Caring for Hardwood Floors | Bankrate
Inevitably there comes a time when your hardwood floors start to search a tiny worn and in require of refreshment. You contact your welcoming flooring professional, who asks, “Do they require to be just refinished or totally resurfaced?” Say what?
Though the phrases sound alike (and are from time to time utilised interchangeably), amongst contractors refinishing and resurfacing flooring do signify two unique factors, with distinctive processes and various rate tags. The two can be carried out on a range of wooden flooring, like standard hardwood and engineered wood (aka veneers). Here’s how to distinguish amongst refinishing and resurfacing.
What is refinishing a hardwood ground?
Refinishing a ground basically usually means supplying it a facelift. Refinishing a flooring consists of:
- removing the floor’s recent varnish, seal and stain
- sanding down the floor’s major layer, to expose the bare wooden and its all-natural grain
- implementing a fresh new stain and lacquer or varnish
- making use of a new coat of sealant
Due to the fact it’s a fairly superficial procedure, “refinishing” can be performed on a range of ground types, which includes tile and laminate — although the correct course of action differs, based on the surface area. If you have an engineered wooden ground — that is, a veneer of natural hardwood wood covering a plywood or artificial main — it can only be refinished two or 3 instances (relying on the veneer’s thickness), right before you expose the main.
What is resurfacing a hardwood flooring?
Resurfacing consists of all of the above, but a lot more. If refinishing is a cosmetic job, resurfacing is much more of a structural 1. It comes into participate in when there’s true hurt to the wood, the wood planks, and/or the fasteners (nails).
Resurfacing the ground means fixing it: taking away and replacing planks, grinding planks down to even them out, reinforcing the flooring with new nails. Just after all that is carried out, then the floor can be refinished — sanded down, stained, varnished and sealed.
When to resurface vs refinish wooden flooring
If the floors are in excellent ailment — just looking worn and rather scuffed or boring — then refinishing may be your very best selection. In simple fact, you may possibly even be equipped to get absent with just recoating them, which skips the sanding approach and just requires buffing and making use of a new topcoat.
Refinishing can assistance breathe new existence into an area of flooring which is worn out and in need of a refresh. It’s perfect for flooring that are not structurally compromised and that are nonetheless structurally seem, but not up-to-day.
In distinction, if a ground requires much more than a facelift, you require to resurface it — that is, swap the old materials. Signs the ground wants resurfacing include things like:
- Serious fading, discoloration or uneven shade
- Cracks, holes or missing pieces
- Symptoms of rot or h2o destruction
- Warped, sagging or bent boards
- Lacking or bent nails
Prices of refinishing and resurfacing flooring
There are several aspects that go into the normal expense of refinishing or resurfacing flooring like the square footage, the shape of the flooring, the type of wood and neighborhood labor expenses. In general, nevertheless refinishing operates $3 to $8 per sq. foot the countrywide normal assortment for a position expenditures $1,075 to $2,520, in accordance to HomeAdvisor. A very simple recoating will expense much considerably less: $1 to $2 per square foot, according to FlooringStores, an on the internet professional.
Not shockingly, resurfacing will cost far more than refinishing, given that you are going to have the restore and substitution expenditures in addition. How considerably more can vary immensely, based on the character and extent of the destruction. In typical, nevertheless, hardwood flooring fix prices commonly operate from $450 to $1,500, estimates HomeAdvisor.
Even so, which is a lot a lot less than the price to exchange a hardwood floor solely, which averages anyplace from $2,500 to $6,800.
Do it yourself or use a pro?
Dependent on the extent of your floors, refinishing might choose a number of times. Resurfacing might get a couple of weeks.
That is if a floor expert does it. It’ll possibly consider longer if you check out to do the job you. Refinishing is not out of a DIYer’s league even though it is a messy, smelly enterprise, it predominantly needs an orbital sander. Unless you are an professional carpenter, resurfacing on your own is not proposed. It calls for a total toolbox of equipment, together with electric power saws, grinders and nail guns.
Base line on refinishing vs resurfacing floors
If your floor is merely scratched and scuffed, you’re improved off refinishing than resurfacing it. That’ll restore its authentic glow, and it’s considerably less invasive. Instead of getting rid of the old flooring products totally, refinishing requires getting rid of only the prime layer of your present flooring (such as the end), and then replacing it with a new layer.
However, if the floor is in significantly terrible shape, you will likely want to restructure it rather. It will cost additional and be a a lot more time-consuming approach, but it will in outcome make a full new surface.
No subject which approach you pick out, you shouldn’t let your floor go too prolonged without remaining effectively taken care of. The lengthier you wait to restore your floor, the more funds it will consider to get your floors seeking new yet again.