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we put down a small piece of hardwood at their new house, about 10x10, but at our old house he had someone come and refinish all of the floors. dude’s turned bedrooms into master baths, and he paid someone to refinish hardwood floors. there is just some shit thats really not worth the hastle
I did it myself, and am surprised to hear so many people say they won’t touch it. I rented cheap shitty equipment and had never done it before and it still turned out pretty decent. Did the whole thing in one saturday and it really wasn’t that bad.
I used two pieces of equipment. One being that drum style sander, which worked well but would have taken a lot of skill to get the floor perfectly flat. Get something that has a flat surface contacting the floor and you’ll be ahead of the game.
That’s a big piece of equipment that you steer around the room lawnmower style if that makes any sense. Descriptive english is eluding me right now for some reason.
You’ll also need a power hand sander for doing the edges. The one that I had was heavy as shit. I’m not exactly a girly man but that thing was a bitch to control, so hopefully you’re bigger than me and/or get a better edger. It was a disc-type sander and the stain really brought out the swirl pattern at the edges. Actually if I had to do it again I’d probably use the beast with heavy grit to get down to bare wood then a smaller easier to use random orbital to smooth it out. :tdown:
Buy twice the amount of sandpaper you think you’ll need. Rough, medium, fine. My rental place let me return all the stuff I didn’t use. I used it all.
The first grit gets you down to bare wood. The second and third grits get you as smooth as possible.
Save some medium/fine stuff for scuffing/smoothing the polyurethane between coats.
Apply the poly with a garden sprinkler can, then spread it out with the appropriate brush thing (they sell em next to the polyurethane at the hardware store.)
It’s really not that bad of a job. I’ll post pics later.
I was going to refinish mine… isn’t worth it because mine are in such bad shape.
It’s not too bad, I’ve done them before. Pull all the 1/4 round molding off carefully; then go to town with the sander(s).
I’ve gotta remove and replace mine… I’m living on them now, but they’re beyond repair; or at least not worth the $$ to repair I should say.
Looks like my memory’s failing. We stained it, then poly’d the shit out of it.
LOL @ all the dust on the camera lens. That really was a dusty job. Not a professional quality job, but shit for $100 total vs $4/sq ft I’m satisfied. Looks good for the “level” of house that this one is. I wouldn’t DIY it in a $200k+ house, but huge improvement for this one.
I would do this for tile floors (strip and wax) I dunno If I’d have the balls to do my hardwood floors. Turbociv is that a natural finish or a dark stain? Looks good. Not bad for a DIYer fry.
its the minwax cherry 2in1. They say to apply as many coats as necessary to get the desired darkness but after 2 coats it was more then dark enough.
To be completely honest, ill probably never completely sand down a floor unless absolutely necessary. This product rocks. I skate across the floor on my computer chair almost every day and wrestle my pitbull on it dragging his feet and there is not a single scratch to be found. Its been over a year and it still looks like its wet. I wish i could say the same about the hardwood floors i installed downstairs that cost me over 2g’s.
We did like 20X30 at my parents house. All new wood.
If you put down new wood the machine Fry is using is pretty much required. It levels all the planks… not just resurfaces.
The drum sander above is DIFFICULT to use because it requires gentle finesse and you need to have a feel for it. If you angle it or do not balance it properly it will gouge the floor. It cuts hard and fast. You usually make one pass and do not go over the same spot again. (unless its the whole room)
After the drum sander we ran a floor buffer with a huge 1" thick Scotch-Brite like disk:
The finishing was done with this. The floor doesnt have to be smooth as a baby’s ass, just very level. The Polyurethane will flow and give you the glass look.
I used a cheap shitty drum sander for my porch and it turned out like shit (probably why). It needs to be redone and next time I’m definitely going to spend the money for a decent flat surface sander.
… stupidity.
IMPORTANT INFO IN THIS VIDEO!!!
these guys put the hardwood in are upstairs… they do refinishing too.
Thanks for the local buffalo suggestions, but I don’t live there.
any other tips… i think I’m going to start tomorrow :eek:
ARE they there now? or OUR they there now? 
X…
our floors were from 1890 and we resanded them, stained them and used a poly clear on them, they look brand fucking new.
i would show u pics but theres about 1/4 inch of soot on them from our house burning 
we did maybe… 30x100ft in our bedroom and it took like a weekend
how long did the poly take to dry?
I think I put a coat down every, maybe, 2 hours, then let it harden overnight before I put furniture on it. I don’t remember if I had quick curing stuff or not. I just followed the directions on the can.
ouch… that sucks
my mom did her house like Fry, drum sander, then hand sander for the corners. then stain, then poly. she wanted a super light oak color, but I think in my house im going to do like turbociv i like that color alot better
Ha! Chances are that i installed your floor if it was in the last 3 years.
My house was built in 1912 has small plank pine downstairs and slightly wider planks upstairs, all pine. The living room and the front room which function as a carpet is covered by carpet. The dining room is laminate which we put in when we moved dumb move wish I would have just refinished it all along. my wife and I have this debate a lot about refinishing versus carpeting she likes to think that carpet is better for kids I tend to disagree. I would like to set aside a weekend to do all of downstairs then another to do upstairs.
Fry is referring to a random orbital sander.
http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/flooring/hardwood/refinish_1/overview.htm