Sanding and Refinishing
One of the most rewarding aspects of our job is refurbishing well-loved wood floors. It takes a lot of expensive equipment, hard work, and finesse, but the results are surely worth it.
Generally, we can complete a full sand and refinish in 2 to 6 days, depending on the size, condition, layout, and finish products selected. You can be on the floors for most of the process (although it will be noisy!) up until the time your finish products are applied. Depending on the finish option you choose, you will need to stay off the floors for 1 to 3 days.
Many people ask about the dust levels during sanding. We hang plastic where suitable and have invested thousands of dollars in equipment to keep our clients’ homes clean. Our sanding machinery is connected to HEPA dust collectors. Inevitably, some dust will still be leftover, but we are 99% dustless and have had zero complaints.
Check out the procedure along with before, during, and after photos from a sanding and refinishing project at a historic 1928 St. Paul home.
As you can see below, these floors were in rough shape and coated with an old, orange-toned shellac.
The first step to restoring these original 1.5″ plank red oak floors was to scrape off the waxy shellac layer using our Diamabrush (this step saves our sanding machines and lots of life on your wood floors!) and hand scrapers.
Next, we fired up our heavy-duty sanders, starting with an aggressive grit, working up gradually toward finer grits. The goal is to get the floors even and smooth. During this stage, we can put down stain/sealer samples directly on your floor to help you determine which color you’d like. Once you decide, the samples will be sanded away. We believe this is the absolute best way to select a color. Learn why here.
These clients opted to keep the floors natural with an oil-based sealer from Duraseal. After the sealer was applied, we coated the floors with two layers of Duraseal Oil-based Polyurethane in a Satin sheen.
The floors are now ready for their next century of use!