Steps to Finishing Hardwood Floors

Finishing hardwood floors is not a task for the weak-hearted, but if you are up to it, can make an incredible difference in any room. Whether you have an existing hardwood floor that needs to be refinished, or want to install one, the steps are the same once it's put in place. After you have decided the color and shine that you want, it's time to begin.

You will quickly find that finishing hardwood floors is a very dusty process. Without the right safeguards, you will find dust absolutely everywhere. Some people put fans up in windows, blowing outside, and say that it does wonders with the dust. Whatever you do, just make sure that you cover everything that you don't want to end up caked in layers of dust. If you are doing this in a house that you are currently living in, take care to block off the area that is still inhabited, or else you're going to spend days cleaning up.

Before sanding, it is important to make sure that the floor is fairly clean. If there is anything on the floor, then it could likely get caught in the sandpaper and end up scratching the surface of the floor. If this happens, then you will end up spending more time repairing the issue, than if you had done it right the first time.

To sand the floor, you will probably want to rent a drum sander from your local tool shop. Drum sanders are very awkward and difficult to handle, so be careful when you're just starting out. When sanding, you will want to start at the right side of the room and work your way to the left side, sanding diagonally at a 45 degree angle to the grain. The drum sander is slightly tapered, and cuts deeper on the left than on the right. The right side is designed to feather out the scratches and smooth the wood better. After a few passes with the drum sander, you can use an orbital sander to smooth out any imperfections that may still exist. Start with a medium grit sandpaper and work your way up to the finer grit. The higher the number, the finer the grit of the sandpaper. By now, you'll realize that finishing hardwood floors isn't quite as easy as you thought, but the rest of it is easy, compared to this.

Make sure that all of the dust is removed from the room before going further. You can even wipe down the floor with a damp rag, or even a tack rag to pick up any remaining dust.

Now is the time to really check the surface, and apply wood filler to any cracks, dents, or other imperfections. You can also take care of any repairs that need to be made before continuing to the next step. After placing wood filler, make sure to sand the area back down and clean it completely of dust.

It is now the right moment to apply any stain that you bought. Make sure that you read the instructions about the proper way to apply it, and that it is evenly applied. You don't want to have parts of the floor darker than others.

The final part of finishing hardwood floors is applying the urethane finish. As with the stain, make sure that you are evenly applying it throughout the whole process. When finished with the first coat, let it dry for up to 12 hours. It is usually a good idea to sand the floor again with an orbital sander, or something that is easily maneuverable and a very high grit sandpaper. A sandpaper of about 150 grit will do nicely for this. Clean up the dust, let make sure that the floor is dry again and apply another coat of finish. Let this one dry for about 12 hours again, sand the floor one more time, and apply one last coat. You might be able to get by with just two coats of finish, but three is recommended by many people. The finish is also a protection for the floor, so it's always better to have that third coat anyway.

Now it's time to take a breather, because you are done. As you can see, finishing hardwood floors is a major undertaking, but completely worth it in the end. The shine of a beautiful hardwood floor is unbeatable, and the pride of knowing that you're the one who did it is just icing on the cake.