what is the best way to strip hardware floors
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Under old, soiled, dirty rug may be a beautiful wood floor screaming to exist reintroduced to your home. Coating your floors with a clean, new terminate is nearly as satisfying as it gets. A lilliputian hard work and you could have the hardwood floor you've always wanted.
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Remove any carpet from the surface area. Cut and roll in sections manageable for carrying out to the trash. Once all carpeting has been removed, move on to the real piece of work.
- If any of the carpet is stuck to the subfloor, then you lot may need to scrape it or just give it a good tug to get it unstuck.
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Hammer down whatever protruding nail heads. Nails may have been added to the flooring to cutting down on squeaking or to secure a loose baseboard. Either way, nails that are sticking upward above the wood floor present both a danger and a nuisance. Well-nigh of the time, hammering the nails down deeper into the flooring is a better and easier solution than taking the nails out.
- Hammer the nails down about i⁄iv inch (0.vi cm) into the floor. Utilize a nail fix so you lot don't leave hammer marks(dents)in the wood. Piece of work with their direction, not against it. One time the nails are 1⁄4 inch (0.6 cm) deep, they're prepare to exist curtained with a lilliputian bit of filler that you'll make after sanding down the remainder of the flooring. More on that after.
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Make certain the floor is relatively make clean. [1] If former rug backing is stuck to your wood floor, you will need to scrape it off with a putty knife. This can be a rather tedious job, and tin can take a great deal of time, only it'south worth it.
- Go over the floor with a vacuum and mop if necessary. Years of dust and dust tin can create a lot of debris. You lot want this debris cleared away before yous assault the old wood finish.
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Remove whatever tack stripping along the floor edges. If tack stripping was nowadays forth with your carpet, remove it before you kickoff sanding and so that you tin can hit those areas with your finish.
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Utilise sanding to buff up whatsoever very old, excessively scratched or worn wood. Chemical strippers can be used if what you're afterwards is a quick ready, or the floors themselves were recently finished. If, however, you're dealing with traffic patterns, stains, or scratches, your all-time bet is to sand away those imperfections and so add another coat to the floor.[2]
- Yous tin rent a detail sander for this purpose.
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Prep the perimeter. Hand-sand or palm-sand the perimeter of the floor with coarse 180-dust sandpaper. Rub out iv to six inches (ten.two to xv.ii cm) from the edge of the baseboard and so that you're sure to comprehend the areas your mechanical floor sander can't become to.
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Utilize a floor sander. A floor sander is useful to hit the areas of the flooring that weren't hitting past hand in the item sanding. You tin rent floor sanding machines at hardware supply stores or equipment rental stores.[three]
- Start with a semi-coarse grit and begin to sand the floor. Outset off gently. You don't want to gouge the floor. If y'all get a practiced sander, y'all'll even be able to elevator upward the sander and spend a piffling more fourth dimension on heavy-vesture or problem areas. Modify out your sanding disks equally necessary. You may need to change out the sandpaper in one case or twice using the same grit before you've completely removed the finish.
- Using a pencil, color the entire expanse lightly with streaks of graphite. This volition help tell y'all when yous've sanded an area. Otherwise, it'll be tough to tell where yous've sanded and where y'all haven't.
- Become over the entire flooring again with a medium-grit sandpaper. Await at the pencil streaks to make up one's mind whether you've already sanded an area or not. Over again, y'all may need to change the disks on your sanding machine before the job is finished.
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Relieve the sawdust created by sanding. If yous hit any wayward nails dorsum into the flooring in the prep stage, be sure to save the sawdust so that you lot tin can patch and plug the i⁄4 inch (0.6 cm) holes created by the nails. This will help ensure a nice, fifty-fifty end.
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Utilize a chemical stripper in lieu of sanding. If you accept a very minor 12" past 12" area to refinish, so you may want to use a chemical stripper instead of sanding down the floor. If you cull to employ a chemical stripper, always follow the instructions on the label and use proper prophylactic precautions.
- Employ gloves, goggles, and be sure to ventilate the expanse you're working in. Chemical strippers are designed to pare off the terminate from wood; you don't want it interacting with your skin, and you don't want to inhale too much of it.[four]
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Apply the stripper on an area of nigh two square anxiety. Don't be timid near applying besides much of it. You as well don't want to cover too much of an area at in one case every bit you will want to be able to make clean the area in plenty of fourth dimension.
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Let stripper sit for almost five minutes. In one case you lot've applied the stripper to the end, let wait the suggested time without interfering. You lot will find the sometime stain bubbling and lifting from the forest.
- Don't wait so long that the stripper dries on you. When you remove the stripper, you want it to still be wet.
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Remove the stripper from the wood. You can do this in ii steps:
- Striking the expanse with a putty knife to scrape off the stripper forth with the end.
