All you need to know about refinishing your solid oak flooring
Wooden flooring exudes its own style and elegance within a home’s interiors. No matter if you have a single-family home or a multi-unit building, hardwood flooring will always be a smart investment for millennials. Simply put, hardwood flooring’s durable and far less prone to staining than some of its other counterparts.
Like any other type of wooden flooring, even hardwood flooring shows wear and tear over a period of time. With regular use, scratches and cracks may appear on your home’s flooring, making it look dingy and worn out. For such situations, you simply have the option of refinishing your hardwood floors and make them look as good as new.
Refinishing hardwood floors
Solid oak flooring can be sanded and smoothened out with ease, especially if you are willing to hire a sander to do the job. However, getting your floors changed will burn a big hole in your pocket, making you regret your decision immediately.
What indicators decide when it is time to refinish your solid oak floorings? Scratches, graying boards, and water damage are just some of the reasons you should consider for refinishing your floors. Add fading, dullness, and discoloration to the list, and definitely you would want to bend in favor of refinishing your floors.
Which floors are perfect for refinishing?
Solid oak planks are probably the best candidates for refinishing. Since engineered oak flooring is made out of a thin veneer of hardwood layers, there is not much scope for refinishing and sanding. If the surface is damaged, your best bet would be to try and refinish them once or twice, before the layers start giving way completely.
What’s the procedure for refinishing?
Refinishing is a tedious job; it takes longer than installing a new floor even. In order to refinish the floors, a contractor would first sand it down to the bare wood layer. The wooden surface has to be sanded through to the layer of finish and eventually to the layer of stain. Finish it off with a vacuum and clean the surface to reveal the new layer of wooden flooring.
Once the new layer is revealed, experts will stain the surface, to match it with the existing color of the floors. All in all, this whole process should take around 4-5 days for completion. After all these procedures are completed, you should seal it with a sealant. Allow the finish to cure over a few days so that it becomes permanent. The process of refinishing it extremely durable and should last for a few years at least. The procedure can be repeated every few years, or when the surface starts to show strains of wear and tear.
