Hardwood Floors April/May 2019

randomorbital sanders or other sandingmachines to remove perimeter scratches, be sure to use the same grit as was used in the nal sanding process. If the result is not satisfactory, the previous stepsmust be repeated. For oors maintaining beveled edges, application of multiple coats will require thorough abrasion by hand in order to ensure nish adhesion in the bevels. Understand the process for distressed or sculpted oors – When sanding a distressed or sculpted oor, use extreme caution. Distressed ooring may be classi ed as hand-scraped, wire brushed, textured, or similar. ese types of oors cannot be resanded using traditional methods to maintain a textured appearance. Due to the variation in the surface wear layer thickness, these types of oors are extremely di cult, and o en cannot be sanded. e wear layer may be less than the recommended ” thickness in many areas of the oor, which would become the lowest point to which the remaining oor would need to be sanded to get it at. When a sculpted oor is at the point of needing to be re nished, the alternative methods are either rescraping, rewire brushing, or retexturing using alternative methods and equipment. Massive amounts of work must typically be done by hand in order to restore the originally intended sculpture of these oors. When resculpting an existing oor, the appearance will likely change. Alternatively, recoating these types of oors may o en be the best option. Routine maintenance on these types of oors is extremely important to the longevity of the products. Unfortunately, when improperly maintained, it is extremely di cult to bring back the intended appearance of these oors. By following these steps and taking into account all of the precautions listed, many of the existing factory- nished oors that have been installed are capable of being restored. Whether the purpose for re nishing is due to damage, age, wear, or simply just a color change for the end-user, the process of re nishing wood ooring is one of the many bene ts of why people buy wood ooring. Brett Miller is VP of Education & Certification at the National Wood Flooring Association in St. Louis. He can be reached at brett.miller@nwfa.org.

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