I am getting some estimates to have my hardwood floors refinished in the upstairs bedrooms. One estimate I got was for 3 coats of polyurethane, and the other mentioned 1 coat of sealer and then 2 coats of poly.
I am guessing that the 3 coats will be better. This estimate was a few hundred more, but I don’t mind paying if the result is worth it. Any opinions?
Thanks-
Brian
Replies
Oil or water?
Oil needs no sealer for the most part.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
"We strive for conversion,we get lost in conversation, and wallow in consternation. "
Me.
BJC
Do it yourself and you can save virtually the whole amount.. not hard, or require any skill the way I do it..
Interested?
the only advantage to sealer is that it dries quickly. the installer can seal and recoat on his first visit.
poly will do the same thing as sealer, maybe better. for a bathroom floor you want 3 coats of poly minimum. 4 would be better
I havn't done this personally, but a friend of mine "refinished" his hardwood floor by just scuff sanding with a finish sander (like you would do between coats) and brushing on a new coat of poly. I saw it... it looked brand new, didn't take him very long.
Of course if your floor is stained and you want a different color, or if it was finished with wax or something weird like that... it's a different story.
I don't know what quotes you are getting, but around here wood floor refinishing is incredibly cheap. Often a minimum of $300 for a single room, but for multiple rooms only $1.40 or so per square foot.
The quotes I've received never had the sealer vs. poly tradeoff. I have seen an additional quote of poly for $200 or so. We had 1 sealer and two coats of poly on our floor, and it looks great, and has held up well for 7 years or so.
Celts fan
I just helped a guy do his own floor.. It was a carpet tear off that he wanted back to the original hardwood so the floor was in really tough shape.. It took him 4 hours cost him $130. and was a shade less than 500 sq.ft. He figures he saved close to $350 over his lowest estimate.
My part was basically hold his hand and tell him the next step. He spent about 2 hours sanding it bare and vacumming up the dust Since we used those new square pad sanders that part didn't require any skill. I had him shellac it and that doesn't require any skill either so now he feels like doing the rest of the house..
frenchy
do you have an easy button ?
carpenter in transition
I took Frenchy's lead a couple of weeks ago. We shellaced about 2,000sf as a new finish. It looks awesome. The hardest part was sanding, vacuuming, wiping down with mineral spirits & tack ragging. But you need to do that with any finish. Used a lambs wool applicator to apply a seal coat, then the first coat. Went right out of the can in both cases. We still need to put down another coat after the painters get out of there, but so far it looks incredible. It probably took less than an hour per coat once the prep work was done, for 2,000sf using the lambs wool applicator which cost about $40. I also did my handrails the same way. sanding between each coat. It looks like an expensive deep glass finish. Not like poly, which after seeing both, looks like ####. IMO