We’ve refinished hardwood flooring in 5 of the 6 properties 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 put up, we’ll reply your entire hardwood ground refinishing FAQs together with some earlier than and after pictures of our varied tasks!
Refinishing hardwood flooring is usually a daunting and disruptive undertaking, but it surely’s all the time been effectively definitely worth the effort for us. You may get rid of scratches and discoloration, restore richness and shine, and even change the colour totally! We’re repeatedly stunned by how a lot of a distinction a refinished ground makes to the entire area. Critically, they’ll virtually make your home look model new! So let this put up be a supportive-yet-realistic nudge in the direction of taking the plunge.
Hardwood Ground Refinishing FAQS
Listed below are a number of the particular questions we’ll reply on this put up:
- Can I refinish my hardwood ground myself?
- How a lot does refinishing hardwood flooring value?
- Is refinishing your hardwood flooring value 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 notice that the knowledge on this put up relies on our private expertise throughout 6 homes in 3 completely different cities, every of which offered barely completely different situations.
Can I Refinish My Hardwood Ground Myself?
Refinishing hardwood flooring is a undertaking you are able to do your self, nonetheless, we’ve got completed many many issues ourselves (like constructing a deck, putting in a paver patio, and so on) and we like to depart our ground refinishing to the professionals. The precise refinishing course of will not be difficult – it’s principally sanding and marking! – however professionals deliver particular gear, abilities, and experience that the majority DIYers gained’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 undertaking quicker and extra effectively.
If the price of utilizing a professional prevents you from hiring out the job, listed here are some basic steps to refinishing hardwood flooring as a DIY undertaking:
- Transfer all furnishings, decor, art work, window therapies, and so on
- 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 go. Use a belt sander or drum sander for the bigger areas and a hand or edge sander to do the perimeter. You’ll want to all the time sand within the course of the wooden grain.
- Do a closing buff with a ground buffer or hand sander with high-grit sandpaper
- Vacuum up all mud
- Apply stain (optionally available) to realize your required shade, following the producer’s directions. Enable 24 hours to dry between coats.
- Apply sealer to guard flooring, following directions. Enable 24 hours earlier than strolling and 72 hours earlier than transferring furnishings or rugs again in.
- Reinstall molding. Caulk and paint as wanted.
As you’ll be able to see, this undertaking entails a whole lot of detailed and repetitive work. Plus, duties like working ground sanders might be bodily exhausting, particularly in case you are refinishing a big residence. And in case your undertaking entails any particular or tough circumstances, an knowledgeable could also be higher outfitted to deal with them.
For instance, we employed execs to refinish the whole 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 higher success than we might’ve on our personal.
This undertaking 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 might’ve taken us!
How a lot does refinishing hardwood flooring value?
Specialists say ground refinishing sometimes prices between $3-$8 per sq. foot. Meaning a 200-square-foot room might value wherever from $600 to $1,600. These prices will range relying in your space, the dimensions of your area, and if there are any particular circumstances to your undertaking. As an example, a few of our tasks have concerned further demolition or patching of unsalvagable parts (like under).
Personally, we’ve got paid wherever from $900 to just about $10,000 for our ground refinishing jobs. The most cost effective 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. In fact for the pricier jobs it was much more flooring (like a complete home – we redid the flooring of the duplex and the pink home totally). On common we’ve got paid about $5/sq. foot.
Is Refinishing Hardwood Ground Price It?
Sure and sure! Refinishing hardwood flooring is a rewarding residence enchancment for each private and monetary causes. In reality, in response to a 2022 Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors report, “Hardwood Ground Refinish” is the #1 inside reworking undertaking 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 technique 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 home-owner satisfaction. It’s laborious to articulate how shockingly good the transformation might be – and that is coming from individuals who have completed it 5 occasions! Folks simply don’t notice 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 completed it, we’ve wished we had completed 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 wood flooring professionally refinished? Nice! Right here’s what to anticipate as a home-owner throughout this undertaking. 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 most often).
Discovering a ground refinishing skilled
We recommend asking buddies, neighbors, or different residence enchancment contractors you’ve labored with for really useful ground refinishers. We’ve discovered all of our favourite ground refinishers this manner. Message boards like Nextdoor or Angie’s Listing may also level you to respected tradesmen.
