Hardwood floors are commonly used in homes and office buildings. They’re aesthetically pleasing to look at and add to the interior decor of any space. While hardwood floors are highly durable, they can’t last forever.

No matter how tough and pretty those hardwood floors are, they’ll eventually start to wear out. While time is the number one contributor to your floor wearing out, furniture shifting, scratches from pets, and drink spills all play a part.

Luckily, your floor wearing out isn’t the end of the line. You can always renew your flooring through a process known as refinishing.

Before you refinish hardwood floors, you’ll need to budget and plan accordingly. But that’s not all. Here, we’ll explore the 8 commandments of hardwood floor refinishing.

8 Things To Consider Before A Refinishing Project

Aside from the budget, several factors determine whether you need a full refinishing job or not. Homes differ in size, and the time it takes to refinish hardwood floors may vary as well.

If you’re looking to enjoy the best results from hardwood floor refinishing, follow this checklist.

1. Choose your floor professional wisely

You must make an informed decision on your choice of hardwood professionals before you refinish hardwood floors. Don’t settle for what’s cheap in the market. Instead, ensure you’re choosing a hardwood contractor based on their expertise and not the bottom line.

If you have friends, get good referrals and always check references. Check pictures of their previous jobs and see the quality of their work. Certified contractors will guarantee beautiful results that you’ll love.

2. Plan a place to stay during the project

Before you start to refinish hardwood floors in your home or office space, make alternate accommodation arrangements — especially if you’ll be working on the entire building. Most likely, you’ll need to vacate the space for a couple of days. Sanding floors may take a day to finish, but the staining process needs ample time for coats to dry completely.

Similarly, it’s important to consider the weather conditions. A full refinishing project can take up to one week in less humid conditions, especially if you’re adding colour.

3. Ask if you need a full refinishing project

It’s important to determine whether your hardwood floors need a full refinishing job or a maintenance coat. Sometimes referred to as screen and poly, a maintenance coat can save you 50% of the total expenses allotted for a full refinishing project. The floor professional just needs to screen the previous finishing and apply a new coat of polyurethane on top.

Make sure the floor expert surveys your floors well before doing any refinishing job. They’ll assess the hardwood floors and determine if a maintenance coat will be enough.

4.Consider colour schemes

Colour is an important element in refinishing hardwood floors. If the floors in your home have a rich or deep colour, chances are, this is not the original colour of the wood. Since the screen method may lighten the floors, some people add a new colour to brighten up the old look. Some choose chocolate brown or even grey stains to complement other features in the room.

5. Always sand with the grain

When thinking of sanding your old hardwood floors, remember that whatever you do, marks are inevitable. If you need to sand hardwood floors, make sure you go with the direction of the wood grain.

The grain direction rule is an important factor to remember before refinishing old hardwood floors. Sanding perpendicular to the grain will make marks very obvious, especially if you stain the floors afterwards. With so much technicality to it, we recommend leaving the sanding step to professionals.

6. Stir polyurethane between every use

One of the simplest things to do when refinishing hardwood floors is to stir polyurethane in between coats. Polyurethane is a clear varnish that can provide your hardwood with qualities like resistance to fungus and mildew.

Polyurethane also protects your wood from abrasions, sealing the uppermost layer and adding a shiny cover. Stirring the polyurethane between use will ensure a uniform appearance. Without doing so, sediments will settle at the bottom, affecting the appearance of the final refinishing results.

7. Don’t stain flooring with unusual floor patterns

Your hardwood flooring’s unique design can make a refinishing job more difficult. Floor patterns vary in every house or building. Sometimes, grain patterns don’t always face the same direction.

Therefore, sanding with the grain becomes complicated, leaving your floor with obvious marks. That’s why it’s best not to stain hardwood floors after sanding them. Staining the floors will only make those little marks very visible.

8. Take note of costs of labour, materials and equipment

Refinishing hardwood floors costs between $1074 – $2485. Exactly how much you’ll spend on your hardwood floor varies depending on the complexity of the refinishing job. Furthermore, the project’s timeline can also affect the overall cost.

As for the materials and equipment, you’ll need safety gears, hand tools, cleanup materials, and finish applicators if you’re going the DIY route. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars buying this equipment, we recommend hiring a professional. They already have these tools and can start working quicker than you can.

Related Article: How to Clean French Oak Floors?

Refinishing Floors Needs A Good Plan

When deciding to refinish your old hardwood floors, seek help from a professional. Contracting a professional will help you save time, money and effort. Having beautiful hardwood floors all year long will only happen with periodic maintenance efforts.

Refinishing is one way to maintain your hardwood floors. And when you work with experienced professionals, they can guarantee beautiful results. They’ll refinish your flooring, avoid mistakes and use the right protective finishes.

Here at Three Trees Flooring, our professionals can help you ensure you get maximum value from your hardwood flooring. Call (416) 665-2624 to learn more about hardwood flooring and discuss options that’ll look great in your home