How often should I refinish my hardwood floors?

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20160701_080008_SmWhether you live in the Berkeley Hills or Alamo, if you have wood floors they are most likely original to the house. Whether you live in San Pablo or El Cerrito, you most likely have a white or red oak solid floor. These floors are solid wood and had been around for decades, some even more than a century. The life span of a traditional oak floor is longer than what most people think. We just refinished a white oak floor that was installed in 1965. It has been around for about 50 years and has more life on it for another 50. When we refinish oak floors we get this question a lot: “how long before I need to refinish my floors again?”

The short answer is: it depends. Some floors will need to be refinished after several years and some after more than a decade. Here are the factors that contribute to the durability and longevity of the wood floors finish:

  • Professionally sanding the floors – a qualified contractor will only sand very little off the floor. Poor sanding can take years off the life of the floors. Also, the smoother and more flat the sanding, the more consistent the finish layer will be
  • Using commercial finishes – if your contractor uses cheap or DIY finishes from the local box store, you are guaranteed a finish that will wear and tear quickly
  • Following manufacturer recommendation for the proper drying and curing conditions. Home owners are told it is okay to move in two days after the final coat was applied. It is not. The finish needs proper time to harden and cure and that takes more time than two days
  • Maintenance – proper care for your wood floors will guarantee more years of use before a need to refinish

From our experience at Avi’s Hardwood Floors the average family would need to refinish their floors every 10-15 years. With proper sanding and finishing on our end, and proper use and maintenance on your end (the consumer) your wood floor finish will last a long time.

Engineered Floor Installation Process

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We were called to install, sand and finish engineered wood floors.

The house is built on the side of a hill with the closest part to the hill on a concrete slab and the suspended areas with a very out of flat OSB sub floor. There used to be a lot of leveling compound where the concrete and the OSB meet. The client asked us to install unfinished Maple floor with some borders, diagonal fields, medallion and inserts in the hallway.

There are no cells in this grid yet.

Step 1:

Remove and haul away baseboards and laminate floors. Oh my god and yes like California style oh my gooood – the baseboards were mitered around the radius outside corners. We will fix that later in this project. Once the demo was completed we discovered multiple areas with leveling compounds. I tapped with a wooden piece on those areas, which we found to be loose. We used hammers, scrapers and grinders to remove the loose areas. We then used grinders to profile the concrete for epoxy moisture barrier application. We sprayed the slab with water as we were grinding to minimize silica dust in the air, used proper respirator and HEPA filtered vacuumed attached to all machines.

Step 2:

now that the slab was free of paint, sealers and whatever else was on it we were ready to seal any cracks and holes with the proper leveling compound. We vacuumed and used a dry mop to remove any dust and then applied the compound. We let it dry overnight, then buffed the floor with 100 screen, vacuumed and tacked again. We used a two part epoxy designed for sealing concrete floors. It was part of a system so the sealer was compatible with the adhesive we were going to use. It is important to understand that the epoxy has a green grab time limit and it is usually up to 36 hours, after that you have to mechanically scratch it with a buffer for the glue to adhere.

We had to use door skin and 30lb roofing felt to feather the OSB areas where they met the concrete.

Compared to the other contractors, we probably added a good amount of time to the job in preparation and moisture control alone. In my opinion, all this work is not an option and must be done to guarantee a successful installation. I don’t care that in some cases according to the guidelines a moisture barrier is not a must. I seal the slab on every job.

Who is Avi Hadad?

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At my grandfather’s advice, I try to maintain balance between running my business and enjoying family life. In this video I try to show more of who I am as a person. I enjoy playing my guitars, listening to music, cooking with my wife, raising our boys to be gentlemen and kick boxing in the evenings. As serious and focused one can be, I always leave room for fun and foolishness.

Why Hire Avi’s Hardwood Floors?

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At Avi’s Hardwood Floors we offer anything and everything that is wood floors. We install, sand and finish solid hardwood floors in the East Bay communities. Our reputation had been built on quality and customer service.

