photos 008, originally uploaded by espeedy123.

They look nice, right?

Recently Michael and I fixed the floors in the front living/dining room. It was quite an undertaking, but much less than it might have been had we sanded the finish down completely.

This area was covered in carpet. We pulled up the carpet, pried off the tackstrip (carefully!), and filled the holes with wood putty.

I got quotes from 3 different wood refinisher guys ranging from $1,600 to almost $3,000 for this room that’s about 300 square feet. They charge that because their method involves sanding the floor down to bare wood, restaining and then applying new polyurethane.

I didn’t think my floor was in that bad of shape, so I had a floor cleaning guy come take a look. He charged a small fraction of the above to remove the gunk and glue and then apply a “resin” protective finish. I think it was more like a liquid wax. He had a giant buffing machine, and I think that was what made the difference.

My main advice to anyone considering a similar project is to consider alternatives to a complete sand down. I would investigate screening and chemical sanding before totally taking it down to bare wood.