Hardwood Floor Refinishing Options For Your Houston Home or Business

When purchasing a hardwood floor, a lot of attention is paid to what kind of floor materials, color, finish and a myriad of other aspects of hardwood floors and their effect on your home.Almost no instructions are given on how to properly care for your hardwood floors after they are installed.

Hardwood floors in Houston and the surrounding areas of Texas are sealed with a polyurethane sealant that gives wood floors their luster, protection and overall durability.The finish of the floor should last around 3 years,At some point, the floors will begin to dull.This is because very small particles are constantly being ground into the finish through everyday use.As we walk on the floor, we essentially wear off the finish of the polyurethane seal coat.

This wear takes the form of debris becoming embedded in the finish, or making a small holes or indentations in the finish before the debris is removed.As the floor begins to dull, the homeowner starts to look at ways of bringing back the luster of the floors.

Usually, this means going to the store and buying a high quality floor product to shine your floors with.Unfortunately, these floor care products are not made for wood surfaces.They are usually made containing acrylic; whish is great for non porous surfaces, but not so good for hardwoods.

While the acrylic will dry with a nice shine on the floor for a sort time, it does not fix the surface of the polyurethane coat.Instead it seeps into the grain of the wood and seals the surface debris into the new acrylic finish, trapping it on your floors.As layer after later builds up, the floors become duller and duller.

At some point the homeowner will decide to restore the floors to their rightful glory.Most hardwood floor companies will offer only hardwood floor refinishing services for the Houston area.However, this is not the only option available to homeowners.We have the experience and knowledge to refurbish your floors without resorting to sanding and refinishing your floors.

Let me explain the difference.

Hardwood floor refinishing consists of these steps:

1. The entire finish must be sanded off of the surface of the floors.
2. A stain is applied to the floor to obtain the color that you desire on the wood.
3. A polyurethane seal coat is applied to the floors.When it dries it leaves a clear, hard finish that is very durable.

Based off 1000 SF, refinishing will take approx. 3-5 days to complete from start to finish.

Resurfacing a hardwood floor consists of these steps.

1. The Houston hardwood floor refinishing technician uses a special commercial grade cleaning solution, a buffer and special burnishing pads that gently scrub away years of cleaning residue, layers of wax, dirt, grit and grime until the finish is exposed.
2. With the finish exposed and properly cleaned, the technician can evaluate how to proceed. If the floor is very old and worn out, a liquid paste wax is applied to set up a new finish and give the wood floor back oils needed to keep the wood looking fresh under the seal coat.
3. If the floor still has a good polyurethane finish intact, the technician will apply a commercial urethane base seal coat to resurface the floor.This repairs all the microscopic damage and restores the finish to the floor, without sanding and staining.

It takes one day to complete, and you can walk on the floors that same day in most cases.

Why have you never heard of re-furbishing hardwood floors?

There are three main reasons for this:

1. There is much more profit in refinishing or replacing a hardwood floor than there is in resurfacing .This is the primary reason.Let’s face it, you can charge a lot more for your service if you have a crew on site for 5 days than if you have 1 technician and a helper go to a site for 1 day.
2. Consumers usually inquire about hiving their floors refinished or replaced, not re-furbished.The floor care store is simply quoting the customer a price for the service they asked about.If you ask about resurfacing, they will most likely tell you they do not offer the service.Many will not even know what it is.
3. The technician must be a floor restoration technician with many years of experience to be able to properly evaluate the correct cleaning compounds and waxes to use depending on the flooring type.It is difficult for the larger flooring houses to keep such a qualified professional on their staff.When a floor care professional reaches this level of craftsmanship, they tend to go into business for themselves.