I live in a home that has beautiful hard wood floors but over the
years there are some spots in heavy traffic areas that need to be
refinished.
Is it possible to do one area at a time or should we have the entire
level done at once.
The home is fully furnished and I can't imagine how we would move
everything out of the house while the floors were being refinished.

Lastly, what is the best (longest lasting) finish that can be applied.

Thanks

I would say do it all at once. HD rents a four pad, disc type sander
that will not gouge the floor, even a novice could get good results from
it---I did. And it will sand right up the edge of the room so a second
sander won't be needed. Buy extra sanding discs as they will take back
what you don't use. I only used the regular grit and the fine for the
finish sanding. Make sure you zip up the dust bag, I didn't realize
that for some time and ended up with a lot of extra dust.

HD sells the stain and Poly for the floor. You'll have to choose the
stain you like best. Here is a big time saver. Buy the lambs wool
floor applicator at a specialty paint store. Buy two heads and use one
to put down the stain and save one for the Poly. It goes down quick
this way and no streaks or smears. You could get by using a rag for the
stain but don't skimp on the Poly--use the lambs wool applicator. For
drying time use the directions on the can. My job consisted of two
coats of stain and three coats of Poly. It turned out great and I'd do
it again in a second the same way.

J



Dr. Edmund M. Hayes wrote:

I live in a home that has beautiful hard wood floors but over the
years there are some spots in heavy traffic areas that need to be
refinished.
Is it possible to do one area at a time or should we have the entire
level done at once.
The home is fully furnished and I can't imagine how we would move
everything out of the house while the floors were being refinished.

Lastly, what is the best (longest lasting) finish that can be applied.

Thanks

Dr. Edmund M. Hayes wrote:

snip
..
Is it possible to do one area at a time or should we have the entire
level done at once.
The home is fully furnished and I can't imagine how we would move
everything out of the house while the floors were being refinished.

snip

You can do one room at a time. Rent a storage pod and put the room
contents in that. Then seal off the other rooms with tape and polyfilm
and go to work or hire the pros. The latter often have some neat setups
for sealing off areas they work in from the rest of the house. It may
be a bit pricey, but the convenience and time saving is worth it. HTH

Joe

"Dr. Edmund M. Hayes" wrote in message
...
I live in a home that has beautiful hard wood floors but over the
years there are some spots in heavy traffic areas that need to be
refinished.
Is it possible to do one area at a time or should we have the entire
level done at once.
The home is fully furnished and I can't imagine how we would move
everything out of the house while the floors were being refinished.

Lastly, what is the best (longest lasting) finish that can be applied.

Thanks

When you say "entire level", do you mean there's just one continuous floor?

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...
"Dr. Edmund M. Hayes" wrote in message
...
I live in a home that has beautiful hard wood floors but over the
years there are some spots in heavy traffic areas that need to be
refinished.
Is it possible to do one area at a time or should we have the entire
level done at once.
The home is fully furnished and I can't imagine how we would move
everything out of the house while the floors were being refinished.

Lastly, what is the best (longest lasting) finish that can be applied.

Thanks

When you say "entire level", do you mean there's just one continuous
floor?
Probably. That used to be dirt-common. Hardwood in living room, hall,
bedrooms, dining room. Entry/Kitchen/baths were slate/vinyl/whatever. When I
was a kid, we put in acres of Bruce prefinished- it was cheaper than quality
carpet back then.

As to OP's question- get a pro refinisher in to look at it. As long as the
bare spots aren't too bad, they can sometimes do a spot refinish, and fade
it into the rest of the floors using a cleaning/buffing. Yeah, you still
need to move furniture around, but you can usually do the cleaning/buffing
half a room at a time. If the floor was factory finish, salvage that if
possible- it's harder than anything you can field-apply.

aem sends...

An oil based finish will impart a pretty heavy yellow orange hue to the
floor which can look nice on a darker wood and an oil finish will
generally make the grain in the wood more pronounced.

A water based poly finish will dry many times faster and usually
provide a harder finish. It won't impart the yellowish orange hue of
an oil based finish but it won't highlight the grain of the wood as
well as the oil finish.

I would recommend a good water based poly urethane finish but it
depends on your priorities.

the whole messy thing at once. 4 coats of polyurethane applied per
manufacturer's specifications. you will be leaving home for a vacation
this whole week to allow drying time between coats.

Dr. Edmund M. Hayes wrote:
I live in a home that has beautiful hard wood floors but over the
years there are some spots in heavy traffic areas that need to be
refinished.
Is it possible to do one area at a time or should we have the entire
level done at once.
The home is fully furnished and I can't imagine how we would move
everything out of the house while the floors were being refinished.

Lastly, what is the best (longest lasting) finish that can be applied.

Thanks

"Dr. Edmund M. Hayes" wrote in message
...
I live in a home that has beautiful hard wood floors but over the
years there are some spots in heavy traffic areas that need to be
refinished.
Is it possible to do one area at a time or should we have the entire
level done at once.
The home is fully furnished and I can't imagine how we would move
everything out of the house while the floors were being refinished.

Lastly, what is the best (longest lasting) finish that can be applied.

Thanks

In my previous home, the contractor used a water-based polyurethane. Cuts
down the stink quite a bit. As buffalobill mentioned, though, you'll still
be taking a 4-day vacation from your house, unless you have ways of avoiding
the room completely. I had to stay with my mother-in-law. I almost died.

I just refinished oak floors in my new condo -- I did it before we
moved in. After the sanding, there was dust -- a thin thin layer -- on
every wall and surface up to about waist height.

So follow carefully the advice about either moving out during the
project or really solidly taping up rooms to keep the dust from
migrating from one place to the next.

Whether you can do spots or not depends on the current finish. What
I've heard (and I did a moderate amount of research on this) is that it
is very tricky if not impossible to "spot-fix" polyurethane -- it
doesn't lap into itself. Meaning for a really seamless finish, you have
to do the whole floor (perhaps stopping at a doorway or other natural
border). Perhaps an expert refinisher would be able to minimize the
visibility of a repair. Or a rug probably does a decent job :-)

I ended up using a product called Polyx-oil, made by a German company
called Osmo. It's a finish that was relatively easy to apply myself and
is very low toxicity. While there was an odor, it was really not very
strong. There's a thread on uk.d-i-y called "Polyx oil - any experience
of this?" with some advice, and I noted my experience. It is claimed,
and having applied the stuff on my own floors, I believe it, that you
can spot-re-finish this product. So if that's a consideration going
forward...

I'll say one more thing before I finish: I don't recommend doing the
sanding yourself. I did it once when I was much younger--and more
foolish. It's a noisy, hard and dirty job. I am sure that there are
improvements in the technology (this 4-disc sander mentioned by another
poster sounds interesting), but . . . . Shop around, check Angie's List
if it's available to you, get some quotes from pros, and think about
what your time is worth to you. Especially if you are going to have to
move furniture and do all this in time to save another day's rental of
the machine...

Good luck!
Jacque