How to Freshen Up Old Wood Floors

If your old wood floor is looking dull and drab, with discolorations or crack in the glossy surface, you can fully refinish it by sanding off the old stain and restaining. However, if the existing stain is in good shape, that’s a big part of a floor’s character, and it should be left alone. You can still freshen up the floor by screening off the gloss from the top (without affecting the stain) and reglossing.

Floor buffer (rented)
Screening disks in heavy, medium and light abrasion
Vacuum cleaner
Polyurethane gloss
Finishing brush
Extra fine sandpaper

Instructions

- 1
  Load the floor buffer with a heavy screening disk. Run it over the whole floor, in the direction of the floorboards' lengths, going forward and back along the boards to take off the top layer of the existing floor gloss.
- 2
  Vacuum the dust.
- 3
  Screen the floor two more times, with the medium-abrasion screen and then with the light-abrasion screen, getting the surface smooth, flat and dull. Vacuum the dust.
- 4
  Apply a coat of polyurethane gloss with a finishing brush, brushing the polyurethane in the direction the floorboards are laying. Make sure the coat is thin and smooth. Do the whole floor.
- 5
  Let the polyurethane dry for eight hours. Degloss the surface using extra fine sandpaper, sanding by hand in light, quick strokes. Vacuum the dust.
- 6
  Brush on a second layer of polyurethane in the same way as the first. Sand it by hand, vacuum, and add a third layer. Let it set for 24 hours.

How to Troubleshoot a Lagler Hummel

Do I Need to Put a Sealant on Maple-Wood Floors?

Floor Repairs