Hello,

My husband and I just bought a house. It was built in 1953 and the hardwood floors are original to the home. They are Oak, unstained, but coated with and oil based finish. They haven't been refinished, but the previous family reports that they would coat the floors once every couple of years. This regular maintenance ended when carpets were put down as the owners got older.

When we were pulling up the carpet, we were excited to find that the floors were really well protected. There's still a slight sheen and only a couple of places throughout the whole house where the wood is a little darker.

We were told by several different people that we could spot sand those high traffic areas and then apply two to three coats of poly. However, the rep at the local home improvement store encouraged us the completely refinish the floors anyway.

Here are the questions we now have:

Can we spot sand since its unstained?

You can do anything you like..they are your floors and if you are doing them yourself, you can only get upset with yourself.


Can you put water based poly on top of the older oil based poly?[lor=#FF0000][/color]yes you can..but why would you in this case? It will NEVER match

Do we need to sand the entire floor?not necessarily.but would probably be in your best interest given age, color an lack of experience

Do we need to sand between coats 1 and 2 of poly?
Waterbase...no ..oil base yes..but you should regardless of finish..the first coat will be the roughest when applied and dried..sand this one and the next couple go nicely

We've never sanded floors before and we would hate to mess them up since they are already so beautiful. Any advice would be appreciated.

We've never sanded floors before and we would hate to mess them up since they are already so beautiful