Floor Refinishing 101
We’re back with more floor refinishing details as promised. First a reminder about why we refinished 600 square feet of our home’s 50-year-old yellowed wood flooring (to match the new prefinished mocha hardwood that we installed in the kitchen, den, laundry nook and half bathroom):
Here’s the yummy after. So much better, right?
When it comes to matching prefinished oak with refinished oak it doesn’t get much closer than that. In fact our wonderful floor guy mixed three batches of stain to come up with the perfect color. The main difference between factory prefinished oak flooring and refinished-on-site oak flooring is that the knots and veins in the wood are a bit more distinct in the sanded and stained refinished floors. But we’re absolutely thrilled with the match-job, it really looks a million times more cohesive and consistent from the moment you step in the door.
But how did those delicious mocha floors come about? Here’s the play by play.
First we asked practically everyone in town for a recommendation- we really wanted a pre-screened floor refinisher since it was sure to be a serious challenge because we wanted to closely match our new flooring. More than one friend recommended the same person so we felt good going with our floor guy (although we did get another estimate just to be sure we were getting the best deal in town).
Then we negotiated a killer deal (saving $300 and coming in at just $900 for 600 square feet by asking our refinisher to sand and restain the existing shoe molding instead of replacing it with costly new wood molding).
Then it was time to completely clear each room- the living room, our three bedrooms and each and every closet within those spaces. We also removed the window treatments in each area, although we did keep the art work on the walls (knowing we’d have to dust it all) since we didn’t have a safe place to store all those fragile glass frames because we already had all of our furniture crammed into the kitchen and the den. We knew that we’d have to clean the sanding dust from the closet shelving and above each door frame and windowsill anyway, so dusting off the pictures in each room seemed doable while we were at it.
We were also sure to tape plastic bags over our heating vents to keep our air filters free of dust during the sanding process that would commence in the the morning. And we hung an old sheet to block renovation dust from invading our kitchen and den where we were storing all of our furniture.
Next our refinisher spent all day sanding the floors (it was actually the longest amount of time a contractor had ever spent in our house- including masons, window guys, kitchen installers, etc). He used one of those professional sanders with a dust bag attached to suck in as much excess dust as possible (but of course we still found some sanding dust atop door frames windowsills and on our closet shelves). He then thoroughly dusted and vacuumed the floors to be sure they were free of dust and shavings.
Then we removed the plastic from our vents and fired up the heat to a toasty 75 degrees before our floor refinisher laid down any stain since we wouldn’t be able to walk on the floors for 20 hours after the stain was applied (heat helps to speed up the drying process).
Our refinisher mixed a few different stain concoctions and applied each one to our stripped flooring (right near the new kitchen hardwood so we could easily identify a match). We all agreed which one was the closest and he went to work applying it throughout the 600 square feet, working towards the front door where he “painted himself out of the house.”
The next morning he arrived to apply the first coat of polyurethane, which only took about 45 minutes but smelled to high heaven so we cracked a few windows before he “painted himself” out of the front door again. Being sensitive to the toxins, we actually arranged to stay with John’s sister for the duration of the polying process due to the nasty smell (and the fear that all the fumes couldn’t be good for us or our tiny pooch). We would definitely recommend arranging to stay with a friend or even at a hotel from the first coat of poly on (we actually didn’t sleep in our house for a full week to ensure that the air was clear)- and would especially caution that anyone who is pregnant or has small children or pets should make it their main goal to stay far far away for as long as possible.
The following morning our floor guy arrived again to apply the second coat of poly (he lightly sanded the first coat before laying it down just as all the experts recommend). This entire process took about an hour and forty five minutes and he again “painted himself” out of the house when he was done. At this point the house was even stinkier (if that’s possible) so we cracked all the windows that we could access (in the den and the kitchen) and although the heat was cranked to 75 degrees to aid in the drying time, we were happy to overwork our heating system a bit in return for some much needed ventilation.
On day four our floor guy returned to apply the third and final coat of poly (and get paid of course!). Apparently three coats of polyurethane are far superior to two- so always check how many coats your refinisher intends to apply (three probably means that you’ve got an expert on your hands).
