Sanding hardwood floors is a great step in the longevity and maintenance of your home’s flooring for many reasons. But before you begin, you must follow a series of steps to ensure the best results.
Here is how to prep for and sand your residential hardwood flooring.
How to Prep for and Sand Your Residential Hardwood Flooring
How to Prep for Sanding Wood Floors
You’ll first want to understand whether your floors are solid hardwood or manufactured planks so you know how abrasive and how often they can handle sanding.
If they’re manufactured, you’ll only want to sand them once before moving on. But solid hardwood floors are stronger and can handle a more aggressive sanding. This means you have an opportunity to buff out more issues.
Then find the right drum sander for you to operate or hire a floor sanding company. Then you’ll want to remove furniture and anything valuable. Since sanding creates a great deal of dust, you’ll want to protect everything in that area of that home.
Here are some of the things you’ll need to prepare for floor sanding:
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Plastic sheeting to protect your belongings.
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Wear eye, ear, and nose protection.
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Get an upright drum sander, paint scraper, broom, and shop vac.
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Remove floorboards.
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Cover ducts, doorways, and windowsills.
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Make necessary floor repairs and clean the floors.
How to Sand Wood Floors
As with all flooring repairs and upgrades, we always recommend working with a professional flooring company. However, if you’d like to do it yourself, or start sanding for ease of total refurbishment, follow these steps:
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Lift the drum of the sander off of the floor before starting.
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Run the sander along the hardwood floors up to the baseboards.
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Clean the flooring and make sure all scuffs and problem areas are fixed.
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Stain the newly sanded and cleaned hardwood floors.
What’s Next when Sanding Wood Floors
Hardwood floor refinishing is essential to the beauty and integrity of your hardwood floors. After sanding and staining, it’s recommended you add a top coat and seal the floors, especially in high-traffic homes. Not only does this protect your hardwood flooring from foot traffic, but moisture issues and the weight of heavy furniture, as well.
This buys you more time before refinishing projects, saving you time and money in the long run, too.
Work with Ozburn-Hessey!
If you live in the Nashville, TN, area and hope to restore your beautiful hardwood flooring, contact the experts at Ozburn-Hessey Company today! We understand the local climate and the specific needs for hardwood flooring, especially in Nashville. If you have questions or would like to get started, we look forward to hearing from you.
