We officially completed our first big home project: refinishing the hardwood floors! This was no small project, and we had a few extra bumps in the road that most people refinishing their floors won’t experience (I’ll get more into that later). Overall, I am so so happy with how the floors turned out and I think it adds so much charm to our home to have real hardwood floors throughout the majority of the main floor. In this post I’ll break down the full process and what tools and products we used to refinish our red oak hardwood floors. Enjoy!
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Refinishing Hardwood Floors Step 1: Tearing out Old Flooring
Because our hardwood floors were hidden under carpet and vinyl flooring, we first had to tear that out. However, that was just the beginning of the demo. There were staples and carpet tack strips holding down the carpet everywhere, and let me tell you, these were a NIGHTMARE to remove from the floor. I think ripping up the tack strips and pulling up all the nails and staples took five years off my life (kidding, of course), but you get the picture.
After we tore up the old flooring, we still had a pretty rough slate. There were stains in several areas and part of the floor had been painted at one time. In order to remove the black stains that were likely from pets, I sprayed the stained areas with hydrogen peroxide several times over a couple of days. Hydrogen peroxide, similar to bleach, has a lightening effect on wood, and worked well! To address the paint, we decided to get most of the paint up with sanding, but we ended up having to use paint stripper and a scraper along the edges where the paint was extra thick and stubborn. Most people refinishing wood floors won’t have floors in as rough shape as ours, but despite everything, we were able to get an end result we are very happy with!
Refinishing Hardwood Floors Step 2: Sanding
Now that the floors were clear of any material and we pre-treated the stains, it was time for sanding. We ended up using four different types of sanders, three of which we rented from Home Depot. The first sander was a drum sander. We found it fairly easy to operate, you just have to go slow and very evenly so you don’t create any divets in the floor. We went over the entire floor three times with three different sand paper grits (60, 80, 120) in order to get a smooth floor.
The drum sander cannot get all the way to the wall though, so we also rented an edge sander and also went along each edge with the different grits to ensure that the edges were just as smooth as the main areas. Again, this is where the paint came in and made our lives super hard. After one sanding session we realized that in some areas the paint was SO THICK, the sander wasn’t going to work. We paused sanding, and used paint stripper. Then we resumed sanding.
We also used a small square sander for the corners and tough to reach areas!
Finally, we used a square buff sander with 120 grit to go over the entire floor and do one final pass to make sure the floor was super smooth and would feel soft on bare feet.
But to no surprise, there were still tiny flecks of paint in the grain of the wood. We ended up doing a pass over the entire floor with paint remover and a wire brush to get out very last speck of paint. It was incredibly time-consuming but 1000% worth it.
Refinishing Hardwood Floors Step 3: Staining
Phew! We made it this far! Now it was time to stain the floor. Originally, i wanted a light oak, but because of some of the stains on the floor, we ended up going with a classic mid-tone stain. It’s not too red and not too green, and hides 90% of the stains perfectly! The exact shade is Early American by Minwax. This is an oil based stain so it is pretty stinky and needs plenty of drying time before applying a finish coat. We ended up staining the house in three different sections because of time, so in all it took about a week to stain the entire floor and let it dry, but if we had larger chunks of free time, we would have done it all at once.
We got into a system where I applied the stain with a lambswool applicator and my husband came in after me and wiped the floor with a stain cloth to pick up any extra stain. Wiping after staining is super important so you don’t get bubbles and sticky areas where the stain can’t dry fully.
(my inspiration photo)
Refinishing Hardwood Floors Step 4: Finish Coat
Applying the finish coat was probably the easiest part of the refinishing process! We chose to use Minwax water based polyurethane in a satin finish, and I love how it turned out! It’s not matte and it’s not glossy, but it gives the perfect sheen to the floor and really made everything come together!
To apply the finish coat we used a high quality paintbrush for the edges and a 3/8 nap microfiber roller for the main areas. My husband went in front of my with the brush for the corners and edges and I went after him with the roller. Even though the finish is dries clear, it is super important to roll evenly and let the roller float on the floor, I was never applying any pressure. Because we used a water based finish, we had to work quickly. So we actually poured the finish on the floor in small strips and the spread the finish out. We did the entire floor like this section by section. We did two coats of the finish on the floor in one night, avoided walking on the floor for 24 hours, and will wait a full week until we put furniture or rugs down.
Three Things I Wish We Did Differently:
- Sanded more with the drum sander. When using the drum sander, we were hesitant to take too much off. I think if we did another pass with the drum sander we could have avoided so much paint cleanup.
- Stained the entire floor in one session. Because we broke the floor into sections, we did have stain overlaps where we stopped and started. We were able to use fine grit sandpaper and diluted stain to blend the floors, but it was an unnecessary step that could have been avoided.
- Applied the finish coat during the day. This is a small one, but because we applied the finish coat at night, it was actually super hard to see where we had applied it because there was no sunlight to reflect off the sheen.
AND now we are on to the next projects: painting and baseboards!
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