Give your wood floors a second chance

If your wood floor has seen better days (or has been beat up on better days when kids and pets were running about), don’t start playing taps just yet. You don’t have to get a memorial stone or order a dumpster. Give those wood floors new life by repairing and refinishing them.



•Prep your house for the repairing and refinishing process. Clear the room of all furniture. Cover doorways around the room with a plastic sheeting to confine the dust.
•Quiet that floor down! Start with repair. If your floors are creaky or have boards missing, contact an expert that can fix the creak and add matching boards to create a seamless, quiet floor. Your expert might tell you it’s time to replace those floors with new wood flooring (and if you have to put in a new floor, consider prefinished floors so you don’t have to deal with the dust!).

•Sand it down. Rent a sander or hire a floor expert to sand down or screen your floors. If your floors are a candidate for screening, go for it. Screening your floors does not involve the dust, while still giving your floors a new look.

•Apply the perfect finish. Work with a flooring expert to choose the color that works with the décor of your home. You might also want to consider your lifestyle when choosing the stain as well—dark floors tend to show pet hair more, while light floors show stains. These may be the floors that were in your grandmother’s house, but we guarantee your grandmother did not have the colors and options that come with today’s solid hardwood floors. Solid hardwood floors come in a variety of finishes that allow you to bring out as much of the wood grain as you want.

•Sit back and enjoy. Enjoy the benefits of a repaired, beautiful wood floor.

If you can’t save your floors, don’t despair. Talking to the experts and a good hardwood flooring installer can give you new flooring with the look you desire—along with all the advantages of a wood floor.