The best way to refinish wood floors without sanding is to use a technique called screen and recoat. This involves scuffing up the finish with a floor buffer and applying a refresher coat of finish.
Applying a revitalizer gloss is the simplest and cheapest way to refinish hardwood floors. This approach works best on floors that only have surface-level scratches and other minor wear and tear issues. You can get the job done without the need for equipment rentals or hard-to-find materials.
Wear Spots
Use a fine-grained sandpaper for this job and make sure when you're done that the floor is as smooth as glass. While you're still in sanding mode, find a different, less-visible area of the floor—like in a closet or under the bed—and sand away a very small patch of finish and stain.
Vegetable Oil & White Vinegar: Mix equal parts vegetable oil and white vinegar together to make a simple, yet effective, cleaner for your hardwood floor. Vinegar is a natural polish that is perfect for cleaning. It's acidity will help break down dirt and grime.
You may recoat a floor to completely change the color of the finish, to retexture, or to simply reapply the same finish that was already on the floor. It's normal for hardwood floors to be recoated more than once during the life of the hardwood floor.
Rejuvenate All-Floors Cleaner is safe for all types of floors, including hardwood. However, Bona Stone, Tile, and Laminate Cleaner is NOT safe for hardwoods.
Newer hardwood floors are surface-sealed with polyurethane, so all you have to do is sweep and mop to give it a bright look. Don't use abrasive cleaners, wax or oil on these floors; simple soap and water is best. Murphy's Oil Soap, a time-tested, gentle wood cleaner, generally costs less than $3 at a grocery store.
Shoes, pets, and moving or sliding your furniture around are all things that can scratch up your hardwood floors, making them look extra dull. Even if you start with a well-applied finish and take care of your floors over time with regular maintenance, still your best-cared-for floor will start to show its age.
You can use one cup of ammonia dissolved in a gallon of water to clear up the haze buildup. Simply dampen your mop, gently rub the affected floor area, rinse thoroughly to remove ammonia residue, and pat dry with a cloth to remove excess water.
Whether you're cleaning one area or all of your flooring, Murphy® Oil Soap is safe to use on hardwood floors.
A professional screen and recoat process will cost anywhere from $1.50 to $2 per square foot. The process is less expensive than a full refinishing job, or restoration, which involves sanding, removing scuffs, and refinishing a floor.
Recoating is when you add a new layer of coating (normally polyurethane) to your hardwood floors. It is also known as resealing, as this process seals the wood, keeping it protected from potential scratches. This should really be happening every 3 to 5 years, but it all depends on how often you use those floors.
Mix a half-cup full white vinegar into two-gallons of water in a mop bucket. Dip your mop into the cleaning solution and wring it up to avoid applying the excess solution onto the floor. Thoroughly clean the floor using the solution while moving your mop in forth-backward motions to ensure that you remove all the dirt.
Do NOT clean your floors with Murphy's Oil Soap, Mop and Glo, Orange Glo, Swiffer Wet Mop, furniture polish such as Pledge, vinegar, ammonia, or any pine cleaners! All of these cleaners, over time, will dull and damage the finish.
Vinegar is an acid and hardwood floors need a pH neutral or close to it cleaner. When mixed with water, the solution's acidity is drastically lowered and it becomes an effective method to wash hardwood floors. The vinegar and water mixture cuts through dirt and grime, leaving a streak-free and naturally clean floor.
Hardwood floors turn gray after their protective polyurethane coating wears off and they're exposed to moisture. To get the gray out of hardwood floors, you'll need to sand and reseal them. If you want to completely change the color of your hardwood floor, this is a great time to do so.
For example if you have a painted finish on your wooden floor then stripping will likely be more effective, however if you want to remove a basic polyurethane finish and you need to do so during the colder months of the year then sanding will be more appropriate.
When you refinish your floors, you can change the color of your flooring. Most hardwood floors can be made darker, lighter, redder, or anywhere in between. If your flooring is solid hardwood, it can be sanded and refinished in a different stain for a different appearance.