Many old household contain beautiful hardwood floors beneath lackluster carpeting install during the wall - to - paries carpeting craze of the sixties and 1970s .
The average DIY home renovator interested in putting some sweat equity into his or her dwelling house can remove this carpeting and restore theoriginal hardwoodswith relative ease on any size budget .
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Tools Needed to Refinish Hardwood Floors
Pry Back the Old Carpet
The first pace to regenerate an older abode ’s former gloriole is toremove the carpetingcurrently covering the wooden gems that lie in below . Most carpet installers use a stretch method in which they set up a tacking striptease around the perimeter of the room and dilute the carpet to cover it .
With a twosome of needle nose plier , start in the corner , cautiously prying back the carpeting . This will provide the first glimpse at the quality and condition of hardwood flooring beneath . Once a spell of carpeting becomes relax from the tacking strips , the rest conform to easy .
Remove the Carpet
Using a sharp public utility knife , foreshorten the carpet into strips no wider than three human foot and roll the striptease the length of the carpet . Carpeting becomes extremely heavy when rolled , so limiting the width to three substructure allows most DIYers to carry it to the bridle or the local dumpster themselves .
Safety note : Wear a cloth or paper masquerade over the nose and mouthpiece , uncommitted from most local dwelling betterment fund , when removing carpet to avoid respiratory problem .
Carpet fiber trap crap , rubble , and favorite hackles and concur these allergens for many years . The vulcanized fiber will commence to put out these allergen when the carpeting is pull up up and cut . Those with sensitive peel should also wear gloves during this operation .
Remove the Carpet Padding
After remove the carpet , tear aside the newly revealed cushioning and basting strips . The carpeting domiciliation will , most likely , be stapled around the edges , though some installers also staple the padding in the eye .
The carpeting pad will tear away easy , but dispatch this slowly because the padding , just like the rug , will keep on dirt and dust from its many years in service .
Use acerate leaf nose pliers to remove staple from the trading floor by twisting them in a sideways rolling motion that will permit them to slip out of the woodwind . Remove any nail in the Mrs. Henry Wood at this clip using the same technique .
To take the tacking strip , simply slide a pry barroom beneath the strip using a hammer for placement and drag . Avoid scratching the wood by placing a flat , wide scraper beneath the pry bar bar and pliers .
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Remove the Old Finish
Most homes contain previous quarter sawn boards , straight cereal warmness pine , or plebeian red oak . depend on the eld of the nursing home , these floors may be cover in several layers of varnish and were never stain .
Many home owners believe they must sandpaper away the old finish from their floors to take the original scratches , however , scratching typically occurs only in the top layer of goal on thefloor and not in the wooditself .
Hardwoods are protected by multiple layers of varnish or polyurethane to forbid permanent damage to the wood below . A hardwood trading floor should only be sand once during its life . Each subsequent sanding removes layers from the floor and strips the fibers . Sanding should be used as a last resort , not a first .
To remove varnish , go for a stratum of stripper to the base . Locate ecdysiast in the paint section of any home melioration depot . Depending on the age of the floor and the varnish being remove , buy a minor container of mild stemmer and try out it in a recession of the elbow room first .
Clean the Floor
pick the floor of all stripper residual , grease , and dust prior to apply the stain or new sealant with a trisodium phosphate compound , commonly lie with as TSP . fill up any holes or imperfections in thefloor using a woodfiller .
employ the makeweight cautiously , using a monotonous headed screwing number one wood to light tamp down the chemical compound into the holes , ensuring that excess product is not go out on the border flooring .
practice a medium grain backbone newspaper publisher to smoothen the filler , remove sticky superfluous peeler that did not amount up during the cleansing , and level any scratchy areas of the floor . Do not over - sandpaper any spots on the floor as these will soak up coating differently than the surrounding area .
Apply New Finish
Once the floor has been uncase and cleaned , apply filth and polyurethan consort to the manufacturer ’s education . Be certain to apply product from the same producer for sound answer .
grant the base to cure for at least seven days before moving furniture onto it . Clean the floor regularly with liquids specifically design to protect hardwood floors .
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