Refinishing oak table

[Gary Fritz]

I'm clueless when it comes to woodworking, so I'd appreciate some basic advice.

I have an old oak table with leaves -- it was my grandmother's 80 years ago -- that I refinished with polyurethane about 20 years ago. For the last 3-5 years the poly has been losing its grip, and now it's getting so it flakes off pretty easily. Time to do something about it.

What's the best way to do this? Should I just sand off the top of the table, re-stain, and refinish with a water-based poly?

The finish on the rest of the table seems OK, it's just the top that's flaking. It may be due to sun exposure because the leaves that don't get used much are in great shape. But I'd refinish them too, to match colors.

Thanks for any advice, Gary remove xxx's to reply

[Tom]

Gary wrote: >I'm clueless when it comes to woodworking, so I'd appreciate some basic

Sounds like a plan. You'll probably be able to get away with just refinishing the top. Let your heirs worry about it after that! Tom Work at your leisure!

[Mike G]

yes

[Baron]

Rather than remove at least 1/8" of wood from the surface with sanding, why not strip the surface? You definitely must remove the polyurethane since it is already flaking. Applying a new finish on top of the existing finish will not help.

Good Luck.