Can I Refinish my Engineered Floors?

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Over the past decade engineered floors became the go to product in a lot of areas. Manufacturers were driving more flooring products in engineered form into the market as demand grew. Engineered floors were at first just a plywood core with a very thin veneer or real wood on top. Most of them could not be refinished, so when the wear and tear took toll on the floor it had to be replaced. That was in a lot of cases very costly to the home owner.

We recently had to refinish another engineered floor. The floor was red oak veneer over plywood core. We had absolutely no wiggle room with the sanding. The veneer was very thin. We turned the yellow creamy looking red oak into a dark brown espresso color within two days. The home owner was stunned to see the transformation, especially after hearing so many other contractors say they could not refinish that floor.

When it is time to make the decision you have two options: hire a professional to sand the floors or replace it. Refinishing the floor is a small expense in comparison to a full blown hardwood floors replacement, especially if that engineered floor is glued to concrete, which is the case in most homes here in the Bay Area.

Like our past client, take the time to research the professionals in this area. You’ll soon find out that many contractors don’t know and can’t sand such a thin wood floor and so they’ll quote you on a floor replacement. Not knowing much about wood floors you might end up accepting their recommendation and spending your good earned money for no good reason on a brand new product.

Engineered floors have one thing going for them – there’s real wood veneer! If that veneer is thick enough we can refinish it. We had saved so many floors and saved so much money to our clients over the years. With a full dustless refinish process combined with our well qualified crew your engineered wood floors can also be transformed.

Click to enlarge photos

Which is the Best finish for my Wood Floors?

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Sanded-Hardwood-FloorsWe all want to protect our wood floors with the best finish available so we don’t have to do it all over again, right? Most our clients who choose to install new hardwood floors in the East Bay are concerned about the future of their floors. One client in Berkeley, CA asked me what finish would be best living with a big dog in the house. Another one in El Cerrito wanted to know what finish would protect their wood floors from water damage. The answer to this question is very simple: choose a professional to apply a commercial finish on your floor, maintain it properly and you should be fine. There is no one magic floor finish that does it all, after all we all walk on these finishes every day.

There are many choices of finish out there, here is a table exploring some of the characteristics of the main finishes used in the wood flooring market these days:

Finish Type

Color

Approximate Drying Time

Approximate Cure Time

Aging Color

Approximate VOC

Pros

Cons

Oil Base Urethane

Amber

overnight

7 days

Amber

500 g/L

Durable, ages nicely, easy to repair

Strong smell, dries slowly

Water Base Urethane

Clear

3-4 hours

Approximately 80% in 3 days

yellow

210 g/L

Durable, lower VOC, dries and cures fast

Results vary depend on product

Wax Oil Blend

All colors

overnight

7 days

Depends on color

zero

Easy to maintain, no VOC

No resin build up on the floor like oil and water finishes

Staining Wood Before Finishing

All colors

3-4 hours for light colors overnight for dark colors

7 days

N/A

550 g/L

n/

n/a

All finishes require regular maintenance.

All finishes will scratch.

All finishes will wear with regular use overtime.

All finishes can be repaired or restored with different results.

There is no magic product that cures in a day and will never need refinishing. It all comes down to which look you like and how you would be using the floors. Applied correctly all finishes will stand the test of time.

Fixing Badly Sanded Hardwood Floors

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Sanded-Hardwood-FloorsWe were called again to fix a floor that was badly sanded. After a water leak damaged the wood floor in a home in Lafayette, the insurance company brought in their hardwood flooring guys to fix the floor. The home owners assumed everything was going to be handled by the insurance company. Little did they know that the guys hired to refinish the wood floors were just plain horrible. The home owners returned to their house to discover a disaster: dust everywhere, gauges in their baseboards and an uneven floor.

