I often get asked the same few questions over and over again regarding refinishing hardwood floors. I thought it may be beneficial to share the questions and offer a brief answer to each.
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Q. How long does the process take from start to finish?
A. The short answer is, it depends. An average size project for me is around 800-1000 square feet. A simple refinishing with my normal process and finishes is typically 6 to 7 days.
Q. When can I walk on the floor?
A. Although I will be in your home for a week on average, that doesn't mean that you must be out of your home for that entire time. Most of my clients stay at home for the bulk of the project. There will be certain time windows during the day at the end of the project where you will not be able to walk on the floor. With careful planning, many of my clients are actually able to stay home every night. Of course, this is assuming that you have an area to sleep that is not in a room being serviced.
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Q. How much dust will be created?
A. Sanding wood makes dust. There is no question about that. How the dust is contained is the question. My floor sanding process utilizes a combination of efficient equipment, HEPA vacuums, and overall best practices to achieve a virtually dust free environment. As a matter of fact, most of my clients seem to comment about how there was little to no dust the entire time!
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Q. Are you able to change the color of my hardwood floors?
A. Yes! As long as your hardwood floors are either solid or engineered with at least a 3mm wear layer. On exotic species, there may be more difficulty achieving some colors, but on more neutral wood toned species such as oak, there is an endless array of colors to chose from.
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Q. Will I be able to make my floors less shiny?
A. During the refinishing process, your floors will receive either a film-forming-finish, or a natural oil finish. The film-forming waterborne coatings that we use come in several sheen options. They can range from ultra matte all the way up to semi-gloss. If you decide on a natural oil finish, the finish itself penetrates into the pores of the wood, creating a velvety matte sheen. This usually cannot be altered.
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Q. How many times can my floors be refinished?
A. It all depends on what the make up of your floors are. Solid hardwood floors can be refinished multiple times. It really depends on how aggressive it has been sanded previously. My sanding process removes minimal material, while creating a flat floor. This prolongs the life of the floor, and makes it much easier to be refinished minimally next time, if needed.
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Q. Can you refinish my floors in sections, so I do not have to move all of my furniture?
A. The short answer is no. While it is possible in some cases to do a few rooms at a time, it is more cost effective, a better quality, and less stressful to do all areas at once.
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Q. What do I do with all of my furniture?
A. Most of my clients get pretty creative when it comes to storing their furniture during the restoration. What I see most often is storing the furniture in carpeted/tiled rooms, storing the furniture in the garage, or renting a POD type storage unit. Many clients opt to hire a local moving company to either move their furniture to another area of their home, or store it off-site.
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Q. What appliances must be moved off the floor?
A. Technically, none have to be moved. While this sounds tempting, you need to understand that I do not touch any appliances. This means that any appliance, such as a fridge, will be sanded around, if left in place. In many circumstances, it will look fine, as I can sand up to the end of the appliance. Keep in mind though, if you ever have to replace that appliance, and the footprint is smaller, there may be some exposed areas that will need to be repaired.
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Q. How long will my floors last, once you refinish them?
A. Let's be honest, this is a loaded question. So many variable go into this kind of thing. It really all depends on how well you take care of your floors. Remember, no coating is scratch proof, and some degree of care and maintenance will be required if you want the coating to last as long as possible. An average span of time before your floors need to be refinished is anywhere from 10-25 years. The earlier time would be if you fail to do any maintenance, and the latter would be if you have the floors professionally cleaned at regular intervals and get the finish replenished as needed. We will also provide you with a cleaning kit to help maintain your floors which will help the durability of your wood floors