~how I refinished my wood floors~

This is a step by step on how I refinished our floors and saved thousands.

I am by no means a professional.

This is the way I did our floors.

I don't know if it is the preferred, correct method,

but it's how I did ours, and for us it worked!

I highly encourage anyone to do their own floors.

It was inexpensive, easy, and only took 2 days. First things first.

Gather all your materials.

You can rent a sander at any home improvement store for around $50 for 24 hours.

We rented ours at Home Depot.

They will be able to tell you the sandpaper you need to go along with it.

You will also need:

1~a palm sander with sandpaper

2~minwax {this was the brand we used and I was happy with it} pre stain floor conditioner

{I don't know if this is the exact name, but if you ask at the home improvement store they can get you what you need}

3~Stain. I used "jacobean" by minwax and went through 2 gallons.

4~a varathane floor sealer.

I used a low odor, super fast drying sealer.

I was able to re~apply the sealer after 2 hours.

5~stain able wood filler if you have any imperfections in your floors.

First up~clear the room out.

The sander has a bag on it to collect dust, however, it didn't collect all the dust.

I had to go through the house from top to bottom dusting everything after I was done.

I wish I would have put plastic sheets up between rooms, so if you are thinking about doing this, you might want to do so.

Start out with a coarse sandpaper.

Sand the entire floor.

As you can see, my 7 year old could do this.

I was picturing turning the machine on and being taken on a wild ride, but that's not the case.

It's just like pushing a vacuum.

They say to sand the direction of the grain on your floor.

I didn't.

I'm such a rebel.

So, sand all the finish off with a coarse sandpaper.

Sand again with a medium grit sandpaper.

Sand again with a fine sandpaper.

Sweep up the dust.

The sander doesn't get close to your walls and cabinets.

Therefore you have to go back with a palm sander

{I have a dewalt one that I love}

and get those areas.

Use the same method you did with the sander.

Coarse grit, medium grit, and fine grit.

I think the sanding played a huge part in the overall finished product.

Don't skimp here.

Sand and sand and sand.

I think Cody I

sanded for about 4 hours.

This is what our floors looked like after they were sanded.

An improvement already.

Then I used a metal trowel and applied wood filler to all the cracks and imperfections.

We had a lot!

When that is dry, sand again.

{fine grit only needed}

Do you see a pattern here?

Now, go clean off that sander and return it to the store, you are done with that thing!

Sweep your floor.

Vacuum it, get ALL the dust off because

now it is time to use the pre stain conditioner.

Just brush on and let dry.

1 coat.

No rhyme or reason.

Easy peasy.

When dry you can apply your stain.

The directions on the can of stain said to brush on and then wipe off.

The longer you let it sit, the more it will penetrate into the wood, and the deeper the color.

Here's the thing.

I brushed it on, then wiped it off like they suggested.

It looked horribly uneven and blotchy.

So, this is what I did.

I brushed on with a 3 or 4 inch brush like below.

I didn't wipe any off.

I actually put it on kind of thick.

At this point I was really nervous because I wasn't

"following the directions"

But, I went for it, and did the whole floor with this method.

Brush on and leave.

I started this whole process after I dropped the kids at the bus at 8.

I finished with the stain around 5:30 if that gives you a perspective on the timing.

Our kitchen is smack in the middle of our house so we had to come and go through the master bedroom window if you can picture that!

It was quite amusing handing the kids off through the window!

I let it dry overnight.

In the morning there was still places that were tacky.

The instructions on the sealer say to apply it when the floor is totally dry.

I cranked the heat in the house to 75 degrees.

2 hours later, still tacky.

Called my husband in a panic, and in a sweat.

He told me to apply the sealer anyway.

{he's a rebel too, aren't we both just so bad?}

ha~ha

So,

I did.

The sealer and the tacky stain must have had a reaction, a good one, because it dried almost instantly.

I could walk on the floor after an hour.

The sealer said to put on a minimum of 4 coats every 2 hours.

I did do this.

The whole process was more time consuming than anything.

I think the finished product looks like hand scraped flooring that people pay a fortune for.

I am so happy I did this and am wondering why I didn't do it sooner.

The darker color does show the dirt more.

I have to sweep everyday instead of every other day, but that's ok with me.

I'm not the best at tutorials so I hope this was easy enough to follow.

It's been about 2 weeks since I did this and they still look great.

My dog has put some scratches in it with his claws, but nothing we can't live with.

I'll be back tomorrow to tell you about how I painted my cabinets!

Thanks for all your kind comments, I love reading them!

Don't forget to enter the willow house giveaway that ends tomorrow.

You can do so by clicking here.

xoxo