Hardwood floors (how much, refinish, installed, bedroom)

[icibiu]

Hey guys, we're looking pretty good on closing on our house soon. (I'm trying not to get too excited, it's not over till the fat lady sings!)

It's an older house (1953) with original hardwood floors, carpeted over in some places exposed in others. Anyway, they need some TLC and we're hoping to refinish them before we move in.

I want to DIY it and Hubby wants to farm it out. Anyone here do their own floors? How did they turn out? Was it hard? Any tips?

On the other hand, if you had them professionally done how much did you pay per square foot?

If anyone has any vendor recommendations in North Jersey I'd really appriciate it Thanks!

[nightcrawler]

I had someone come in and just sand the floors. I stained them and polyed them. Staining is not that bad but you cannot overlap any stain as it will darkin. The poly was easier. I put it in metal watering can, with cheeseclothe over nozzle to strain any unwanted crap and pour in small areas of floor. I uses a pad about 6 x 8 inches or so and was on my hands and knees to spread it out. That was fun, it was easy. The poly I used was from locla home store, dried in half hour and I was able to give about 6 coats in a couple of weeks.

The only thing about then men sanding was the perimiter of the floor, They use a circular sanding machine and I can see small swirls, so I went over it with my electric sander to smooth it out. One room I didn't notice it until the floor was stained so I have to live with it. UGH, but that is the only thing I do not like about refinished floors is the way they edges come out. I have parquet floors, not slats.

good luck.

[CHTransplant]

Several years ago I refinished wood floors in 3 rooms that had been covered by carpet for years. I'm an avid DIYer, so I wasn't intimidated at the idea of doing it myself. I rented a drum sander and edge sander, and my dad and I tackled the sanding (after having spent a couple of hours on our knees making sure we got every last staple up from the carpet padding). It wasn't hugely challenging, but I will say you can screw up your floor pretty quickly if you aren't careful (gotta keep the sander moving at all times). Like the above poster I did go over the edges with my own electric pad sander to get rid of the swirl marks left by the edge sander. Bottom line - if you're reasonably handy, and comfortable operating a large, heavy and very noisy machine, it's something you can do - but do watch a video of how to do it if you've never seen it done.

We only applied sanding sealer and several coats of poly - no stain. Between coats of poly you should very lightly sand the prior coat - you'll get a much smoother finish. Generally, you use a large floor buffer for this (which takes some getting used to controlling). Although much slower - you can also just use a couple of small electric pad sanders to quickly go over the floor.

If the the floors aren't in too bad of shape and just need a new finish of poly, you can just start with the floor buffer to lightly sand what you have and then poly over it.

The pros will offer much better dust control than you'll get doing it yourself. Sanding does generate a lot of dust, so you'll want to seal off rooms you're doing with plastic sheeting over the doorways to keep the dust from going everywhere. And of course wear good dusk masks.

[texdav]

Make sure you read the ca o how long you have to recoat and what to do if you don't make it within the time span. Noramlly that is for a chemical bond between coats.

[grannynancy]

My dad, years ago, used a finish called Fabulon on those floors - same era - what I wouldnt give to have THAT quality of hardwood! They looked great - I think they were maple. I recall he had a dog of a time with the sander because he was a perfectionist but I remember issues with the edges like the others have said.

My inclination would be to pay someone to sand and do the finishing as that will still be a lot of work to do it right.

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by icibiu

Hey guys, we're looking pretty good on closing on our house soon. (I'm trying not to get too excited, it's not over till the fat lady sings!)

It's an older house (1953) with original hardwood floors, carpeted over in some places exposed in others. Anyway, they need some TLC and we're hoping to refinish them before we move in.

I want to DIY it and Hubby wants to farm it out. Anyone here do their own floors? How did they turn out? Was it hard? Any tips?

On the other hand, if you had them professionally done how much did you pay per square foot?

If anyone has any vendor recommendations in North Jersey I'd really appriciate it Thanks!

There isn't anything about sanding a floor that precludes doing it yourself, but there will be a learning curve and it will be a lot of work that will take a lot of time. Clean-up can be a bear.

Also, old floors that were wax finished can present a real challenge.

I would recommend that you rent a random-orbital floor sander rather than a drum sander. They are much more forgiving and you are considerably less likely to leave a permanent reminder of "how much you learned" but the work will be slower. Good luck and congratulations on your new house.

[JayCT]

I would go with the professional personally. You don't want to mess up a valuable part of your home. Make sure you get multiple references and check them. Go and see their work. That is what we did when we had hardwood floors installed years ago.

If you really want to try to do this on your own, I would suggest you start in a small room like a bedroom where you would not see any mistakes and can learn as you go. Good luck, Jay