We then were instructed not to walk on the floors for 48 hours at which point we had the ok to move all of our furniture back into the rooms. Thanks to the holidays we easily stayed clear of our house for three days (extra insurance that everything was dry and the fumes were even more dissipated). And truth be told we actually still smelled some lingering poly chemicals in the air, so we continued to steer clear of our house for a few more days and keep our windows cracked to further vent the fumes (although we lowered the heat back to our normal not-home temp of 64 degrees).
And once we finally got around to putting everything back in it’s place we were beyond thrilled with how our furnishings seemed to pop a little more and look a bit more luxe thanks to the rich mocha flooring underfoot:
And not only in the living/dining room, check out the newly spiffed floor in the third bedroom:
And the guest bedroom:
And our master bedroom:
Even our closets look sleeker with their newly mocha-fied floors. Mmmm.
So there you have it. A step by step breakdown of what to expect when you’re refinishing your floors. Whether you’re doing it yourself or hiring it out, we wish you all the luck in the world… and some glossy and fabulous floors that make all the dust, smell, and chaos totally worth it in the end!
Psst- For more info on the guy we hired to redo our floors (and the entire process) click here.
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Comments
Your floors came out absolutely stunning! Looks like it was well worth storing all your belonging, stinking up the house and leaving town for a few days!
I like the after a lot. But I gotta say I like the before too. I think floor color really is just a preference thing. I think it certainly matches the kitchen more so now than it did before and if that was just driving you bonkers I understand. I just can’t say that the before was horrific…it wasn’t. *shrugs*
i gotta agree with kristy. your floors looked like they were in great condition before. they are similar to what we have in our house, and I think the lighter color is nice in a small house b/c it makes the room seem larger. however, i can def. see how the conflicting wood floor would bother you and hey, if you have the money and means, why not? they DO look great!
I recenlty discovered you blog (Homies 2008). I really love the way you floor turned out. It is beautiful. But then again I love wood. I have a french oak floor, I chose it because of the knots and veins.
Have a nice weekend!
Bye,
Marianne
Looks fantastic! Thanks for posting the before/after shots. Really great job on the floors.
Great job on the floors! Trying to match floor finishes is nearly impossible and I’d say you got it as close as you can. Your home is really looking great!
Nice work. Looks like the grade of your flooring is different from one room to the next… Perhaps you used select grade in the kitchen while the adjacent room is builders grade? Todd’s right – matching stains perfectly is nearly impossible, and you guys did a fantastic job! Love the floors, love your blog… Keep it up.
ooooh, looks snazzy! We are grappling with cement floors here in Marrakech. Wood is a rare commodity in the desert!
They look great.
I’m a little surprised by Fred’s comment – does he not understand that the livingroom floor was original to the house?
And that’s the difference between new wood and old wood.
50 years ago, the trees cut down for wood floors were old, accounting for beautiful variations, knots and veins. Today we’re cutting down young trees that don’t have the time develop the same character.
Your whole house looks beautiful.
could you please share where you got your coffee table and storage cube? thank you for sharing your lovely home!
Hey Corinna,
We got our coffee table at a thrift store (an amazing $35 score) and the storage cube from Michael’s for 50% off (maybe $25?). But they do sell similar coffee tables at potterybarn.com. Hope it helps! Happy shopping…
xo,
Sherry
I’m so glad to have found your blog. Holly Mathis Interiors mentioned it in her blog and showed some pictures of your bedrooms she liked. Anyway, my husband is planning on refinishing our pine floors in our kitchen and foyer sometime this year. We’re probably going to do it ourselves, to save money. I’ll be sure to have him see your floor refinishing tutorial. I want him to see what to expect. Your floors look fantastic! I really like the darker color since you have so much light colored upholstery.
hi kiddos!
i’m new to your blog and am trying to get up to speed (lot’s of info to cover!)
i have a couple of questions for you, number one, where did you get the sofa for your living room? i like it a LOT and found one somewhat similar (manchester) at ballard design (but i’m scared to death of purchasing a sofa online without the benefit of ‘trying it out’) and would you consider doing a segment on the direction to lay your hardwood floors? the reason i ask is we are getting ready to lay hardwood in our condo, and from what i’ve read, you are supposed to lay it perpendicular to your floor joists…i have living/dining combination room that is 33′ long and 12′…..perpendicular would be fine for the room itself, but the transition into the 2 bedrooms have 2 very small hallways that would need to be layed ‘crosswise’ (creating a ladder effect)….would love to hear your ideas about how to approach this…
TIA
and congrats on a superb design blog!
oh and one more thing…..where did you get the glass coffee table? having a long a narrow room (fireplace on one end) i think the glass table is probably the best option (and yes we have the flat screen (on a media stand) across from the sofa currently, which seems to be the only option.,
Hey Beatriz,
We actually have a huge list of where we got everywhere in our house located on the top of our “house tour” page. Here’s a direct link to make it easier. You’ll see where we got our sofa and our coffee table and everything else! Hope it helps!
