Refinishing hardwood floorS?

[brimic]

Is this something worth doing myself or better to be contracted out to a pro?
Ripped up some nasty shag carpeting in new (old) house and found nice oak flooring underneath with some wear and tear along with paint splatters on it. Was thinking about throwing down an area rug temporarily just to make it a liveable room for the mean time, but now am thinking about refinishing..
Cost involved?
Time involved?

[wmenorr67]

You can do it yourself but do you want to?

I would have to assess the actual condition and would depend on how much sanding would be involved.

[Kingcreek]

I've done it with rented equipment. It turned out real nice but was a hell of a lot of work and time. I would hire the sanding and apply the finish myself, were I to ever do it again

[brimic]

There are a few shallow gouges, most scratched surface and finish worn through.
Lots of nail holes around the perimeter where the carpeting was nailed directly to the floor- but I think that would be covered up with a quarter round moulding.

[roo_ster]

Did the math on DIY and eventualy went with a local guy to refinish our 1000sqft of hardwoods.  Very glad we did so, as he also fixed some closets that had water damage to the point that I could not detect any previous damage. 

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

It's doable but a lot of work. I mean A LOT.
You will get good at it and it will get easier. Right about the time you are finished with the job


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[Ben]

I've done it with rented equipment. It turned out real nice but was a hell of a lot of work and time. I would hire the sanding and apply the finish myself, were I to ever do it again

This is a really good idea. I've started to do similar stuff with my rentals. I hire out the backbreaking work, and then leave the other stuff, like painting, for myself. Which works out well, especially with some of the quotes I've seen for painting recently.

[lupinus]

How much do you hate yourself?

That's an important question to answer before proceeding.

[vaskidmark]

How much do you hate yourself?

That's an important question to answer before proceeding.

Better yet - how much more do you want the adult person sharing the house with you to hate you?

This is not a 1-day or even 1-weekend project, although it can be broken down into stages that take only a day/weekend.  However, the room(s) will remain unusable in the intervening time.

At least with a hired contractor a lot of the displeasure can be directed in that direction.  But whatever you do, don't remind them "this was your idea" or "you agreed we should do it".

stay safe.

[roo_ster]

To be more specific, when I hired the job out, I took the kids with me on a vacation to Florida.  My wife stayed behind to work.  We put a bed in the kitchen (only room without hardwoods) and sealed it off from the rest of the house.  We left as the dudes started sanding the floor.  So.  Much.  Dust.

[K Frame]

It's certainly doable.

Some years ago Castle Key and I refinished the hardwoods in his house. I'd done hardwoods before that.

There are two types of sanders, and which one you use depends a lot on how badly damaged the floors are.

Drum sanders are fast, but are best used on floors that need a lot of TLC. They also have to be handled with EXTREME care, otherwise you can end up with a swale in your floor because you didn't control the sander.

Orbital sanders are a lot slower than drum sanders, and are best used on floors that only need the old finish removed and shallow blemishes blended in. For a total novice they are a lot easier to control. They are also the sander of choice if the floors have been sanded before.

As others have noted, properly sanding a floor and refnishing it is a multi-day project.

[MillCreek]

^^^A friend of mine tried to do it himself with a rented drum sander.  The thing took off on him and essentially sanded a couple of troughs in the floor.  He had the good sense to stop then and hire a professional, but the professional ended up having to replace the floorboards with the trough ground into them.

[brimic]

I was sort of/kind of leaning towards farming this one out, now thanks to you guys, I'm firmly in that camp.

[Hawkmoon]

I've done it with rented equipment. It turned out real nice but was a hell of a lot of work and time. I would hire the sanding and apply the finish myself, were I to ever do it again

When my mother died and I moved into the family house, I had all the wood floors refinished except the living room, which had been covered in wall-to-wall carpet. I was NOT happy with the result.

Before they started work, I carefully explained to the crew that I only wanted to smooth out the surface (which had already been sanded smooth when the flooring was installed, but had been walked on for 45 years). I should have saved my breath. They fired up the heavy-duty sanding machine and tore the crap out of the floor. In some of the tight corners and under radiators I can see just how much wood they removed, and it's a lot. They left very obvious ridges at the points they couldn't get the machine into.

Then they didn't use a sanding sealer before applying the polyurethane. (Oak is an open grain wood, so if the pores aren't sealed you get a very blotchey finish). I got used to after awhile -- until my wife decided the old carpeting in the living room was ugly and harbored critters, so she had me take ip up and toss it. The oak flooring in the living room is the exact same stuff that is in the rest of the house, but you'd never know it. The old living room finish (whatever they used) looks a thousand times better than the new finish that I paid so-called "professionals" to put down.

Rent the machine and do it yourself. It takes a bit of time, but you'll get a much better job.

If you really want to farm it out -- get prices from at least three companies. And then ask for a list of their recent jobs, with owners' names and phone numbers. Try to go look at two or three of each bidder's jobs to see first-hand what kind of work they do.

[AmbulanceDriver]

My wife and I did our floors throughout the house when we bought the place.   The three bedrooms actually had white oak (unfinished) under the wall to wall carpet.  The hall and dining room and living room, we laid some 90+ year old hemlock that my BIL got for free - that had never been laid down.  We rented a drum sander, as well as a couple of orbital sanders - one an edge sander, the other a finishing sander for in between coats of poly.  We stained the hemlock, and when we applied the sealer, we got a nearly exact match with the oak.  The secret to the drum sander is to be already moving when you lower the drum.  Otherwise you *will* put gouges in the floor.   That was over 5 years ago, and we're still really happy with how it turned out (except for a couple of spots that are blotchy because we trusted a so called "expert" that recommended a resin to mix with sawdust from the floor to "exactly" match the wood for a couple minor repairs we had to make - it didn't take up the stain the same way the wood did).  

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Bet reason to use a pro is the newer dustless systems. Take the family and pets on vacation for a week. You will get less dust in house and in new finish


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