Hardwood Refinish
By hardwood refinishing we understand sanding of old hardwood and applying new coats of finish on it. Hardwood can be finished with polyurethane, paint or latex. The main point of hardwood finishing is to add protection layer to it. Wood itself is pretty exposed to water or dirt damages. Water damage can leave huge black stains on the wood. Those stains are hard to remove. It’s almost impossible to determine if water did go deep enough or it’s just a top surface damage. That is why not all the wood refinishers can guarantee water damage stain removal by sanding. The most confident way to remove water-damage stains is to replace wood boards (if possible) with new ones. In other hand dirt damage is easier to remove since it doesn’t penetrate in to the hardwood.
With finish on it, wood will be protected from damages as long as finish layer stays on it. If you have worn out spots on wood, then it is in danger again. In cases when hardwood is freshly covered with coats of polyurethane or latex, then it should be protected for another 15-30 years depending on the factors like: polyurethane quality, where it used and how it used.
Finish also changes color of the wood. In most of the cases oil-based polyurethane adds honey color to the wood. This way wood has more warm to it. In other hand latex color gives colder color to the wood. It has white, milky tone and makes wood look pale. Difference of finishes is also visible no matter if you have stain on the wood or not. At the same time, dark stain will slightly reduce this difference.
Special flooring sanding equipment is used for hardwood floor refinishing:
Belt Sanders.
Belt sanders are very popular in flooring services (they’ve replaced old roll sanders). Belt sander can be operated by one person and require removable belts. These belts go in different sizes and have different grids. Floor sanding in general includes three cuts with sanding machines: rough cut, second cut and finish cut. First cut is done by very rough paper, 16-36 grid considering floor condition. Lower grid is used whenever floor has stain, wax or finished with paint. Rough cut takes all the finish out but leaves a lot of marks. Second cut has to take all the marks out and make surface a bit smoother. Finish cut in general is done with 80-100 grid sand paper and makes surface ready for buffing.
Edgers
For small areas like closets smaller sanders are used – sanding edgers. Edgers has use removable round sanding disks which also can have different grade. There are two mostly used types of edgers – regular(the ones which are on the picture) and stand up edgers. Floor refinish also includes two or three cuts with edger. Edger sand paper is also manufactured with different grids, from 16 to 120. Same technology with increasing paper grid is used during refinish. Different disk rotation speed helps to sand the floor faster and reduce number of marks for softer wood types.