Anyone Refinished Hardwood Floors?

**freedeal** · 05-04-2007, 12:07 PM

I just got the estimate to redo my hardwood floors. The estimate is $1700. I know the floors will look great but I just can't see myself paying someone $1700 if I can do the work myself.

I have a neighbor who is constantly saying I would not be able to do it because I am not strong enough.

Anyone here done this?

**FrugalMomof3** · 05-04-2007, 01:18 PM

We did it here ... cost us $600 and that was for only the sanding down of the dining room and living room floors and they fixed some broken floor boards with the exact same ones already installed, we stained and sealed them ourselves by purchasing the needed items at Home Depot. To do a complete job they said would have been $900 which is great because our dining room and living room are pretty big size rooms. But we opted to just have them do the sanding and fix the floor boards only.

**Michelle** · 05-04-2007, 02:42 PM

How big is/are the room/rooms you are getting refinished?

**Edna_E** · 05-04-2007, 07:20 PM

Yes, and used a rented sander. It is hard to get the sander to make an even surface rather than getting little ridges or even slight waves. Staining is easier to me to do well, and I topped it with a urethane finish that wore like cast iron! It is physically draining to do the sanding, which surprised me because it seemed like it was just going to be pushing around an electric deivce on wheels - how hard could that be? The other was ok. I was 28 at the time. I would not attempt it now (too out of condition).

**Ceashels** · 05-06-2007, 08:21 PM

My spouse and I just refinished a 9x12 room. It is used as an office and we needed a small area rug to help diminish the acustics. First we scraped the old rosin paper and adhesive left over from the 2 layers of linoleum flooring. We then rented a drum sander that came with an "edger" to get closer to the walls. We have 2 mild "waves" in the floor from the drum sitting a fraction of a second too long in the same spot... but it is livable... it is a 65 yr old floor and was deserving of some character. The "edger" was about the size of a router and was more energy consuming to use, but did a fair job along the walls. The baseboards helped hide the darker stain of the wood we were not able to get fully sanded. We followed all of that up with a wipe up, a coat of stain and a coat of minwax polyeurethane. THATS when the 2 ripples showed up (funny how light gets reflected). I look forward to salvaging the other floors in the house. It took some work is definitely doable! Good luck!

**Missy** · 05-06-2007, 10:44 PM

I'm gonna put in my two cents. Hubby does this for a living. And I know that saying that says I am biased. It can be done by the everyday do it yourselfer, after all it's your house.. But...and a big but...because we know the every day of the process, I'd hire a professional to do it. If you are going to do it right, there's more to it than stripping and resealing. You'll save money doing it yourself...

The home depot machine weighs only 80 lbs and my prefessional machines weigh 260 and 240 lbs that are the lg drum sanders. Size matters (no snickering), and try to find a local rental place that you can get a bigger machine. The weakling HD ones won't give you a professional result. And the power of a 220 v machine vs a 110 machine gives better results too. (just typing what he's saying). Semi gloss finish would be your best bet. Because it wears better and it shows less scratches and it shows less...machine oops. Hig gloss will show all the whoops's. So will satin. Don't do it tired either, lol As far as polyurethanes, minwax DuraSeal is a good one, less fume-y smells.

if you have any questions, DH would be happy to help.

**3pups** · 05-07-2007, 07:32 AM

My DH and I just tackled this project last month. We did two 12x12 bedrooms and a hall that is close to 9x11. We rented to drum sander and the edger. Most places charge by the day, but he man at the store told me if I picked it up on Saturday I could return it on Monday morning and still only pay for one day. Check and see if your place offers this. It kept us from rushing so bad.

We completely stripped the floors and then put three coats of poly on them. The edger was back-breaking because it's so awkward. I never want to use that machine again!

Make sure you do a good finer sanding after you use the rough paper to strip-before you put the first coat of poly on. The place we rented told us not to use the drum sander to do the fine sanding, so we did it by hand (little hand sander). It was a lot of work but it only cost us about $180 with the machine rental and all the supplies we needed. Good luck!

**geckoace** · 05-07-2007, 10:36 AM

we did it for a 13x20 room and 2 smaller rooms, we rented the big sander and the edger, the edger is really the tough part that little sucker is moving like crazy. having never had it professionally done (lived with carpet my whole life b4 this) i dont know how that would look but we love our hardwood and get compliments all the time. we used a satin finish partly because i dont like high gloss and partly to mask any imperfections (our house has the original pine floor from 1924 when it was built)

**freedeal** · 05-09-2007, 09:49 AM

Thanks for the input. Our area is about 600 sq ft. The floors are "new". The house is about 60 years old and these floors are pine. The were put down and then carpet went over them. Never stained or anything. They are in perfect condition. Even the flooring guy was amazed at how wonderful they are.

My neighbor who does lots projects has done floors before and and she thinks that I should do it myself since there will not be any repairs needed. She has agreed to help through the whole process.

I'll let you know how they turn out.