Multiple room floor refinishing question

[noname87]

I want to refinish the oak hardwood floors in three bedrooms connected by a common hallway. Since I am working by myself, I will be unable to keep a wet edge at all times if I do the bedrooms and the hall at the same time. My question is if I do each room (stopping at the door threshold) and allowing the bedroom floors to dry before doing the hallway will I end up with noticeable transition points in the doorways? Any suggestions on how to avoid this problem?

[Steve]

[e-mail] wrote on 03 Mar 2008 in group alt.home.repair:

Here are several things you can try. You'll do better on any of these if you practice them first on some scrap.

My best idea:

• Feather-sand the edge of the old coating. Overlap with the new coating. Sand when dry with increasingly fine sandpaper, starting with maybe 320 grit (used very lightly) and finishing with wet-dry paper, perhaps 2000 grit.

Wild-assed ideas that I've never tried:

• Stop exactly on the edge of a board at the center of the door opening. Use tape if you need help keeping a straight line. When you start again, feather the new coating to avoid a depression at the junction.

• Use a solvent to partially "melt" the old coating before you put on the new. This will be trial and error, because the chemical you use will depend on the coating. Xylene is probably a good bet, though. You can use Goof-Off if you want, which is mostly xylene with some other solvents. It dissolves most coatings, but not all. Also, there's a danger that the solvent will permanently change the coating to something you won't like.

*

[Wayne Whitney]

If there's a threshold piece, you could remove it, finish it separately, and reinstall it to cover the transition line in the finish.

If not, you mentioned doing three rooms on a hallway. So you should only need to do one "cold joint", since you can start in a room, work towards the hallway, do the hallway, and then do a second room. I like the suggestion of trying to make the cold joint exactly coincide with the edge of a board, but I don't really know.

Cheers, Wayne

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Stop at a straight line right in the doorway and you'll never see it. No one else will either.

[cshenk]

"Steve" wrote

I like this idea. It sounds like it will work well.

My other idea since there doesnt seem to be a thresh-hold (or he wouldnt be asking this), is to add one afterwards if there is a visible line. Doesnt have to be much and I've seen thin woods just for this purpose at the local Lowes.