Refinishing hardwood floors stands to be an amazing way to make your space experience a novel aesthetics. This can be done when renovating your old home or when you’re just looking for how to spruce your current home up.
There are several things over the years that are likely to affect that once-sparkling floors of yours, which may, therefore, make using a touch-up the right decision to take. Most homeowners think that to get a new-again sheen floor, they will have to sand it down, restrain it, and have it resealed. Nonetheless, there are ways you can easily restore your hardwood floors without sanding off the existing finish if the wear is still at a fairly surface level.
There are three major approaches you can adopt to restore hardwood floors and not sand off the existing finish. These include using a chemical abrasion kit, buffing and recoating floors with polyurethane, and using a revitalizer.
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Methods to Restoring Hardwood Floors
Since it is absolutely possible to refinish hardwood floors without sanding, this section will explore some basic approaches that could make the work feasible.
Moreso, if you’re working on traditional hardwoods, you can save your time, money, and energy by forgoing the sanding method. Don’t forget that for the sanding method, you can end up spending more due to the charges attached to tool rentals, including a professional-grade vacuum and sanders.
We know you can’t wait to see your hardwood floor receive its glory back, but it’s important that before you start at all, you must know the materials you will be working with, particularly if the floor is not originally yours. How well refinishing your floor will turn out to be will depend on the floor materials or treatments you use.Also, it’s equally important that you choose the most suitable and effective approach for the floor type.
Use a Chemical Abrasion Kit
This method involves the use of a chemical solution for the floor preparation. You are expected to etch the old finish first to make the new finish bond. Afterward, apply the fresh coat of finish for the floor restoration. Ensure you get the needed materials.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Step One–Prepare the place: Preparing the room by cleaning and clearing it. Use a vacuum and damp cloth to clean the floor from grim and dust. Use an abrasive sponge if you see gunk on the floor and allow the floor to dry. More so, ensure the fan is off, and the windows are closed to limit the dust. Protect the baseboard with painter’s tape and prevent sunlight by closing the blinds or curtains.
- Step Two–Use the Liquid Abrasive and have the floor Scrubbed: Apply the chemical abrasive and use your abrasive pad to scrub the liquid. Ensure you scrub on each section firmly a few times. After etching the floor completely, leave it dry for about half an hour.
- Step Three–Clean the Floor One more Time: Wet the floor with the mixture of 2 tablespoons of dishwashing liquid and one gallon of warm water. This will help neutralize the etcher and clean any left residue up. Leave the floor for about half an hour to dry.
- Step Four–Deal with the Deeper Scratches: Apply a stain that matches the stain of the floor using a cotton swab or a tiny artist paintbrush. Ensure the stain blends in with the floor and dry it with a hairdryer for a minute. Then add from the kit a very thin coat of finish (Ensure there are no ridges around the edges) and use a hairdryer again to dry the patch.
- Step Five–Coat the Floor in New Finish: Ensure that the finish applicator pad is on the block and some finish is inside another plastic-lined box to have a good coating of finish and reduce drips. Get a helper that will assist with coating the edges against the baseboards and walls using a paintbrush or pad when spreading the finish on the floor. With the applicator, follow behind. Then apply a coat of finish using a paintbrush.
- Step Six– Allow the Finish to Dry: You can wait for about 24 hours before moving your furniture and wait for about two weeks to lay down an area rug.
Buff and Recoat Floors with Polyurethane
This method is similar to the previous one but a little messier. It involves the use of buffer instead of a liquid. It’s considered a shallow method to refinish floor surfaces with marks and scratches. (Ensure you use the right materials).
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Step One–Get your Buffer Rental: Since the rental is quite expensive, you may want to get it only when you’re ready for the project.
- Step Two–Clean the room: You need to prepare the roomand get it thoroughly cleaned to avoid things getting in your way.
- Step Three –Deal with the Problem Areas: You should mark some affected parts while cleaning the room; so, return to these spots and douse deeper scratches or areas with mineral spirits.
- Step Four– Fix Protruding Ridges, Deep Gouges, and Nails: Hammer nails that stick out of the floor into the floor with a tool. After this, fill the deep gouges using some putty and leave the putty to set. To avoid letting the ridges damage the stain, roughen them with a sanding screen by hand and avoid the areas with the buffer.
- Step Five–Rough the Edges and Corners: Use a sheet of sanding screen to rough the edges and corners. Ensure you add a little bit of pressure while scratching up the current finish.
- Step Six– Put Under the Buffer a Sanding Screen: Put under the Buffer a sanding screen after cleaning the floor and roughing the edges.
- Step Seven–Ventilate the room and seal it off: Open the windows, turn the fans on, close ducts, and seal the working area.
- Step Eight–Do the Buffing: Turn the buffer on and swing it back and forth to buff the existing finish properly.
- Step Nine–clean the room Again: Clean the room with a vacuum and wipe the floors down.
- Step Ten–Spread the Finish: Not to get the finish on the baseboards, tape them. Polyurethane is a great option here, which can be an oil-based urethane or water-based urethane.
Use a Revitalizer
Through a revitalizer, you can easily renew your floors that have the least amount of wear. A good option you can get at your local home improvement store is a rejuvenate Floor Restorer and Protectant.
A revitalizer helps restore dull and tired wood floors. It fills the scratches and adds a glossy finish. Besides, it’s a cost-effective method that can save your time. (Ensure you use the right materials).
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Step One–Clean the Floor Thoroughly: Clear the room and clean the floor using a product made for hardwood floors. Then let the floor dry.
- Step Two– Apply Revitalizer: There are instructions on the package. Follow them and currently seal the floor with polyurethane.
- Step Three– Spread the Revitalizer: Protect the baseboards with tape and use a mop to spread the material evenly across the floor.
- Step Four–Wait for it to Dry: Leave the revitalizer for about 45 minutes to dry and 24 hours to lay down your rugs, shift furniture, or allow foot traffic.
Conclusion
You should always remember that there are different methods to refinish your hardwood floors without sanding them. This post has done justice to that by exploring three approaches to refinishing hardwood floors. Before you start the DIY home renovation project, you’re advised to talk to people with good knowledge of refinishing floors to avoid unnecessary mistakes and wasting your time, money, and energy.