Have You Sanded Your Hardwood Floors?

You’ve had your hardwood floors for several years, and you love the look and feel of them. Lately, your floors have lost a bit of their luster. Have you considered hardwood floor sanding? Learn how to restore your hardwood’s appeal and remove all the unsightly scratches and your floor’s dull appearance.

Buffing

Buffing is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to sand your hardwood flooring. This sanding method works best if your floors only have wear and scratches on the surface level, and if the layer of wood underneath is in great condition. The way floor buffers work is they have screen grits that restore your floor’s topcoat layer. Drum sanders are another option, but you may find that they are a bit more aggressive in their sanding.

After buffing, use either a polyurethane or low-VOC water-based finish to refinish your floors. One important fact to mention with buffing is that if you use oil soap to clean or wax your floors, you don’t want to buff them until you remove the residue with wax remover or mineral spirits, so you don’t have an unsightly blotchy finish.

Sanding

Another option is to simply sand your floors. With standard sanding, you can fully revitalize damaged and aged flooring. If you like, you can even change the color of your floors with sanding. Drum sanders have progression grits that go as low as 40 grit and as high as 100 grit. You must remove all baseboards in the room, and the sander must be in constant motion to keep from sanding gouges into your floor. Once the sander reaches bare wood, the wood filler seals all the cracks before it’s time to stain the floor with a few coats.

Do you feel your home is due for a professional hardwood floor sanding? Reach out to local experts to discuss your options.