Just bought a house. Made awesome deal. But there is only one problem that hardwood floors are in very bad condition; I mean it needs polish very badly. I don’t know how many years ago they polished it last time. After paying for 20% down for the house and appliances the budget is very tight, so I thought that my husband and me should do it by our self. I know we can do it. So guys please help. Give me some links to get info how to do it? And need tips from your experience too. And for supplies, HOME DEPOT or WHAT? What is the best store for supplies? Thanks a lotttttttt in advance. 5 star promise for help. But more then that, my blessings for you all.
Want to polish HARDWOOD FLOOR by myself. I think that I can do it, but HOW?
Usually with an old house, you need more than polish for the hardwood. If you see bare wood, sand the old finish, go back to all bare wood, stain if you want or need to hide problems, then Varithane for the finish. If no bare spots and no discolorations (dog or cat mess) then you can just light sand and varithane the floors again. The details:
Home Depot rental centers are a great place to start. The regular Home Depot stores may not have all the best tools for this job, so go to the Rental Center. They have a good rental policy, all the supplies you pick up in the beginning are returnable if you did not need them. So stock up to save useless return trips.
You should ask yourself if you want to replace baseboard at this point (be careful, these jobs can multiply, baseboard, paint, window coverings....and on and on..) Floors are best done with the baseboard removed, if you are not planning on replacement, carefully remove the old and save. Door casing can stay, but he base should go. You will need a good vacuume to clean the floors of dust. You will need dust masks and ear protection. The total cost of this job will run $500 plus, depending on how many square feet and the extent you are going.
In order to strip the floor to bare wood, rent the drum sander with 36 grit to start. Sanding old finish off floors is difficult to do, The old finish is hard to sand a gums sand paper quickly. If you start with the very course 36 grit, you will remove the finish quickly. BE CAREFUL! If the floor sander sits in one spot for even a few seconds, you will dig a hole in your floor! The idea with the first sanding is to go over the whole floor once, (always with the grain) and get most of the old finish off. Then change sandpaper to 50 grit, it is much more forgiving and you should be able to remove 100% of the old finish in the areas you can reach. Again keep the sander moving, with the grain of the wood. You might want to sand the floor one more time with this sander, using the next higher grit paper (60 I think) but I usually change sanders at this point.
You should now turn your attention to the edges. I return the drum sander at this point and rent a edger. HD charges rent on the tools for as long as you need them, If only one person is working, only rent one tool at a time! The edger is a circular sander and it will get right up to the wall. It will sand across the grain of the wood, so it leaves more visable scratch marks. This is unavoidable, but if you follow the directions for the drum sander, you will get a good job from it. (course to get the finish, keep it moving, change paper is it becomes gummed or worn away as you work your way around the room) You will need to change grit and move to a finer and finer grit after each completed trip around the room. Sand with this toold all the way to 120 grit. No other tool will get to the edge of the wall like this one. This by the way, is the worst part of the whole job. It is very hard on your back. Take lots of breaks, it will wear you out. (If you husband does this job, be nice to him, massage his back after he's done, he will need it.) I do the edges second because after the drum sander, I can see all the parts I missed. Once done with the edges, return this tool. One last thing, corners. Even the edging tool has it's limits, being a circular sander, it will miss the inside corners. You will need to do this by hand (I use a sharp chisel). Just remember, baseboard will cover most of the corner but you still need it to be flat and even with the surrounding floor or the base will show a gap there.
If your floors were not too bad of shape, and they only need a touch up, you could skip the previous two sanders and go right to this one. Rent a vibrating extra large pad sander (18" wide) Because of the wide sanding surface, It is very difficult to hurt your floor with this one. Start with 60 grit, and sand everything you can reach. You wont need to be as careful at going with the grain here. The key is to even out the floor, fix any mistakes you made with the drum sander. continue with this one till you reach the 120 grit paper and your floor looks great. On a refinish, just lightly sand with 100 and 120, do not try to remove the existing finish.
Follow the directions with any wood stain you might use, as well as the directions for the varithane (mind the waiting time between stain %26amp; finish as well as between coats of finish.) I have mixed feelings about the varithane, as you have two choices, water or oil based. Water based finish is easy to apply, dries very fast, (two hours for re-coat) and is crystal clear. In fact I think it dries too quickly, it many times does not flatten out well and will leave bubbles and bumps in the finish. Oil based on the other is slow to dry (overnight) has an amber color, but usually leaves a much nicer finish. Clean up with oil is also a pain and is concidered a hazordous waste. To decide, concider the weather, fumes, %26amp; time allowed for the project (3 coats of oil means staying off the floor for 3 days, then you still don't want to move furniture in for a few more days.) You will also want to lightly sand the finish between coats.
To completely strip and refinish, allow a weeks work. It is a big job, but is doable for the average home owner. It is also not cheap, the rentals and the sandpaper add up quickly. However, the results are well worth it.
Reply:Thank you for the kind words, I hope it helps, and Good Luck! Report It
Reply:i just bought my grandmothers house and it had hard wood floor, i don't have the time to redo them. i went and bought some Bruce clean and strip from ace hardware and cleaned them real good with that, then i went to walmart and bought some orange glo.and mopped that on . then i bought some wax it is called tree wax for hard wood floors.from lowes
it was hard work, but it looks good.
'
Reply:If it is a solid hardwood floor, you might be able to sand back the top layer and seal it with polyurethane or acrylic lacquer.
If it has been done more than once before, this tends to get a little risky because the tongue and groove could finish too close to the surface. Any floor nails certainly will need re-punching before you begin.
Chances are that it might just need a good clean and some tung oil. Here is what I would do... get some "napisan" or something similar (that's right.. its the stuff your mum used to use to wash nappies with) and scrub the floor with warm water and diluted napisan. This will open up the pores of the wood and remove much of the built up grunge.
Then apply with a new mop .. tung oil.. two or three coats. It wont make the floor new.. but man it will look a million bucks compared to what it is.. and it will have that aged patina about it.
Now finally... bakes some BRAN MUFFINS so that you have something to eat during the break.
Reply:you can talk to someone in Home Depot or Lowes flooring center about the best type of polish (I use Bee-Wax on old furniture) and rent a flooring buffer for about $40 or less per day. However, if the floor is in really bad shape as in nicks and scratches where you can see bare wood, you should probably get a floor sander (rented), then stain the floor again with Varathane or like product. Use only "hardwood" floor cleaners as harsh chemicals can strip and fade your stains and protective coatings.
Reply:can you send me some pictures of the present floor and I could tell you the best, economical way to fix them.
Reply:if it only needs polishing then the steps are ! clean the floor with an oil soap (Murphy oil soap) then rent a floor buffer and buy Johnson's floor wax. get on your knees and apply wax to floor with a rag or other applicator. then buff. your done
home theater
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment