What to Expect--Sand and Finishing

Having your hardwood floors refinished is a major purchase and task.  Chances are this could be the first time you have experienced this process in your home.  Let me explain some of this process to help put your mind at ease.

Prior to our arrival there is a few things that you can do to prepare for us.  The areas we are to be working in needs to be cleared and ready for our machines to sand the floor.  Make sure to have everything you may need with you while you are away.  During the finishing process you will not be able to walk on the floor.  This typically requires at least two to four nights away from your home.

Do not have any open food out or fruits or vegetables as these can absorb some of the chemicals from the finish while it is drying.  You may leave open any windows for ventilation, as long as they won’t affect the drying of the finish.  Make sure to take any pets with you as well.

Before we start any sanding, we seal off all areas not part of the “sanding zone” with high quality plastic and non-marking paint grade tape.  We then hook up our vacuum system to our machines giving you a dust contained area.

We need access to a 220-volt power supply, this is generally used for dryers or ovens.  We have adapters to plug into either receptacle.  If your house is gas without any 220-volt power supplied then we have to tie into the breaker panel.  Which we need cleared access to in case we trip a breaker.

How are we different from other businesses when it comes to sanding?

There is actually a science behind the art of sanding that few businesses are aware of.  The time you spend sanding as well as what grits of sand paper is used have an effect on the longevity of your floor and the finish. 

Sandpaper has different grits which tell you how rough or smooth it is.  A 16-grit is very rough and is used for taking off wax or grinding down high spots in sub floors.  A 120-grit is smooth and is used for final sanding.  And there are grits in-between.

Sanding a floor should always start with the least aggressive sand paper grit that will best sand the floor. Sanding a floor is accomplished using a sequence of grits. Each step reduces the size of the scratch from the previous larger grit paper. No more than one grit size should be skipped per sequence step or it will be difficult to remove the scratch left by the previous step.

If too aggressive of paper is used, more wood than necessary will be removed thus shorten the life of the floor for future refinishing.  If too many grits of paper is skipped then your finish won’t last as long as it could.

For example, we typically like to start the floor with a 50-grit paper.  The rule is not to skip more than one grit at a time.  We can then skip a 60-grit and use a 80-grit.  We skip 100-grit and finish sanding with 120-grit.  Giving you a nice smooth surface that will allow the finish to last longer.

Some companies will typically start with a 50-grit and jump and finish with 100-grit.  This is an improper way to sand a floor.  The 100-grit is not sufficient to sand out the 50-grit sander marks.  Thus giving you a floor that is not as smooth nor will last as long.

How much wood do you sand off?

We want your hardwood floor to last a lifetime.  We take off no more than 1/16 of an inch during a sand process.  A floor can generally withstand 4 refinishing sand jobs but, if properly maintained a floor will never have to be resanded.

This is achieved by simply applying a maintenance coat of finish every 5-10 years depending on how you use your floor.  This keeps you from walking through your finish and into the wood.

REFINISHING EXPECTATIONS

The following is to help you be made fully aware of what we can and can’t do with your floors. Like all things in life – wood has certain limitations that we have to work with.

Please take the time to educate yourself on these important points. The information that follows details clearly what you need to know to be pleased with the outcome of your floors. Finding this out after the fact always leads to frustration. We firmly believe that you are entitled to know all of this below before hiring any hardwood floor professional.

Your Floors Finished Appearance:

Please have reasonable expectations regarding your hardwood floors' final appearance. Years of living and normal (or maybe even some not so normal) day-to-day activity have made your floors unique.

A wise and experienced floor refinisher will treat your floor like an antique piece of furniture. We can grind the floor surface down enough to chase away all deep character marks and scratches. This will make us look like we did an excellent job of cleaning the floor up and many other companies will be happy to do this for you… BUT this is a deceptive look. In doing so we would reduce the remaining life of the floor to almost nothing and no matter what quality of finish we applied, it will never be as strong again.

We don’t want to compromise the quality or the strength of your floors

Because of this we take extreme care in how much wood we take from the surface of a floor. You have little to sand and we will have to be careful. If there are damaged and unsightly areas that you’re concerned about, then we will be more than happy to replace them prior to refinishing. This is a decision to be made before the refinishing begins though.

We can give you a very good idea of what will show up and what will be muted once the new finish is applied as we have done this for a good number of years. If then you feel additional work is deemed necessary we will proceed with your direction. This method we have found to be practical and to the advantage of the homeowner as it give you more control over the final finished product without compromising the strength of your floors.
This means that deep bruises, burns, character scratches, water damage, chipped and splintered pieces and slight water damage may have to remain if you choose not to do the needed repairs.

There may be, as is the case of most floors, some tonal variation due to rugs being on floor for a number of years.
Sunlight too, coming in through the windows will affect some areas of your floor lightening them up. Unfortunately not all of this goes away with the sanding process. Because of the depth of the marks caused by years of solar UV rays hitting the floor in some areas, you may still continue to see slight demarcations.

The floor surface once finished will show signs of handcrafted work

There may be some extremely minor near invisible contaminants in the finish (these can be removed and touched up later if need be). We vacuum our work area a minimum of 4 times during the refinishing process and before any coating. We try our absolute best to minimize contaminants in the finish.

Industry standards though do allow for a very small measure of sanding marks, buffer swirl marks between coats and applicator marks. The finish too flows out beautifully but has its limitations as well. A perfectly flat floor surface as you well understand is not attainable because the sub-floor is very rarely flat to begin with. Nevertheless we take great pains to smooth out and level to the extent possible any imperfections in the floor during the sanding process without compromising the structural integrity of the floor.

Allowances are made not only by the NWFA (National Wood Flooring Association) but the manufacturers of the chosen finishes as well. Reasonable expectations for your floor and the finish system you choose are in order. If you wish further information on this subject please ask.

This being said, handcrafted work of virtually any nature naturally reflects this. Still, unquestionably we easily surpass industry standards and then some in all work we do taking pride in our finished product. This we can guarantee.

Properties of Floor Finish – (How will my floor perform once finished?):

Many people have unrealistic expectations of what a floor finish can do. Floor finish is ‘wear resistant’ and not impact resistant. The density of the wood floor itself is what resists impact. A high quality finish will not prevent impact but will flex somewhat and not break the seal of the impacted area. This is how you want the finish to perform in these situations. There is no floor finish on the market that will be able to stop wood from dinting if a heavy object is dropped on it.

You will also find that with any given finish applied to a floor surface that in direct sunlight one may see what we call ‘micro abrasion’. This would primarily be seen in the high traffic areas. This is normal as even lowly dust is considered an abrasive and we both know how easy it is to get our floors dusty. Surface abrasion can be seen from a specific angle and under precise lighting conditions. But it’s not a sign that the finish has worn through, simply that you are now living and walking on it. This is to be expected and normal.