As for how to lay flooring, we have also heard to lay it perpendicular to your joists (you can go up in the attic and see which direction the beams go and lay it in the opposite direction. Other than that, we don’t know much about it since we actually hired someone to help lay our hardwoods for us! Good luck with everything!
xo,
Sherry
Your floors look fantastic and were the inspiration for me choosing to stain my new oak floor “coffee brown”. Everyone – husband, mom, friends, etc questioned my choice to go DARK. It’s much more common in this area (Seattle) to see light/natural floors. It looks fantastic now, but I’m a bit confused as we start to furnish our house – what kinds of woods do you look for in furnishings? I see lots of white painted wood in your home, so that’s easy for me to look for, but then are you going with black painted wood as well? Or dark brown? I’m looking for a dining set right now and I’m a little afraid of choosing a wood that will “clash” with the coffee brown floors. But then I don’t want it to look too matchy either. Any advice on what to look for?
Hey Juliet,
We’re so excited to hear about your delicious new coffee brown floors. They sound amazing! As for wood tones, we’ve always been a fan of dark brown pieces mixed with a few white painted items and even some black iron (like our glass and metal coffee table in the living room). Selecting dark wood pieces for the most part, but peppering in some white painted items and even some moody metal tones, will really add effortless personality and avoid the dreaded matchy-matchy syndrome in your space.
And as for your dining table, you might want to bring in a rug to really make the room. The furnishings and the floors will definitely look lovely when they’re offset by something soft and stylish. Then again you might adore the bare look (we actually don’t have a rug under our dark wood dining table (since there’s an area rug a few feet away in the seating area) and it still looks great. Definitely feel free to let your decor evolve and to experiment by bringing in rugs, table runners and lighter upholstered pieces to cut all that wood if things start to feel dark. Hope it helps!
xoxo,
Sherry
I found Floor refinishing 101 very informative. I do have a question. Is there a method to keep the oak floors a light color as shown in the picture that shows how the floor looks just after sanding? Thank you.
Hey Joan,
Good question. I believe it’s nearly impossible to keep the floors as light as they were right after sanding since applying a clear poly is the closest you’ll get but that still darkens the floor considerably while bringing out the variations in the wood. The best way to achieve the extremely blonde tone in the sanded pictures is actually to get new wood flooring laid that’s lighter than standard oak (maybe a light cork or a lighter exotic wood) so that even once it has some protective poly on it, it’s still a lot lighter than the average oak floor. Although that can definitely get more expensive than having the floor refinished, it’s a totally custom look.
Hope it helps!
xoxo,
Sherry
A coworker of mine suggested I check our your blog and now I am addicted! I love it. Thanks for all the great advice and how-tos.
My husband and I are planning to refinish our hardwood floors and were wondering if we had to remove the baseboards and door casings before doing so? Were yours accidently stained in the process? I just don’t want to replace them if I don’t have to.
Hey Kathryn,
We actually left the shoe molding and the baseboards in place to save time and money (the refinisher sanded and restained our shoe molding to match the floor instead of replacing it) which did mean that a bit of stain got on the baseboards but it only took us about an hour to touch everything up with white paint and get everything looking crisp and perfect again. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Hey Sherry,
I love your mocha floors! My husband and I are actually going to the same process right now and I’m trying to find a color of stain that I like! I want to go darker like yours (anything to get away from that golden honey color!!) Do you know what brand of stain your contractor used and which colors he mixed? I definitely don’t need to know the exact concoction but I’d love to try and find something similar!
Thanks!
