How much polyeurthane to refinish hardwood floors?
Monday, November 30th, 2009 at
6:08 pm
I’m refinishing about Buy Xenical pills 750 square feet of hardwood floors in my house. We will rip up the carpet, sand, and polyeurthane – I’m just not sure how much to buy.
Most contractors put on two coats the first day( really ends up one thick coat) then come back and sand lightly and put on a final coat. My advise as a contractor who hires subs to do my hardwood floor jobs is: Put 3 coats with light hand sanding between each coat and do not accept that two coats can be done in one day. This is worth a little more $$ now because that third coat will about double the time floor will last between refinishes
Be careful sanding your own floor, going too deep can ruin a good day, be patient. Most poly will cover the entire 750 square feet with about 1 gallon per coat( check label )
Also, consider the newer water based poly. works as well, easier cleanup and gives less "darkening" or "yellowing" effect
Three gallons for each coat. Usually three coats is optimal. This is a little on the high side, but you can always take back unopened containers.
I am refinishing my own homemade furniture, and some of it I have made with hard wrood; such as, that used in hard wood floors…here is the process you " Should " follow.
I use a low grit sandpaper to rip up the current varnish, paint, or stain. Maybe like an 80 grit
Once you get to the bare wook you will want to use wood putty / wood filler to deal with any nicks, holes, scrapes, or other marks created in your sanding process. Let all of this dry very well before you continue .. figure on 24 hours.
Now we move to 100 grit sandpaper and even everything out and get as smooth as you can – it won’t be super smooth, but it will be somewhat smooth
Now we move to 180 grit, we smooth it out even further and keep it even all the way.
Last we use 220 grit this is where the close to glass like smoothness will come, you could go a bit higher in grit but I would not go lower.
If you intend to stain the wood you will want to be very very certain after this sanding is done that you do over it all with a damp sponge to get all of the sawdust off of the floor. Personally I would do this two times, give it a rest and do it a third time. You do not want any of this showing up in the end, if you don’t get it ..it will show in the end. As an added precaution you may even want to vacume before moving on.
I use the sponge since i am doing furniture and not a floor. After that dries I go over with a #0000 steelwool to knock down any raised fibers in the wood from the stain and water.
Once all of this is sanded, stained, and cleaned it is time to apply the finish. Polyeurathane is the most common for hard wood floors.
I would apply very, very thin coats…remember in finshing thinner is always better. I would allow a full day 24 hours for each coat to totally dry.
I say this because if it is even slightly tacky under the immediate surface .. when you lightly sand the surface that sawdust material will get caught in the tacky portion – it will be unseen to you now, but will be seen in the end.
If you were to allow extra time to dry that will not hurt any – it would be better in fact.
Remember clean off the floor with the sponge again.
Note: when I apply the finish I do not use no where near as much on the brush as i would use if I were painting. I use very little on the tip of the brush and I only brush in one direction with the grain.
Once all of this is done, lightly sand and sponge then do a second coat of the Poly. Again, watch that thickness and be sure it is a very thin coat, just barely enough to cover the wood surface- – " BARELY" enough is the key.
Do not sand before you apply a third coat, this one you may be able to apply " A Little" heavier than the other two but not an awefull lot more, not quite double.
If it takes a standard of 3 gallons of poly to do your floor, then 6 gallons will provide two coats.
Using this you will get by with about the same amount but it will really be less – I would be thinking about 4 – 5 gallons for the three coats.Because the first coat will be absorbed the greatest, the second less, and the final coat least of all. Because of the great sanding job you did you are partially sealing the wood and slowing down the absorbtion rate, especially if you apply a stain that has a sealer in it.
Remember to use that steel wool after the stain, if further coats of stain are required, use the steel wool after each coat.
Once you begin the poly, lightly sand between coats one and two only, between coats two and three I do not sand.
In the end you will have a very, very fine finish, a level floor with no raised fibers caused by swelling. This will look fantastic – my furniture amazes me every time I finish with the steel wool, you’d never expect that wool to make such a dramatic difference.
this floor .. .will be much better than any contactor will do for you and your additional cost will be the extra sandpaper and the steel wool pads- you will use less poly than if you did not do all this sanding to this degree of fine furniture finish, plus sandpaper is cheaper than Poly.