Refinishing Hardwood Floors

Learn all about refinishing your hardwood floors. Get tips on how to sand and clean your hardwood floors to make them look as good as new.

LESLIE: Genevieve in Connecticut who’s dealing with a hardwood floor situation. What can we do for you?

GENEVIEVE: Oh, I feel like you’re my neighbor. (Tom chuckles)

LESLIE: Good.

GENEVIEVE: I have the hardwood floors and I’ve tried, oh, Murphy’s Oil Soap and this and that. It’s still not right. What can I do?

TOM: Well, what are you trying to do to the floors? You want to – you have stains on them, they dirty, what do you want …?

GENEVIEVE: Yes, stains and dirty.

TOM: Genevieve, if you’re using products like Murphy’s Oil Soap and it’s not coming clean, it might be time to think about refinishing the floors. Now, there’s an easy way to do that. If the floors aren’t physically damaged, you can rent a floor buffer with a sanding screen …

GENEVIEVE: Oh, wonderful.

TOM: … and you can buff the floor and lightly abrade the surface. It’s pretty easy to do. And then once that’s all done, you can damp mop all of the dust away; let it dry really good; and then you mop on a couple of coats of polyurethane. And I do mean mop on. You use something called a lamb’s wool applicator – it looks like sort of a wet mop for your kitchen – and you mop on the urethane, work your way out the door; you know, go away for four or five hours and you’re done.

GENEVIEVE: Wonderful.

TOM: So it doesn’t have to be a big job.

GENEVIEVE: No, because I have to tackle that because it would be so nice to get my house in order.

TOM: Yeah, it’s a good project because hardwood floors add a lot of value and this is not a difficult project. If you want more tips, we’ve got a great article on how to do just that at MoneyPit.com.

Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.