My 60 year-old hardwood floor was refinished about 18 years ago. It could probably use it again, especially in high-traffic pathways, but in a few years I'm going to replace my tile kitchen floor with hardwood and want to wait until then so it can be stain-matched.
In the meantime, is there anything I can do to spruce it up a bit? The finish -- which was originally satin -- has worn in areas and I'd like bring back the overall sheen. The area adjacent to the kitchen is the worst and could probably use some sanding.
I vaguely recall being told that a user should not do maintenance coats on polyurethane finishes, the way you can with lacquer. Is that really true? Unfortunately, I have no clue whether it was water- or oil-based, so that's probably not too helpful.
Wax & buff it 2. Apply an acrylic "wax" 3. Apply poly
Doing any of them means that they'll have to be sanded off when you redo the floor so that they can be stained. Sanding would be particularly necessary in the case of wax so that new coatings would adhere. _________________
A new coat of lacquer dissolves and mixes with the old. Ditto shellac. That is not true of varnish...once dried, it isn't dissolvable again. However, that does NOT mean you can't recoat a varnished floor. Poly doesn't stick real well to cured poly so it should be lightly abraded to provide some tooth. In your case, the foot traffic has already done that and is probably sufficient. If it is down to bare wood you'd probably need to sand just to get rid of imbedded dirt; otherwise, just cleaning should be enough. If you have to sand that area is not going to match the older areas because they have changed in color over time and exposure to light. The new area will eventually age as well but it will take a few months.
It isn't all that hard to distinguish between water and oil poly as they give markedly different results. Both will "wet" the wood but it stays that way with oil poly; with water poly, the wood returns to close to its original color when the poly dries - it is still darker than uncoated wood but much lighter than with oil poly.
Regarding stain, keep in mind the difficulty of matching the existing color when your newly stained/finished floor wears through again in the future. Many people - me included - don't want that nuisance and prefer the appearance of unstained wood. We get the color we want by using a particular wood species, not by staining.
A fourth option is a reconditioning service. They use solvents to dissolve the finish, then reapply it. The cost is considerably less than sanding and refinishing, the smell factor is very low, and they're done in a day.
Some maintenance, but you can apply a paste wax and buff every six months until your new floor is installed. I like Johnson's Paste wax for wood, plastic, metal, window sills, shelves, woodwork, wooden floors, furniture, etc. Careful, your floor may be a little slick afterwards.
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