How To Tell When You Need To Refinish Hardwood Floors

Seal doorways off doorways with plastic sheeting and turn off forced air hvac to keep dust from circulating throughout your house.

How to tell when you need to refinish hardwood floors.

Hardwood floor refinishing is dusty and noisy. There are two levels of refinishing hardwood floors. A plank of hardwood at full thickness should be able to stand between 6 and 10 refinishings in its lifetime. And you shouldn t worry about a few minor scratches that is normal.

If you splash water droplets on the floor and they soak in immediately that indicates that the wood fibers are exposed and the floor needs refinishing. Really appreciate how you took the time to educate us on the subject. Hardwood floor restoration is by no means an exciting subject to write about but you did an excellent job by keeping it entertaining and informative. This method of determining if your floors are hardwood or engineered is also a great way to tell if the boards are thick enough to refinish.

Generally these are 3 4 of an inch thick. All of this information should be made known to the homeowner before they commit to a hardwood flooring project. Unfortunately some hardwood floors are beyond quick fixes. It s commonly accepted that you refinish every seven to ten years.

In this case a refinish could strip away all traces of the floor. A solid hardwood plank at least 3 4 inches thick will likely need to be refinished four to six times during its total lifespan. Affordable products can clean and fill in small scratches to restore floors to a beautiful new luster. Some hardwood is only 1 4 inches thick.

Yes if you have a large number of scratches especially when those scratches have worn through the stain it s time to refinish your floors. If all you see is a faded finish and light surface scratches you re in luck. You can probably get by with screening a method for roughing up the existing finish the floor and applying a finish. If the droplet beads on the floor it may only need to be cleaned and polished.

Always wear a good dust mask or respirator ear protection and goggles.