Can You Make Old Hardwood Flooring Look New?

If your old hardwood flooring looks faded, outdated, splintered, and even dented in places, bring new life into your flooring today. Hardwood flooring can be the highlight of any home today. However, time, heavy foot traffic, and dirt can make your flooring look old and unclean. You can make your old hardwood flooring look new again with the refinishing tips below. 

What Should You Know About Floor Refinishing?

Although hardwood is one of the strongest and most reliable materials known today, it can also take a beating over the years. Heavy foot traffic, moisture, and scratches can dull the surface of hardwood over time. Homeowners can bring new life into their old flooring by refinishing it.

Refinishing allows you to revamp, or renew, the surface of your hardwood flooring without removing it from your home. Refinishing generally works best on intact flooring. The technique may not work well with severely buckled, cupped, curled, or lifted flooring. You generally need to replace hardwood flooring that exhibits severe signs of damage. 

If you're unsure about the condition of your flooring, ask a flooring contractor to assess it for you. If a contractor finds severe cupping and other issues in your flooring, they'll replace all of the flooring or parts of it. If a contractor doesn't find severe damage in your flooring, they'll refinish it for you.

How Will a Contractor Refinish Your Flooring?

A flooring contractor will need to do several things during the refinishing process, including clean the surface of your flooring, patch and repair minor defects in the surface of your flooring, and sand down the surface of your flooring.

Sanding allows a contractor to even out the surface of your flooring. A contractor may use a drum sander or a similar type of sanding machine to complete the work. A drum sander works quickly to remove defects from the flooring. 

After a contractor sands your flooring, they may buff it as well. Buffing helps ensure the surface of your flooring remains smooth in the future. Buffing also prepares the newly refinished flooring for sealing. 

Sealing protects the surface of hardwood from future dents and scratches. Sealing also prevents moisture from seeping into your flooring later. Moisture can penetrate the boards in your flooring and warp or cup the boards in the future. 

If a contractor must do anything else to your flooring during the visit, they'll inform you. Learn how you can make your old flooring look new again by contacting a hardwood refinishing contractor today. Contact a local hardwood service, such as Dustless Hardwood Floors LLC, to learn more.