Shortly after their discovery the home owners found Avi’s Hardwood Floors and contacted me for an estimate. When I got there it was obvious the floors needed a full refinish and the baseboards needed replacement. After closely inspecting the stairs we also decided to replace all the decorative molding on the stairs.

After a long while of the owners dealing with their insurance company we finally got the green light. The owners knew we were up to the challenge but like anyone who’s been through a bad experience, it was obvious they were concerned with the outcome. After all this was the second and last shot at the sanding, otherwise the floor would have to be replaced because there would not be much wood left to sand. We showed up on time and started stripping the finish off the floor while making the floors flat. This took a little while and the more we sanded the more we realized how bad the sanding job was. In some places we could not take the gauges out without replacing the boards. By looking at the scratch pattern on the floors we determined that one of the tools used on the floor by the other guys was – A grinder.

That explained the small circular scratches in the wood, the long deep gauges and the damaged baseboards. The owners were scheduled to stay at the house the first part of the sanding, then leave for the staining and finishing phase. Once we finished the final sanding I could see a big relief in the owner’s eyes. They were watching us sanding the floors at times and expressed their appreciation in our effort to keep everything clean and the floor flat. We made a custom stain color for them at their request to minimize the gold and yellow in their red oak floor. We applied the stain coat on a Friday so that we could let it dry for three days. The pigments in dark stains like the ones we used are very heavy and require longer drying times. The following week while the owners were gone we applied three coats of commercial water base finish and installed all new baseboards and stair moldings throughout the working areas. I took the time to text pictures of our progress to the owners every day.

As usual we did the best we could and the floor came out as expected. Avi’s Hardwood Floors takes pride in doing the best on every job. It makes for happy clients and life easier on everyone knowing that a project only needed to be done once. 

Can I Refinish My Engineered Wood Floors?

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Engineered hand scraped floorsWe were recently hired to install an engineered wood floor over a concrete slab in Danville, CA. This job involved a complete tear out of carpets and tile floor coverings, minor leveling and a moisture barrier installation prior to the floors being installed. The product itself was a hand scraped floor with a factory finish. That meant a few things:

  • This product could not be refinished in the future
  • This floor could only be cleaned and recoated
  • You could not change the texture or the color of the floor in the future

Home owners who choose pre finished wood flooring products are usually not aware of the consequences of their decisions. Meaning, some don’t realize that their floors could not be refinished in the future, or even worse could not be recoated. That meant in some cases that the floors would have to be replaced within five to ten years of install.

Solid floors - Can be refinished many times

When we installed this hand scraped engineered floors in Danville we took the time to educate our customer of the future options for the floor. We told them that these floors could not be re scraped or refinished. The only thing that could possibly be done is a buff and recoat.

I recently visited a home in San Anselmo, CA that had the same product installed by another company. The only issue the home owners had with the floor was the color. They were never told at the point of sale that their floors could be recoated because of a unique additive to the finish which was applied in the factory. In that case, they were stuck with a floor that would definitely need to be replaced in a few years.

When investing your money in a new hardwood floor make sure your product is versatile. Talk to the person selling you the hardwood floor about what can be done in the future in regards to refinishing your floors. Engineered floors don’t come cheap and hand scraped engineered floors are even more expensive, so when you invest a good amount of money in a new hardwood floors make sure you can service that product in years to come and not have to completely replace it after the finish started wearing off.

The expensive cost of refinishing wood floors for less

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Floor refinishHome services can be cheap or expansive. Some services that come to mind are plumbing, heating, painting, kitchen remodeling and of course wood floors. We all know the saying you get what you pay for. In most cases it is true and I have seen too many floors that failed because of a price point decision made by the consumer. The most common mistake consumers make is hiring flooring contractors based on price or letting the price be the first deciding factor on their list.  

