Since becoming a homeowner back in 2005, there have been a few things I’ve not really cared for about the house. I’ve decided that this year will be a good time to get to a few of those things, starting with the floors on the upper level. Back when the home was build in the late 60′s, full hardwood was pretty common. The wood in my case was in the, what now is the dining room, the master bedroom and master closet. Originally the upper level was the family room, two bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom. Back at one point, the two bedrooms were split into a master room, walk-in closet and then the bathroom was extended into a master bath with jacuzzi tub. The kitchen was blown out into the original dining room, and the family room became a formal dining room. (there was a large addition put on the back of the house to serve as the current family room.

When they knocked out the wall for the master bedroom, instead of replacing the old stud-base with hardwood, they slapped 1×4 down in it’s place and threw carpet squares over it. Adding to they, they used some light sky blue carpet. Lame. OK, back to the point, I was sick of the carpet squares and the worn and damaged hardwood among other things, but this sounded like a good challenge, and didn’t involve plumbing, removing windows, redoing countertops, replacing linoleum, painting more or replacing little door pulls… Yah, nice list of to-dos.

Back to my point, after clearing out the upstairs, pulling up the squares and bedroom carpet, and pulling off all the trim, I headed out to Menards to pick up the floor sander and other supplies and got started.

In talking to other that have done this in the past, I’ve heard it was a pain in the butt, terribly dusty, and in general just a big pain in the ass. I was very amazed at how EASY this process was. Granted, I do have about 16-18 hours invested in labor, but the end result turned out far better than I anticipated.

After pulling up the 1×4 in the bedroom, I re-laid some flooring I was given by a friend who pulled his up for a remodel. Our homes were built in the same era, so this wood was an exact match size and wood-wise. His wood had a different finish on it, but wouldn’t be an issue since it was getting sanded anyways. I air-nailed and wedged in his wood into the floor and it looked better than I expected. I guess I need to jack up the expectations of my home improvement tasks after this since I seem to have outdone what I thought I’d do.

I dug into the sanding, starting in the closet, working into the bedroom and dining room. To make it short, In about 7 hours of sanding, I ground down to the bare wood in all the rooms, laying a great start for re-finishing. The dust containment system on the sander worked really well, and I had very little airborne dust to deal with. (I had sealed off the entire upper level for this, to keep dust in, and other contaminants out) Using three varied grits of pads, I got the floor back to a nice bare smooth layer, hit the edges with my palm sander, and sucked up all the remaining sawdust in the cracks and corners.

I decided to go with a satin water based finish on the floors, because I was not fond of the semi-gloss oil finish from previous, which yellows with time. After the first coat was laid down, I saw an immediate change in the wood. It sucked up the finish, and brought out a rich coloring to the wood, even with no pigment in the finish, it just made all the difference in the world from basic oak to a beautiful tone of natural wood.

I ended up putting 5 coats on the floors, and while I do not have a mirror glaze, smooth as ice finish, i’m more than OK with that, as it wasn’t my goal. My finish is satin, so it’s not going to have a mirror shine to it (however, when the sun caught it today, it was quite blinding) Also, I don’t believe natural hardwood should be slippery like a laminate. You can feel a light texture to the wood, and of course a few bits of dust ended up in the finish, which will wear down with time. The final result is however, slick enough to slide 15′ in your socks wall to wall.

All in all, my out-of-pocket expenses were less than $130.00 including rental of the sander, supplies and floor finish. I do not have a clue what I would have been quoted to have someone come in to re-finish the floors, but I know it would have been more than I was able to pocket. Also, I was able to do the floors on my schedule, so it was very convenient for me, and I’m certainly capable of this type of work.

Starting out, I was a little reserved on how I would fare, based on what I heard from those who had done it before. When I was finished, I was more impressed and happy with the outcome than I expected or thought possible. I have always been a fan of DIY jobs to save money, and take some pride in the ownership of your home, or whatever project you have, but this was a great experience, and hopefully gives a few of you the confidence that floors are not such a daunting task.