We decided to refinish our hardwood floors since we were tired of the orange floors from 2008. We had an option to get new hardwood floors or refinish the existing hardwood floors. If I had the budget, I would have loved to go with new wide plank hardwood floors but that was going to be way over our budget. So we decided to refinish our existing hardwood floors. In spite of thorough planning it was quite a daunting task. Will be sharing the tips and things that we missed to make it all easy.
Our Existing Hardwood Floors
Let’s kick things off with a look at our hardwood floors before refinishing. Our hardwoods were finished with an oil-based polyurethane that ambered over time. Our hardwoods actually looked very orangey and dated.
It turns out that they were a mix of white oak and red oak. We were hoping for it all to be white oak, since it’s harder to get a non pink-tinged natural look with red oak. And this was the last thing, we were hoping for. If it was all read oak, maybe we could have bleached the wood but with a mix of white and red oak it gets tricky. We took a chance and went with the same refinishing approach for both white and read and I was happy with the outcome.
This side-by-side comparison shows what a difference it made. This was before we put in the sealant but just after the sanding.
Planning & Preparation for Hardwood Floor Refinishing
Before you jump into refinishing your hardwood floors, take some time to plan and think a few things through. It’s all the more important if you are planning to take up this project while already living in the space. If there is any chance you can finish this before moving in please choose to do so. I think this is a project that will probably be best/easy to finish while the space is still empty. If you do not have that option like us, then you will have to move out the furniture, find a place to have them temporarily, and also consider staying out of the house while the floors are worked on. Consider the curing time for the freshly refinished floors, it varies based on the type of polyurethane coating you choose to go with.
The Sanding Process
The actual hardwood refinishing process starts with sanding. The shoe molding by your baseboards are taken down before sanding down your floors.
They use larger sanders to do most of the room and handheld sanders to sand around the edges close to your baseboards:
Sanding floors create a lot of dust. So make sure that the cabinets and areas that must be protected from fine dust are properly sealed.
Also be sure to change your air filters immediately after refinishing – they tend to get pretty gross from the sanding dust:
Choosing the finish after sanding is done
After the sanding of your floors is totally done it’s time for staining them. Choosing a stain is a REALLY important part of making sure you love your floors and testing stains on your actual floors is the best way to go. We wanted our floors to have a very natural oak look, and we knew that we wanted the floors to be coated with water based polyurethane for the top coat. We went with BONA NATURALSEAL + Bona Mega one. We could have gone with Bona Traffic but if you are looking towards getting the same look and saving few bucks I think Bona Mega one is a decent choice.
1. Bona Mega One – this is simply a clear, water-based finish with no stain or tinting.
2. Bona NaturalSeal – this finish is designed to give you the look of freshly sanded wood and includes a touch of white. You can see that there’s not a huge difference from the unfinished floors surrounding the test spot – the NaturalSeal just darkens the floors a touch. We went with the matte look.
All of the Bona top coats we tested are water-based which was important to me considering we have a little one with breathing issues, water based top coats emit less VOC’s when compared to oil based coats. Also, oil based polyurethane ambers the floors over time. With water-based, the way your floors look today is close to how they’ll look ten years down the road – you don’t get that same ambering over time. Other benefits of water based polyurethanes are that they don’t have nearly as significant of an odor and they dry much more quickly so you don’t have to stay out of your house as long and can move furniture and rugs back onto your refinished floors sooner. The full cure time for Bona Mega One is 7 days so one week after my floors were refinished, it was safe to bring back the furniture and also the rugs. The cure time is said to be 30 days with oil based top coats.
Cost for Hardwood Floor Refinishing
The cost to refinish hardwood floors is going to vary quite a bit depending upon what part of the country you live in and what products are being used in your refinishing job (water-based finishes are generally more expensive). Costs typically range from an average of $3-$6 per square foot of flooring. The cost to do mine (Wilmington, NC) was:
Sand, stain, and finish (water-based) – $4.00 per square foot of flooring x 970 sf = $3880
Supply & install painted shoe molding – ~$600
Total = $4,480 + tax