As we all are consumers at one point or another we should look out for a few things when hiring a hardwood specialist:

  1. Reputation
  2. Experience
  3. Technical education
  4. Equipment
  5. Intuition 

As you can see money is not on this list. The bottom line is that if you look out for these five factors you’ll end up with very compatible quotes as far as price goes. In other words, most chances are that if you interview three flooring contractors that have the same level of 1-4 elements, they would all be within the same price range. So, going back to “you get what you pay for”. Done right, the interview process is very critical to making a wise and educated decision. I speak for myself when I say that when I interview contractors to work in my home it all comes down to intuition. I can very easily find two or three contractors that hold the same experience, education and reputation. In the end I will hire the one I feel most comfortable with. 

So how in the world a small decision like hiring the wrong flooring contractor can flip your life upside down, cost you a lot more money than you planned and ruin your schedule? Let’s start with the decision making of one John Doe. John hired contractor X to refinish his floors. X was not the most educated or experienced but the price was right, which made his quote very attractive. He did offer three coats of oil base urethane like the other guys, though he could also move furniture and work on the weekend. 

Here is what happened next: contractor x was late every day, used no dust control, his guys were not insured, he used cheap finish from the local box store and in the end the floors looked horrible. The owner paid 50% cash up front for a job that didn’t deserve even that amount. 

The owners came back after a weekend out of town to discover the following:

  • Their entire house including the walls was covered with dust.
  • The floors looked dirty, blotchy and felt rough to the touch.
  • There was garbage everywhere they looked; outside, on the window cells and in their bathrooms.
  • The sinks were filthy.
  • The walls and their cabinets were all scratched up.
  • The baseboards were gauged and had black marks all over them.

John Doe much like any of us was unhappy to say the least. He called the contractor asking for the floors to get fixed up and pointed out all the damages in the house. The contractor said the floors were fine and wanted his money. Since John refused to pay the contractor decided to sue John. Two months later:

  • They were in court
  • The floors were not fixed
  • John had to hire a pro to fix the floors for more money, a lot more
  • The family and the pets had to have arrangements made for them for all this time
  • John spent endless hours talking to experts, researching his problem online and dealing with the issue.

In the end, all this could have been avoided had John decided to pay a little more to a more qualified professional. I see this stuff happen every month. We get called out to fix jobs like that. By the time I show up to look at the floors, it is usually a couple of months after the problems started. In not so many words: we quote the job, schedule it, show up on time, complete it to customer’s satisfaction on schedule and move on. This is how it should be for everyone. Remember that saving money on your wood floors can cost a lot more very shortly after. 

As the old saying: cheap labor is expansive. 

Wood Medallions and Custom Hardwood Floors

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IMG_4874The effect wood medallions have on the final design of a home is huge. Many home owners are not aware of the upgrade options they have with their hardwood floors. In most cases the home already has wood floors, so adding on an inlay or a medallion insert goes a long way. When we discuss our refinishing process with potential clients we take the time to explain and show the different floor upgrades we offer. Something simple as a medallion insert at the entry can transform the entire wood floor. The idea is to add an element to compliment the floor instead of distracting the eye to that element alone.

Wood medallions come in many shapes and colors. From a simple rose compass circular medallion with geometric design to a free form ellipse with curved inlays and marquetry. Much like going to any store, exploring the wood options by yourself can be overwhelming. At Avi’s Hardwood Floors we take the time to inspect and analyze the layout and design of your home before we come up with a few complimenting upgrade options.

In some cases where the wood floors already have a border around the perimeter we offer a darker inlayed feature strip to highlight the design. We can add on decorative wood corner blocks or inlay a pattern into the field of the floor. In other cases we recommend leaving the floor as is and add only one element, like a medallion. Wood medallions are installed at focal points in the home like in front of you fire place or at the entry. In places where you can see them, they will not be covered in furniture and not in high traffic areas.

Our clients usually say this after we do the work: “why in the world didn’t I upgrade my floors before?” it is amazing to see what a single piece of wood marquetry does to the feel of a floor. It becomes a story, a part of your family home, a unique element that reveals different aspects of itself every time you look at it. There is nothing like the warmth of wood especially when it is something that was created just for you.