Refinish hardwood floor

Not unless you have at least one very handy helper.

Close off your working area with taped-on polyethylene film. Keep opposing windows in the room oen for air flow or use fans. PU finishes are nasty for solvent fumes (not the water-based, of course).

Don't get fancy, just use the conventional belt sander and edger from the rental place.

Definitely, since ventilation is an issue. Wear proper safety gear, dust mask, etc. HTH

Joe

I did the samething, smaller rooms to work up to the larger ones. The smaller ones took a weekend whereas the larger room(s) took about 1 week. And yes, we had to live a different life until it was finally done.

I rented sanders from HD too. The initial sanding took all day. So I rented the sanders for 24 hours -- it's only like a $10 difference. I used 30,60,80,100 grit in that order. The edging and filling in the cracks and staple holes took a lot of time as well.

Vacuumed and used tack cloth before staining twice the entire floor with an oil base finish. Since the stain the was oil based and the poly was water base, I had to wait 72 hours before I could poly the floor.

I used a sheep skin fleece applicator and the water base poly. I used 3 cots and sanded with 150 screen on a pole sander in between coats. The water base poly dried in only 1-2 hours. So the poly was done in only one day.

Hope this helps.

Which PU is best for floors water based or solvent based?

Mikke

I'm threatening to refinish my wood floors and want to learn the proper way to do it. Why did you use oil based stain and water based PU?

Thanks,

Mike

My understanding is slovent based is far superior in adhesion. It is of course more hazardous to health. After first coating on the 120 sq ft room, I got a headache so bad I laid down on bed for a good four hours. I forgot to open the windows while coating the floor. The second and third coats I didn't have problems with both windows wide open and a fan blowing.

Somehow I don't trust water based polyU as much. But as one store clerk told me one time when I was looking for a compression fitting replacement for my kitchen faucet, "this is the 21st century, you don't have to do that anymore." Indeed, there are better alternatives like a braided hose. I guess same goes for paint.

Well, when I did the first smaller rooms I used oil based and the poly was oil based too. So, I wanted to match the colors since the water based stains had such a small selection for colors/tints available. Plus, I've heard that water based stains are so new that their overall performances has yet to be proven to match the oil based stains.