The idea of refinishing hardwood floors without sanding, causes many to wonder if they’ll end up ruining their beautiful floor.
Is it okay to refinish hardwood floor without sanding?
The reality is that a little bit of sanding is necessary before you can refinish your hardwood floor, but there is a safe way to refinish hardwood floors with very little sanding.
This method will cause no damage to your floor or cause it to look strange.
Simple and straightforward, you can get your floors looking the way they used to without all of the extra work that is normally involved.
Below I have gone through the process, step by step.
While you may not be refinishing your hardwood floors without sanding, you are drastically simplifying your process.
Step By Step Process For Refinishing Hardwood Floors
Remove Everything From the Room
Be sure to remove everything from the room like small rugs and furniture.
Some say that you don’t necessarily have to remove the biggest pieces of furniture if there is no chance of you moving it in the near future.
The amount of furniture you choose to move is truly up to you, but I recommend moving as much as physically possible.
Thoroughly Clean Your Floor
Be sure to take the time to thoroughly clean your floors before you start doing anything in regards to finish.
You ill clean them again in a future step which will be much more important, but it is still important to begin work on a clean floor.
Identify the Type of Finish That Was Previously Used On Your Floor
It is a good idea to know what finish you or the previous owner used on the floor.
There is oil based finish or lacquer based finish. Floors with an oil finish tend to wear out a little faster and they usually have an orange tint of color to them.
Lacquer finish tends to be a lighter color compared to the oil and the surface of your floor and will likely look a bit shinier.
If you determine that your floor has an oil finish, ‘Hardwax Oil’ is a good product to use for your refinish.
However, feel free to use whichever brand you prefer. If you have a lacquer based finish, you might consider using a new lacquer that is Polyurethane.
Lightly Sand Your Floor
Now is the process that will likely take a bit of time. You are welcome to use a machine for buffing, but it is not necessary.
You can easily use sand paper that is 120 bit and lightly sand the entire floor. You want to make sure that you are going with the grain of the wood and that you aren’t missing any spots.
The point of this isn’t to sand roughly.
All you need to do is apply light pressure to remove enough of the top coat to be able to apply a new finish.
Vacuum Your Floor
Once you have lightly sanded the entire floor you will want to vacuum the floor, making sure to clean up anything extra on the floor. As I said above, this step is not to be construed as less important.
You are about to apply finish to your floors, so you need to be sure that you have adequately cleaned the floor of the mess caused by sanding.
You want your finish to look nice and smooth when applied.
Begin The Refinishing Process
When your floor is completely clean, you are ready to start refinishing. There are many different products that you can consider using.
So, I recommend taking ample time to determine which one is the best for your price range. You can never be too careful about what you will be applying to your floor.
So, while there may not be a way to refinish hardwood floors without sanding at least a little bit, this process should create a much simpler project for you to improve the look of your home.
The nice thing about this project is that is totally manageable on your own.
Why spend the money hiring someone to do a job you can complete on your own.
However, that being said, make sure that you take the time to properly prepare for this project.
You want to make sure that everything is taken care of the correct way otherwise your floor will turn out worse for the wear.