![]() Newly fashionable dark stains are especially effective at concealing changes of color caused by old pet urine and other damage, too. Staining can lend new life to a floor that’s seen better days. ![]() That said, some woods do look better with a water-based finish, particularly maple, a light wood that tends to yellow under oil-based polyurethanes.īefore committing to a stain color, apply samples to boards of the same wood species and cut as the floor.Ĭourtesy Staining a Wood Floor In as little as five years, water-based finishes may begin to pop and peel, and the exposed wood starts to look grey. While it’s true that water-based finishes are lower in VOCs (volatile organic compounds) than oil-based ones, that advantage is halved when you consider that oil finishes typically last up to 10 years or more. Screening won’t address UV discoloration caused by area rugs. Even floors with a slight buildup from common cleansers and polishes that contain wax will resist screening. Screening will not work on floors that have been waxed-unless the wax has been completely removed. You’ll still need to move furniture out of the room, and let the finish cure for a few days before it goes back. In essence, screening and recoating is comparable to the final steps in the sanding process. Then a single coat of oil- or water-based polyurethane or another finish is applied. Screening multiple rooms can take an hour or two and up to a full day. Screening, a technique that removes some but not all of the floor finish, can lengthen the amount of time between full sandings. If too much of the finish has worn away, revealing wood that is grey from oxidation, the floor is too far gone to screen. “As a general rule of thumb,” advises Gartner, “if you screen a wood floor every three years or so, you can avoid a full sanding for a very long time.” As a preventative step, it’s essential to screen and recoat the floor before too much damage has been done. To accomplish that, the finish must be completely stripped down to bare wood before a stain is applied.īecause screening can prolong the length of time between full sandings, it’s a shame that it isn’t used more frequently. Screening allows for a change in gloss level-from high gloss to matte, for example-but not an actual color change. While the scouring action of the pad takes off some of the old finish, it will not address deep scratches or stains that have caused changes in color (urine stains from pets, for example). Instead of sanding a floor with a belt sander, screening is done with an orbital buffing machine fitted with mesh pads that have been embedded with abrasive particles. Consider a less aggressive and faster method of refreshment called screening.Īlso called buffing, screening means scuffing up or abrading the surface of a floor prior to applying a fresh coat of finish to restore its shine, explains Debbie Gartner, a former flooring professional who blogs about floor finishing at The. If there’s evidence that this is happening to a floor you’ve inherited (signs include damage or patching with wood putty along joints), it could be a mistake to sand it. Over time, removing even minimal amounts of material can ultimately cause the upper edge of the groove to collapse, creating voids between boards. ![]() The old yardstick-that a wood floor could only be sanded three times before it needed to be replaced-is still valid today, especially since many 20th-century tongue-and-groove floors are only 3/8″ to 5/8″ thick. While this can certainly produce good results in relatively short order, consider that every time a floor is sanded up to 1/16″ of the wood is removed. Many homeowners believe the best way to refresh a wood floor that looks dirty or worn is to sand and refinish it. As a surface, a wood floor can last hundreds of years, or be played out in a matter of decades, depending on its durability and whether it’s been cared for properly or indifferently. Wood flooring covers a vast range of cuts, species, installation methods, and patterns. For wood, that doesn’t always mean sanding and three coats of polyurethane and stone, tile, and resilient floors all need special care to keep them beautiful. ![]() Keeping a floor in good repair goes beyond infrequent cleanings and the occasional spit and polish. Rough stone floors can be beautiful, but deep-cleaning them requires lots of elbow grease and multiple passes with an orbital floor polisher.
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