There are many benefits to having hardwood floors installed in your home. It enhances your home, it’s low maintenance, strong and durable, long-lasting and cost-efficient. Most importantly, it goes with all decor-styled themes.
Unfortunately, it loses its shine, warmth, and sophistication after heavy foot traffic and lack of care. This would leave you wondering how you will be able to correct this issue, right?
This article is designed to help you learn how to maintain your hardwood floors and when to replace them. It will explain the process of hardwood floor restoration through refinishing.
Types of Hardwood Floor Restoration
Homes that were initially designed with hardwood floors eventually started to show their age. If you’re walking on the floorboards and they creak, shift out of place, and lose their colour. This is how you know it’s time to revive the floors and make them look brand new.
Refinishing and Resurfacing are two different methods used to restore hardwood floors, but only one is more cost-effective.
Is There a Difference?
● Refinishing involves sanding the surface of the wood and reapplying fresh colour with a protective coat over the wood.
● Resurfacing involves the damaged floorboards or planks being removed, grounding down the uneven boards, and new nails must be installed into the wood planks.
What Choice Is Best For You?
Refinishing is used to cure scrapes, scratches, scuff marks, and discolouration. It allows you to change the decor of your home you’ve always hated, without breaking the bank.
While resurfacing is for damages that surpass the surface layer of the floorboards. For instance, water damage, rot, missing pieces, cracks, holes, and uneven colours, just to name a few. Allow a flooring professional to assess which method is needed and right for you.
What Will It Cost You?
It is known that replacing your floors will cost more money than simply refinishing them. For instance, the price to install hardwood flooring might range from $2,200 to $8,500 depending on where you live.
Geographically, the most expensive hardwood floor refinishing is roughly $3,100 for mahogany flooring. The $3,100 covers colouring and an organic to finish the hardwood floor.
The cost of refinishing your floors varies depending on a few factors. Such as measurement per square, wood type, type of method used, and the type of floor finish. Contact a professional for an assessment.
What To Consider
If you plan to hire a professional or plan to refinish the floors yourself, there are a few things you must consider.
Colour
If you plan to reuse the old colour, then the process will be easy. Choosing a colour for your floor can be the most exciting or dreadful part of the process. If you plan to choose an entirely different colour, you have to consider if it will match your decor theme. Unless you are changing the decor theme to match the new colour.
Not to worry if you don’t have an idea for a new colour. Some flooring companies have software that allows you to see digital replications or will have samples you can use to compare and get a feel of how it will look.
Time
Replacing your hardwood floor is known to be more time-consuming than refinishing them. Think about it. Replacing them involves removing the damaged boards, cleaning the area before installing the new ones, and placing the colour with a protective coat.
However, if there are no damages below the surface, then refinishing will be significantly faster. Since it only involves sanding the surface and applying colour with the protective coat.
Choosing to install prefinished floorboards will cut your time in half, rather than unfinished floorboards because there is no repairing, sanding, or colouring needed after installation. Prefinished planks save time and you know exactly what they will look like before installation.
Are You Staying Put Through The Process?
If you are staying put through the process of refinishing your hardwood floors. You must consider what you will and will not have access to in your home. If you are refinishing the kitchen floors, plan how you will have access to food and water. You must know that staying put is not recommended due to the strong fumes circulating in the air.
The Last Step
Once the colouring process is completed, applying the protective coat is the last step to refinishing your floors. Waiting 24 hours is highly recommended before you walk on your fresh new floors. Then approximately 48 hours is needed before you place the furniture on again. Now the exciting part begins, you can redecorate your home to your liking.
Conclusion
Choosing what method of hardwood floor restoration to use depends on the condition of your hardwood floors. Surface levels of scrapes and scratches can be cured by refinishing. Damages below the surface such as water damage, and rot, will require resurfacing. Refinishing is one of the best and most cost-efficient solutions, rather than replacing them. It is the best way to give your home a fresh new look.
Thanks to 1dayrefinishing.com for consulting.
