If you think you might need to refinish your hardwood floors, arm yourself with information ahead of time. Find out how to accurately diagnose the state of your floors and when a hardwood floor refinish process is right for you.
Hardwood floors are a beautiful and durable addition to any home. Even though they last an incredibly long time, they do need some TLC every now and then. Find out how to assess the state of your hardwood floors and how to know when it’s time to refinish hardwood floor surfaces. Timely refinishing will help protect your floors for you and your family to enjoy for years to come.
Unless you’re a hardwood floor professional, you may not even know what to look for when it comes to keeping an eye on the health of your hardwood floors. As surfaces that get used on a regular basis and are exposed to elements such as moisture and heat, your floors will deteriorate over time. Moisture or water damage can cause specific areas to develop ridges that detract from the look and health of the floor surface. Furniture can cause scratches, scuffs, and even indentations. Regular foot traffic can wear down shine and surface protection in high-use areas.
If you notice any of these signs of deterioration, it may be time to refinish your floors. However, it’s best to get a professional opinion on the health of your floors before you go in for refinishing. A pro will be able to point out spots of damage that actually need to be repaired before you refinish. If sections of your floors are deeply stained, warped, squeaky, or damaged in some other way, you need to make sure that those issues are fixed before any refinishing starts. Otherwise, you’ll just refinish and seal in the damage, which will make it more difficult to deal with in the long run.
If there’s no major damage apparent, the next thing to do is to make sure that your floors are thick enough to be refinished. As a general guideline, a wood floor needs to be at least 1/8 of an inch thick to be refinished. This is because the sanding part of the refinishing process will actually remove part of the floor. There needs to be enough wood present so that there’s something left to refinish in the end. Some newer engineered wood floors have wear layers as thin as 0.6 mm and so cannot be refinished. Some older floors that have been refinished before may be too thin to go through another hardwood floor refinishing process. Your hardwood flooring pro will be able to determine the viability of refinishing your particular floor, so you should consult them before taking any action.
If you see that your hardwood flooring could use a little pick-me-up, consult with a hardwood refinishing pro to make sure that there’s no damage that needs to be addressed prior to refinishing, and that the floors are thick enough to go through a refinishing process. If everything’s good to go, then you can contract your flooring pro to bring your floors back to their original shine, glow, and warmth.
Aglaia Rara is a home repairs enthusiast and an Internet marketer for Prospect Genius, a leader in local online marketing.