Landry
Hey Landry,
Good question. We believe he used Minwax stains and mixed two (a dark mahogany tone and a deep brown one) to get the color we agreed upon. It certainly wasn’t a scientific mixing, more like around half of one bucket poured into the other. I wish I had more info for you but we actually made ourselves scarce while he did the work due to the fumes! Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Floor looks great. just installed new solid red oak and had professional do the refinishing. we had him use our eco friendly waterbase. it has absolutely no fumes. problem was we did not hire an environmentally minded finisher and he did not take his time, bedroom looked great but liv/dining terrible. he resanded and insisted he use minwax. the odor in the house was terrible and is did not go away (as promised) with the coat of water based poly. So now we had him take the finish back off and we are putting down the finish ourselves. It is nice of you to warn people to be cautious about the fumes. Hopefully, companies like minwax be forced to change so people do not have to chose between a beautiful floor and their health.
thank you,
Lisa
I love your woodfloors they all look great and match up awesome. My husband and I are actually wanting to install wood floors throughout our house but unsure which color or type to pick. Our house is really old and has tons of original wood work throughout thats pretty dark but is in excellent condition, we just can’t decide on which color of floors would look best up next to all the wood trim. What would be your suggestion?
Hey Jody,
We’d try to pick a tone that matches the dark wood trim as closely as possible and if that’s too difficult we’d suggest finding a tone or shade that complements it (a little lighter perhaps, but still with the same undertones so it looks like it’s a shade of the same color). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Thanks a bunch, the both of you give excellent advice and truly are an inspiration of what you can do with a little hard work. Thanks again
Hi Youngsters,
My husband and I moved into a new old house the first of this month, and were lucky enough to be able to refinish the hardwood floors throughout the downstairs before we moved in. It’s been one month since they’ve been done, and while they look fabulous, they still are really smelly! We have lots of windows open all the time which, coupled with fans, I had really hoped would do the trick. We are crazy green about everything, to boot, so these lingering odors are irritating our eco-friendly personalities as well as our noses. Did you deal with any lingering smells and/or can you recommend something for helping clear the air??
Thanks!
We feel your pain! Nothing is worse than a fume filled house. We actually heard that refinishing floors in the winter can cut down on the smell since heat releases more odors and keeps them hanging around. Maybe things will get better when it cools down in the fall? Until then those fans and other forms of ventillatipn should help. Good luck!
xo,
s
Hi there,
I am not sure if you are able to put the name of the company/gentleman who did your refinishing on your blog…but my husband and I live in Richmond and would love to use your recommendation and contact him to refinish our floors. FYI, we have heard about a new company called “Mr.Sandless” that uses non-toxic stains and finishes and, as you can maybe tell from the name, does not sand the floors and kick up all the dust. Might be worth readers looking into!
Here’s another post with our floor guy’s info: http://www.younghouselove.com/2008/12/drumroll-please/
We also looked into the dust free refinishing you mentioned but they said it would need to be redone every ten years or so and might not hold up as well under little dog claws so the full resanding method seemed a lot more durable and smarter for us in the long run. Either way good luck with your floors!
xo,
s
Ok, so we finally closed on our house (YAY!)
We are ripping up the carpet today and tomorrow and the guys plan on starting the refinishing Monday morning. He said it would take about 5 days to do the whole project (ours is close to 1000 square feet). But now I am worried we may not be able to move in next weekend due to fumes, 48 hour dry time, etc. and I was really hoping to get to use Labor Day weekend to move in all the furniture completely.
a) what about a water-based poly?
b) other than heat on, windows open, etc, how can we speed up dry time?
Thanks!
megan
Hey Megan,
We did all we could to speed up our drying time so all we know of is the heat-on windows-open method. We even googled it a bit and that’s all we could come up with. Perhaps since it’s the summer (we had ours done in the winter) the natural warmth in the air might help things cure faster. The most important thing is that you don’t want to ruin the floors if they’re too wet to be walked on, but if they’re already dry but still very stinky when it comes time to move stuff in, you could always move everything in over Labor Day and just leave the house a lot to get meals and maybe even sleep at a friend or family member’s house to avoid the fumes as much as possible. You might also have a less airtight house than we do (with our new windows and brick facade our house is extremely good at holding heat- and everything else- in for a long time). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Love your floors. We’re getting ours done tomorrow morning but we can’t decide on a stain color. Do you know exactly what colors you guys mixed? I have to buy the stain later today.
