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Homeowners are starting to find out that some of the best money
you can spend on your wood floors is on recoating them.
It is quick, reasonably priced and can easily extend the life of
your wood floors for decades. The
best for a homeowner to make an informed decision is to just learn as
much about a process as possible. To
make it as easy as possible, let me take you on a virtual jobsite and
give you a brief overview of why the recoating was done and the results
it produced. Before going on
the virtual tour, you might want to read Understanding Recoating:
When, Why & How to get the full benefit of the written
and visual explanation.
Overview
Project One: Kitchen Duty
OK, this first set of photos is of a kitchen that I recoated a
few years ago. The floors
had been sanded and finished around 1993.
The family had two children and some very nice pets that were
going to be spending lots of time in the kitchen.
In 2002, the homeowner called me up and reluctantly told me she
needed some help. In her
mind, she had created a worst case scenario.
She was about to learn that refurbishing wood floors isn’t all
about noise, dust and noxious vapors.
 Before: This photo shows a kitchen floor after 10 years of hard use.
Notice the color difference around the perimeter.
The darker color is where the finish hasn’t experienced so much
wear and you can still see the original color.
The lighter shade in the main traffic area is from wear and the
cleaning. The homeowner
thought the finish had been worn off.
It hasn’t. The
lighter, chalky color is typical of what a lot of finishes look like
after a lot of wear and use. The
homeowner felt that the floor needed a full sanding and finishing.
She was delighted to find out recoating was an option.
 After: What a difference a little TLC makes!
First, the floors were thoroughly cleaned using cleaning products
specifically formulated to remove typical contaminants; grease, dried
food, detergents and just plain old dirt and grime.
It was allowed to dry overnight and then it was buffed with a
synthetic pad for the final prep work.
Next it was vacuumed carefully and then two applications of a
waterborne finish were applied to all the areas.
Both applications of finish were made the same day.
There was absolutely no dust and the floors and the kitchen
were available for breakfast and dinner the entire time. The
entire job was completed in just two days.
The colors just came right back and the rich colors in the
graining of the wood really got your attention.
By this time, the homeowners children were grown and out of the
house so this recoating should be good for about 15 years.
Not bad.
Overview
Project Two: The
Active Family
This is one of my all time favorites for recoating because it combines
the best of all worlds; an
active family with four children, a mother with no spare time or
patience to give up to the chaos of sanding and finishing, a tight
budget and a tight time frame. The
family had just bought the house and moved into it from out of state.
The floors had been refinished by the previous owner about 12
years ago. They were showing
a lot of wear, especially in the kitchen.
The homeowner decided that she was only going to do the
downstairs and the stairs. She
didn’t have a lot of furniture but what she did have could not be
moved anywhere else. It had
to stay on the first floor level. I
did the work in two phases and she had full use of all the areas every
morning and evening.
 Before: You
are looking at the dining room floor right after I did the cleaning.
Very dry and chalky looking. The entire first floor was prepped in one
day. It was allowed to dry
overnight. The floor is about as bland looking as you could imagine. The
color of the stain is a walnut color but you can’t tell it by looking
at the floor in this stage. Since
I had promised the family they would have full use of the floors while I
was there, I only made one application per day. With
waterborne polyurethane’s excellent drying time, they were able to
walk on the floors in the evening with no problem.
After:
Here is a picture that speaks volumes.
I applied finish to just half the room so the homeowner access
the door at the top of the picture.
The left half of the photo shows the floor with one coat of
finish applied. It has dried
and you can now see about as classic a before/after comparison as you
will ever see. Look at the
color difference! For me,
this is the best part about recoating worn floors.
The color was always there; it was the condition of the older
finish that dulled it down. Later,
I came back and made the application to the rest of the room.
The homeowner never left the house, her daily routine stayed the
same, they were able to eat all meals at home and once again – no dust
and no noxious vapors.
Overview
Project Three: A Step in Time
This series of photos is of a set of service stairs that were refinished
about a dozen years ago. The
house is about 70 years old and the stair treads are original yellow
pine, a soft grain wood. The
stairs come down from the second floor into the kitchen and have gotten
a ton of use. At the time
the work was done originally, the owners three sons were in elementary
school. Now, all are either
in college or graduated from college so the wear and tear has been
dramatically reduced. As you
can see, the condition of the floors created and eyesore and the
homeowner wanted it taken care of.
 Before:
The tread to the left is one of the larger pie shaped treads where the
stairs start spiral a bit towards the kitchen.
The light spots are where the soft grain of the pine has actually
worn away from the pounding of three sons bounding up and down the
steps. The worst part of the
wear was in the center of the treads, especially where they started
their turn. All the treads
were carefully cleaned and the heavily worn areas were lightly touched
up with a little color.
 After:
After the color was applied to the worn spots, made multiple
applications just to the center of the treads to some additional build
up of finish. I made three
applications of finish to these spots and then put two applications of
finish over the entire tread. I
call this technique “sandwiching” because it allows you to get more
protection to what you know will get the most wear.
I do it a lot in kitchens where there is noticeable wear in
certain spots. Working
with waterborne finishes allowed me to make 5 applications of finish in
two days! That would
never happen that fast with traditional coatings.
Once again, the flexibility of waterborne products along with
their extraordinary drying time gives this homeowner full use of their
floors in the morning and evenings, when they needed them.
Overview
Project Four: 30 Years and Counting
Let’s finish up with the piece de resistance.
This is an old house (closing in on 100 years) I worked in over
30 years ago. The floors are
a heart pine and have aged beautifully.
Since I worked in the house, it has changed hands about three
times and nothing of any significance had been done to my work on the
floors. As you can imagine,
any floor with 30 years of use is going to look a bit frayed around the
edges. The house was fully
furnished and had one of the best folk art collections I have ever seen
in a private home. The
homeowners, like anyone with an older home, were very apprehensive about
doing anything to the floors. But
they really needed some work as you will see.
Recoating was going to accomplish everything they wanted.
 Before:
This is the entrance foyer and it has seen some wear. There was the
usual wear patterns from pedestrian traffic.
You also had gouges and indentations from furniture being moved.
The two conspicuous lighter spots are moisture damage.
The finish on these spots was pretty much gone.
There were other areas of significant water damage.
The wood is yellow pine so it did not discolor nearly as much as
it would have had it been oak or some other specie.
This proved to be critical into how well the floors turned out
after the waterborne finished were applied.
 After:
After cleaning properly, the floors were recoated with two
applications of waterborne polyurethane.
These photos haven’t been altered and you are seeing the actual
difference in the colors. You
can see a very faint lightness from one of the water spots but all in
all, the look of the floors was excellent.
The house was extensively furnished with furniture and art work.
The downstairs was done in two phases with the furniture moving
from one side of the room to the other.
The art work stayed on the wall and the mantel because there was
no dust. The exceptionally
quick drying time of waterborne finishes meant all the work was
completed in five work days.
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