Treatments for maintaining your wood hardwood floors vary in cost, time, and effort, but one of the most common treatments is recoating. Less expensive than refinishing, recoating provides excellent protection for your floor and brings out hardwood's natural beauty.
Before you embark on recoating your wood floor, check out these 5 things you should know.
1. You don't need to recoat every year.
Time and wear are the enemies of your floor's finish and as you use your floor, surface scratches will appear and the finish will begin to dull. That being said, you don't need to re-coat the floor until finish shows real signs of wear (but don't wait until bare wood is showing!). This will happen somewhere between two to ten years depending on the amount of traffic and care your floor gets.
2. Recoating will not help every floor.
If you have been using cleaning products like oil soaps, waxes, or furniture polishes, there is a good chance a recoat will not work. Those cleaning products leave a residue and can cause the new coats of finish to wrinkle or separate. To avoid this we recommend you clean your floor with vinegar and water or with our cleaning solutions.
3. Recoating doesn't require sanding.
Recoating your wood floors doesn't mean we need to sand. A light screening is all that is needed prior to applying finish.
4. Recoating previously carpeted wood floors usually doesn't work.
Many mid-century homes were built with hardwood floors, but many of those floors were subsequently covered up with wall-to-wall carpeting. We do not recommend recoating in this situation. Many of these floors were covered because finishes were not what they are today and thus were a lot harder to maintain. Although today's finishes are incredible, most will not bond to the wax buildup usually present on previously covered floors. In this case we recommend a complete sanding to bring the floors back to their former glory.
5. Recoating can make your floors look new again.
In many cases recoating your floor will bring back it's orginal beauty. Our experienced sales team can look at your floor and determine if a recoating process will give you the result you are looking for.
If you have further questions about recoating wood floors, give us a call. We can take a quick assessment of your floor and determine what is necessary to restore it to its highest quality.
Photo by Nicolas Vigier. Available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.
