Refinished the hardwood floors in our house last week, I can walk on them with socks but they won't be fully cured until next week. The results are not perfect, I'm an amateur and this is my first time, but I think they turned out awesome, if nothing else a major improvement over before.Pictures: imgur gallery Before & AfterSome WIP Pictures: imgur gallery WIP photosScope: Sand and refinish ~700sqft of red oak hardwood floors(living room, hallway, 3 bedrooms, and closets. Planned to do a dark stain but plans changed when I saw how beautiful the wood was with the old finish removed, and that most of the pet stains /scratches all went away.Work performed : Sanded with drum sander and edge sander at 4 grits: 36, 60, 80, 100. I scraped the corners with a paint Scraper, and sanded smooth with my Oscillating multi tool. I also used this tool to get abs other tight spots like around door trim.Between 80 and 100 grit I filled as many holes and cracks as I could work Bona Pacific Filler. Finally, I sanded with random orbital multi disc at 100 grit(was going to do 120grit, but that was not available at HD).Then vacuumed really good, dry tack with Microfiber tack cloth, and applied 1 coat sealer, Bona NaturalSeal.I let that dry overnight, before I applied my first coat of Bona Mega One Extra Matte finish. The grain raised substantially after the sealer, I thought it would smooth out with the finish but it was still very rough and unpleasant, so I sanded 150grit with a pole sander. I considered using a machine sander but was hesitant that it might remove too much.I then applied 2 more coats of finish allowing about 4 hours between coats.Time: I already had pulled all the shoe molding, pulled/counterssunk all the exposed nails/staples, and tried to fill them with regular wood filler (in retrospect I would have just filled them when I filled the cracks before the last pass with the drum sander), and removed the linoleum from the entry....so that time is not accounted for.I started last Saturday morning hanging drop cloths between rooms not getting sanded, picked up rental sanders about midday, and started sanding that afternoon. I sanded all day Sunday, Monday night, Wednesday night, filler Thursday night, back to Sanding Friday night, and returned the rentals about 930pm Friday night.I then rentered the RO sander the next morning for one pass with it, before cleaning Saturday afternoon, and applying the sealer in the evening. I then did the 3 coats of finish on Sunday.Cost: Total cost was about $1300. This includes rental costs, abrasives, misc supplies from home depot, filler, Sealer, and finish. I could have saved a bit if I'd taken time off work to get all the sanding done in less days, and I ended up having 2 extra gallons of finish (I went conservative when ordering, went for 2 gallons per coat, but only used about 1.5 gallons per coat. If if used a 2 component finish I would have had to toss it anyways as they have a short pot life).I had a couple contractors bid, they were both about $3000. So I saved about $1700. It was a ton of work, but I think it was worth it for how much I saved, and the pride of having done it myself. via /r/DIY https://ift.tt/2SFCFEU
