache with cleaning blinds, drapes, light fixtures, baseboards for weeks and weeks after the sanding is done. This machine saves you all that trouble.
M.S. C strives to provide the best services to all customers, making their flooring project as non-intrusive as possible. The even better news is : We offer the dustless sanding option on all projects, without charging more like a lot of other companies!
Hardwood Floor Installation