Thanks
S
Our floor guy actually mixed two stains (a dark walnut and a lighter honey tone) but we’re not sure those are the exact names. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
We moved into our new house 2 weeks ago – and immediately ripped up all the carpeting to find hardwood floors underneath. Sadly only one of the rooms was “finished hardwood” so we knew we’d have to refinish all of them. Also we uncovered a large stain in the master bedroom. Looks as if there was some sort of plumbing leak that badly stained the floor. (and yes we are sleeping on the dining room floor during this process…can’t wait to get things normal again).
So last weekend we rented a sander and sanded all the floors – but couldn’t get all of the water stain up. I was reading you might be able to remove it with something called Oxalic acid crystals. I saw your guy got a stain up too. Have you heard of anything that might get this up?
Also we’re planning to stain the wood ourselves. The hardware stores only seem to carry minwax – are there better brands? Do you know why your floor guy chose minwax?
I know you had someone do the dirty job for you (jealous!) but thought I’d try to pick your brain anyway.
I’m so sorry that we can’t be of more help but we would recommend visiting your local hardware or paint store and asking the pros there what they recommend (since they have more experience on the subject). Googling around a bit might shed more light on things too. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Hello,
I’ve been following your blog for a while now. We just bought a house and refinished the hardwood floor prior to moving in- dark chocolate colour. I used to clean my floors with water and vinegar before, but the floor guy told us that that will ruin the hardwood. he recommended a product called Bona. Just wondering what you use to clean your hardwood floor?
We just use a moist cloth with a bit of Mrs. Meyers soap on it. It’s super mild and smells great (like lemon). Our floor guy actually recommended it. The key is just not to let a lot of water stand on the floor, so just use something moist to wipe them down, nothing soaking wet. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
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Hey it’s Totty from bootsandtotty.com. Quick Question.. We are weighing the options of refinishing our original hardwood floors or replacing them with a more eco friendly option. Can you shoot me the info of the floor guy you used? Would love to get a quote from him. Thanks!!
Hey Totty,
His name is (fittingly) Mr. Sanders and he came highly recommended from more than a few people. He did a great job and we loved working with him! Here’s that number for ya: 804.921.6916. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
The floors really do look fabulous! We are experiencing a mini-crisis with our HW floor at the moment. Apparently, there was a leak behind the dishwasher, which caused mold to grow and water to seep under the floor and into the crawl space below. Good times. As I type this, we have a ginormous heater thingy in our kitchen/living room/dining room in an attempt to dry out the wood floor(the floor with the hardwood is all one open space- the main level, if you will). Our insurance company wrote us a check for $1,500.00, since we are going to have to refinish the HW floor once everything is dried out. The agent that came to the house claimed that this is the going rate (approx.) around here to refinish floors. But, I see that you paid only $900 for 600 sq. feet of flooring! We have A LOT LESS floor space to refinish, so I am just wondering why there’s such a price difference? Any thoughts or advice?
We just hunted around for a great deal and got many many estimates to end up far below the “going rate” so if you put in the time you’ll hopefully score a great deal too. Of course it might have to do with your area (my mom lives in NY and could never get the estimates that we get here in VA). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Thanks Sherry! I dug up the summarized price quote given to us by our insurance agent, and it mentioned SEVERAL things that needed to be done in order to actually refinish the floors, which is probably why the check was for so much $$. One thing stuck out: He said that all of the baseboards/trim need to be removed (from walls and the kitchen island) before laying the stain down. Then, they need to be painted and re-installed. Does this sound right?! It seems like a LOT of work to just refinish floors, and I’m actually getting pretty nervous about the whole process. He also figured in costs for labor to remove/relocate our furniture temporarily, and many other “little” things that actually my hubby and I can do ourselves. I guess I am just overwhelmed by the whole process, and since you’ve done this before, I wanted to know your thoughts. Thanks!
Nope! We didn’t even have our shoe molding removed let alone our baseboards. He sanded and restained the shoe molding while it was in place and explained that a bit of stain could get on the bottom of the baseboards but we did a smidge of touching up and it was a fabulous way to save hundreds of dollars (and hours of labor). We just recommend getting a number of estimates (you’ll learn so much from experts in your house to tell you what the options are). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
They look gorgeous. If I had not seen the mocha I would have thought the floors before were nice, but they mocha is WAY better!