refinishing hardwood floors

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• published: 14 Apr 2016
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Refinishing my 100 year old hardwood floors. I like to do things in the most cost effective way possible. That being said there might be other ways for you to refinish your hardwood floors. I started by removing any thresh holds, doors and ¼ round molding that was going to be in my way. Then I pulled the carpet up from the tack strips around the whole room. I then lifted the carpet up and cut the carpet into smaller sections being careful not to cut into the floor or myself. Once the carpet was cut up I rolled it up and tossed it out of my 2nd story window on to my driveway were I cut it up to fit into my trash can. I removed and bagged up the padding. I took care in removing the tack strips as most of the nails holding them down would rip through the tack strip. I made sure to remove all the nails left in the floor. I also went around the room and along where the padding and carpet seems were to remove any and every staple. Then I pounded down any nail head that was sticking above the floor itself. It’s very important to remove every staple/unwanted nail and to pound the head of the other nails down below the surface of the floor. This will help insure you don’t destroy your sanding pads by hitting them later on. After everything was removed from the floor I vacuumed the floor before sanding. One of the benefits of using an orbital sander is that you don’t really have to worry about the direction you sand in as long as you keep it moving. With a drum sander you have to sand in a specific way to avoid sanding marks on the floor. One of the better professional sanders to rent would be an orbital sander with three orbiting heads. Whatever you choose to use follow the manufactures instructions in operating that equipment. While sanding I used 3 kinds of sanding pads coarse, medium, and fine and vacuumed often. You might notice that the sander you are using can’t hit the low spots in the floor. I ended up using a handheld orbital sander to take care of the low spots. Also for the stubborn and very small indents in the floor I used a small paint scraper to remove the old finish. Use caution when doing so because you might cause more damage to your floor then you intended to fix. There are a few methods to remove the carpet glue from the floor. Some may include using chemicals, heat gun or steam to using a special machine. I found for my floors using a coarse sanding pad with the sander removed the bulk of the glue and for the really tough spots using the paint scraper and then the sanding pad. The heat gun worked well but was too time consuming and the fumes gave me headaches. Once the glue and old finish were removed from the floor I took my time doing a final sanding with a medium and fine grit pad. This is also a good time to fill in any nail holes. You can use a wood filler or glue and sawdust from the floor itself to create your own wood filler. I also inspected every inch of the floor to make sure all of the old finish was off in the low spots. After vacuuming a few times I cleaned the floor with mineral spirits, in a well ventilated room, to get all of the remaining dust off the floor. Check to make sure you can use mineral spirits with the type of finish you will be applying. The application of your floor finish will vary depending upon what type of product you choose to work with. Then apply your finish following the manufactures instructions. And your floor project will be over in no time. The tools I used Oreck XL Professional Grade Orbiter Premiere 12” RED standard Buffing pad Premiere 12” WHITE standard Polishing pad 12” coarse, medium, fine sanding disk Dewalt Random Orbital Sander Mirka Hook-and-Loop Sanding Disks 5” 8 hole Black and Decker Sheet Sander Stanley paint scraper Klean Strip Odorless Mineral Spirits Rubio Monocoat Natural oil finish www.monocoat.us Vacmaster 12 Gal 5hp Wells Lamont Leather Gloves