Hello,

This was originally posted in the General Hardwood Flooring forum before I saw this one, sorry.

My home has a small section of pine floors that have pine floors that need to be refinished. It does not appear as if they are currently stained or polyed. In the picture you can see the unstaoned section next to what is stained.

How much will this need to be sanded since there is nothing on it? How do I know when to stop? Also, what type of sander should o use? After I sand and clean the floor, how many coats of stain should I expect to apply? How many coats of poly?

Thanks for the help!

You will need to sand the floor down to bare wood. Generally you can tell how far to sand by the change of color as the dirt and surface patina gets polished. Depending on the area and how much time and experience you have, along with equipment availability you can decide whether to use hand held sanders like random orbit to a drum sander. The learning curve for the bigger equipment is longer so a small area will not be practical to use a drum sander unless you have used one and have easy access.
One coat of stain to color the floor and two coats of solvent based finish or stain and three coats of water based finish will be your best investment. Try a sample board of your flooring to see the color. Light brown would be the color that I recommend. You may thin darker colors with a neutral colored stain with no dye or pigment to lighten a dark stain. Polish with steel wool or synthetic wool to smooth before the first coat of finish. Lightly sand between coats of finish with a used 100 grit paper along the grain. Directions are on the can.
It's a lot of work to finish floors but if cared for they will last as long as the building. If you like the color you can re-coat with more finish in 10-20 years as the surface starts to show wear or is hard to clean.