Getting an estimate
Your contractor (or potential contractors) ought to go to to measure the area and talk about 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’ve prompt questions for them additional down on this put up. We regularly will get 2 or 3 completely different estimates to choose one of the best (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 wood flooring, 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 needs to be delivered and saved indoors at the very least 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 need to take away (or cowl) art work, window coverings, or different objects you don’t need to get dusty. In case you are solely refinishing one room, you’ll be able to normally transfer this stuff into a close-by room. In case you are refinishing a complete home, you could want to maneuver out virtually totally. We used a POD in our driveway once we refinished our first stage. A storage unit additionally works. Some folks might even rent a transferring firm.
Selecting a stain shade
In some unspecified time in the future in the course of the course of, you must work along with your refinisher to pick out a stain shade. It’s possible you’ll be glad 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 might be sanded off afterward). This lets you see giant swatches in your area, serving to you’re feeling assured about your determination.
Ready and extra ready
Ground refinishing is a multi-day course of, regardless of the dimensions of your undertaking. Stains and sealers want a lot of drying time (normally at the very least 24 hours every) and it’s really useful that you just wait a number of extra days for them to treatment (aka: harden) earlier than transferring heavy furnishings again in. When our first ground was refinished, we slept out of the home for six nights and didn’t totally transfer our furnishings again in for an additional 10 days.
Cleansing & touch-ups
Whereas our contractors have all the time completed a very good job of accumulating as a lot mud via the method, we inevitably had mud left on some surfaces that we wanted to wash ourselves. Moreover, you or your contractor might must reinstall, caulk, and paint any baseboard or quarter spherical that was eliminated. We provided to do that ourselves in a few cases to economize. Similar goes for home equipment, cupboards, or plumbing fixtures which 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 consists of furnishings, rugs, home equipment, plumbing fixtures (bathrooms, sinks, and so on), and perhaps even cabinetry. We additionally suggest eradicating art work, window coverings, and different decor you gained’t need to fear about dusting later.
For this reason it’s best – if doable – to refinish your flooring earlier than transferring 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 doable, deal with it like you might be transferring out quickly. Should you can’t transfer your furnishings into unaffected rooms or ranges of your own home, you could have to hire a storage unit or POD to carry your furnishings.
Shifting out of your area will not be a small process, we all know. It’s the primary motive we postpone refinishing flooring in a few of our homes. And sadly, not like 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 best high quality, most effective outcome, it’s greatest 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 undertaking. Listed below are some GENERAL time allotments you could have to account for.
- Prep (demo outdated flooring, take away quarter spherical, uninstall plumbing, and so on): 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 undertaking solely took 4 days for 600 sq. ft. Our refinisher was capable of sand and stain on the primary day, then spent the subsequent 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 treatment and the fumes to completely dissipate.
One technique to pace up a refinishing undertaking is to skip stain and simply clear coat the pure shade of the ground. You can too 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 at some point, versus oil-based polyurethane that sometimes requires 24 hours between coats.
It’s greatest to debate the timeline along with your contractor upfront and ask concerning the execs and cons of assorted choices. The quickest outcome is probably not greatest long-term end result for you.
What questions ought to I ask my ground refinisher?
We’ve labored with 4 completely different ground refinishers throughout 5 completely different properties. Listed below are some issues we suggest discussing with them up entrance to ensure you are on the identical web page earlier than the undertaking begins.
- Are my flooring good candidates for refinishing?
- Do any areas must 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 / count on me to take earlier than you arrive?
- Are you eradicating & reinstalling any baseboard molding? If not, ought to I?
- Are there any duties I might do to scale back the undertaking value?
- Are there any duties I might pay you to do to extend the undertaking pace?
- How lengthy do you count on the undertaking to take?
- Are there any choices that might pace up the undertaking?
- How a lot time will I must be out of the home?
- How do I partake within the stain shade choice? Can I see take a look at spots in my residence?
- What different selections will you want me on website for in the course of the undertaking?
- What sort of sealer do you suggest? What are the professionals and cons of my choices?
- How lengthy till I’m capable of 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 may definitely Google a number of the solutions to those questions (some are on this put up!) however we all the time suggest conferring along with your on-site skilled as effectively. This helps them know you’re a considerate shopper 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 completed, 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 pictures to incorporate a wider vary of tasks in 2024.
