Refinishing Oak floors: a host of finish questions

Carrolan · **Joined:** Mon Jun 03, 2013 8:02 pm **Posts:** 1

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?
Can you put water based poly on top of the older oil based poly?
Do we need to sand the entire floor?
Do we need to sand between coats 1 and 2 of poly?

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.

JamesTRD · **Joined:** Mon Mar 14, 2011 4:36 pm **Posts:** 705

Carrolan wrote:

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.

my advice would be to hire a pro.stay out of home improvement stores and be prepared to have your floors redone .
Hire a specialist,check references, Google if you need to.
Good luck

Ken Fisher · **Posted:** Tue Jun 04, 2013 5:29 am

Quote:

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

I think that answers your questions. Add in the fact when people discuss hardwood floors today most expect far more than what was common 40 and 50 years ago. Then it was just a floor. Now it's almost like a fine piece of furniture.

Agreed about home improvement stores, and advice from those unfamiliar.

TheFlooringGirl · **Posted:** Sun Jun 09, 2013 12:17 pm

Agree w/ above...definitely hire a professional and check references. Angieslist.com is great place to find trusted contractors. It's rare to be able to find an amateur who can properly sand the floors. (I think I've met 2 to date and they said they would never do again). Usually, when you try this not only does it come out wrong, but you can seriously damage the floors. I've been brought in way too many times on botched up sanding jobs.

Sanding floors is not that expensive anyway. The amount you save is small vs. the quality of the job and the risk of ruining your floors.

And, no, you can't spot sand! Do the whole floor one way in full.

Now, that being said, if your floors are in relatively good shape, you may be able to do a screen & recoat rather than a full sanding. when you do this, you buff the floors and add a coat of poly. You could even do w/ 2 coats of poly and buff between each. When you get to the point of 3, you might as well do a full sanding and refinish since you would do 3 coats.

Yes, if the floors haven't been done for a while, you could do water based poly on top, but I'd recommend oil as it will last longer and be more consistent with what is on there already.

Debbie Gartner aka The Flooring Girl
http://TheFlooringGirl.com

Refinishing Oak floors: a host of finish questions

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