Refinishing, Sanding, Staining and Polyurethane a Hardwood Oak Floor

Overview:Recently, I was charged with the task of refinishing a hardwood oak floor. The floor was underneath a layer of carpet that had been laid a couple years prior.

Refinishing a wood floor isn't all that hard if you know what you need beforehand. I refinished mine because there were some really dull spots on the floor and there were also some dents and scuffs I wanted removed.

Preparation: Remove the carpet

If you have carpet you are going to have to remove it! This part is easy, just tug on a corner and pull it off the tack board. Cut the carpet in long 3 or 4 food sections using a sharp box cutter. Simply, roll it up and haul it away.

You will be left with your pad. In my case the pad was just stapled down and not glued, so you pretty much do the same thing as the carpet and just roll it up and haul it away.Once you get all the carpet and pad removed you have to get rid of the staples and tack board. Invest in a good molding removing pry bar. It will look similar to a normal pry bar on one end, but will have an odd shaped other end that is specially designed to pull finishing nails out of tight places. This tool will save you tons of time! As for the staples, pull em out with pliers, it is time consuming but pretty easy.

Preparation: Remove the trim

If you have trim that overlaps the hard wood you will have to remove that as well. This is pretty easy if you bought the molding pry bar. Simply pry it up and remove the finishing nails. Once you are done with all of this you are left with your wood floor and you are ready for the real fun.

Choose a Sander:

Now it is time to rent a floor sander. There are several different kinds that you can rent from Home Depot. They are similar in cost but different in a few ways.

• Belt Sander: It is designed to take off layers of your floor quickly. This may be best left to a professional since you can screw your floor up the fastest with this one.


• Orbital Sander - 3 disc: This sander is one of the more common ones, it is easy to use and good for a beginner. It is a bit more aggressive than the next sander.


• Orbital Sander - square pad: This is the least aggressive but perhaps the most forgiving. Because you will have to make many passes with the sander if you want to really get down to the bare wood this one can be time consuming but good for a beginner. This is the one I used.

Sanding down the floor:

For this tutorial I am going to discuss using a square pad orbital sander since that is what I used. Start with a 30-40 grit sandpaper and slowly make a pass going with the floorboards. You should see the polyurethane and some of the stain come off pretty quickly. The pads don't last all that long because they get polyurethane clumps on them so I went through about 2 pads every 10 by 10 area.

**Note** Vary your pattern. Don't always start and stop on the same place on the floor. It can create a pattern that is noticeable.

Since this one is forgiving you can go over and over the same spots without really digging into the wood too much, so my recommendation would be to go over each spot a couple times back and forth and then move on to the next row. If you get done and you need to go back over it that isn't a problem. Just remember that you are going to use a higher grit (finer) sand paper afterward that will take off some more wood. The most important part is making sure all the polyurethane is off the floor.

**Note** I had some problems because in some of my dents in the floor I wasn't getting all the shine off the floor in every place. But as I went to the finer sandpaper it got almost all of this off.

Since the large floor sander cannot get all the way to the edge you are going to have to use a hand sander with similar grit paper on the edges. This is time consuming and I didn't get mine 100% even, but since I was staining it was going to help cover up my imperfections.

After you are done making several passes of 30-40 grit paper, do the same thing with 60-80 grit paper. This should take less time since you are touching things up.

Finally, you put on your finest sandpaper (around 150 grit). You should only need to go over once or twice and these pads should last about twice as long. I only used two for a 400sq foot area.

Remember to do the edges with your hand sander after each step.

The result

You should be left with a dull floor without any shine and little, if any, stain. The next step is staining and applying polyurethane.

Staining hardwood floor

Before you stain the floor you need to make sure ALL the dust and particles are off the floor and the central air is turned off. First sweep the floor and vacuum what you can up. Then you can wet some cloth rags with mineral spirits and use that as a tack cloth.

Applying stain is easy. I used a stain applicator that attaches to a broom stick. Pretty much wipe it on in the direction of the wood. Do it in sections and then wait about 5 minutes and wipe the excesses stain off with lint free rags. Then move to the next section and repeat.

The process can be time consuming with all the waiting between sections. I did two sections on different sides of the house at a time to speed this up.

Drying time

Once the stain is done you have to wait for it to dry. I used a Cabot oil based stain and it took over 48 hours to dry because there wasn't a lot of ventilation in the house and it was cold and rainy outside. Once the stain stops being tacky in most spots you are probably ready to put your finish on it. Sweep the floor and get up all dust.

Finishing the floor with Polyurethane

If you bought oil based stain then you are going to want oil based polyurethane. Apply it in much the same way you did the stain. I used a lamb wool applicator that connected to a broom stick. Make sure your rinse it out with mineral spirits beforehand or you will get a lot of lamb wool on the floor. Apply it in a light coating and make sure it covers all surfaces. I made two passes with the pad.

Once you get your first coat down the kind I used said you can apply another within 12 hours without sanding. I read nightmare stories about this online. So I would do it the normal way and wait 12-24 hours until it is dry and then sand it down. You can sand it by attaching a find (250-300 grit) piece of sandpaper to a foam mop head and go over the floor lightly. You are just trying to scuff it up so the next layer will bond to the previous layer.

Clean up the dust, I used a micro-fiber fabric and swept it up. Then use your mineral spirit tack cloth to get up fine dust.

Apply your next layer and wait!

Curing time

After your second coat you should be done, all you have to do is wait for the floor to cure. This time varies but the general rule of thumb is that after 2 days you can have light foot traffic on the floor and after 4 or 5 days you can put your furniture back on it. Do not put rugs on it until after a week or more.

Final Notes

After all of this your floor should be done. It doesn't cost all that much compared to a new floor. I spent about $300 in rental fees, stain and other things I needed to do a 400 square foot area.