- Use denatured alcohol in a disposable aluminum pan to clean off the remaining stripper with the help of steel wool. Do not put too much denatured alcohol in the pan, as it does tend to quickly evaporate.
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Follow manufacturer's instructions for cleaning the stripper from the wood. Dissimilar chemical strippers volition need to be cleaned using different methods. Some strippers demand to exist cleaned with turpentine or paint remover, while others can just be rinsed with water.
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Permit the area to dry out completely. Water or moisture and your new finish don't work well together; be certain to allow the area to dry completely earlier moving on to the adjacent footstep.
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Spot-sand whatever scratched or worn areas. You may need to sand any problem areas earlier you lot apply the new end to your wood floors.
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Plug any remaining holes with wood paste or wood plugs. May you lot had a few cables running into the baseboard; or perhaps those nails we talked about earlier are in need or covering upward.
- To make a forest paste, mix sawdust with a modest amount of white glue to create a paste. Use paste over the nails with a putty knife and permit to harden before sanding affluent with the residue of the flooring.
- Notice pocket-size wooden plugs for larger holes. If necessary, drill into the floor to overstate the hole so that the plug will fit nicely within. Apply a pocket-sized amount of woods glue around the side of the plug, fit the plug into the hole so that the grain of the plug and the grain of the floor match well, and hammer down lightly. Permit to dry completely before sanding flush with the rest of the floor.
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Clean the flooring. Earlier you use any terminate, be sure to vacuum and/or clean up whatever debris. Yous want your entire floor cleared of any sawdust, debris, or stripper earlier y'all utilize the new glaze. Brand sure besides that your floor is completely dry before applying the new cease.
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Apply the stain. Once the floor is ready to be refinished, apply the water-based stain or finish of your choosing evenly onto the flooring. Brand sure that earlier yous actually kickoff to employ the coat to your flooring, you have the windows open for ventilation, y'all're wearing a mask to proceed the fumes from bothering you, and you've spot tested the cease so you reasonably know what it's going to wait like on your floor.[five]
- Also employ gloves and a synthetic bristle brush when applying the finish. Start with the perimeter of the flooring and piece of work your style in. A 3-inch ring is all you'll demand for a perimeter.
- Apply a lamb's wool applicator pad to practice virtually of the work for you.[6] You can employ a watering can with a bit of cheesecloth on top to pour the terminate onto the floor, and then utilize your applicator pad to mop the finish into the flooring evenly and cleanly.
- Make sure that you leave yourself an area to exit once the stop has been practical. You don't desire to have to walk over the newly-stained floor with your muddied shoes when yous desire to let the stop dry.
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Wait for the cease to dry. If necessary, apply another coat of stain or end to deepen the color. Use the same techniques equally your first coat, but sand the area with a fine 300 dust sandpaper outset. Too, be sure to take proper safety and handling guidelines into consideration.
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Finish with a polyurethane coating when the stain dries, if desired. It is much easier to use a long-handed roller rather than a castor, and it gives a nicer cease. It is important to lightly sand after each application with 220 to 300 grit sandpaper. Clean after each sanding with tack cloth. Information technology may accept 24 hours betwixt applications for the polyurethane to dry out and yous will demand a minimum of 3 coats for best results.
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Adhere a moisture/dry vacuum, haversack or canister vacuum to effectively collect excess sanding dust
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Use a nail set which is a small punch to drive the exposed nail heads in.
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If you lot aren't handy at all, hiring a visitor to sand & seal the floors for you should cost about the same as purchasing a good quality carpet to cover the same space.
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When sanding, soak sheets in the bathtub and hang them in your doorways to forestall the dust spreading through the entire house. Remember to cover your vents too. Turn off your heating/cooling system likewise until all of the sanding is completed and the grit has settled.
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An alternative method is to rent a sander and sand the floor. This method is cheaper, faster, healthier and produces better results. However, information technology is best to hire a professional to do this if you are not experienced with this equipment.
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When you put the forest flooring down, use the manufacturer's instructions. If these instructions do non testify you how to orient the tongue and groove, the groove faces the starting wall and floor nails should exist driven into the tongue.
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Be sure to follow the temperature, and weather condition guidelines for your products. Do not do when wet outside or below 50 °F (10 °C).
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Expect fumes. Make sure the room is well ventilated. Open a door and all, if not, nearly of the windows.
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Things Y'all'll Need
- Stripping agent from a hardware shop. Inquire which product will be best for stripping woods floors.
- Denatured alcohol
- Steel wool
- Putty knife
- Safe gloves that will non damage when used with stripper.
- sandpaper
- Buffing newspaper
- Wood stain (color of your choice)
- Stain spreader (looks like a squeegee)
- Polyurethane
- Varnish or oil
- Dust mask
- Hammer and blast set (pocket-sized finish carpenter'due south punch)
About This Commodity
Commodity Summary 10
Before refinishing your forest floors, rent a detail sander from your local home improvement shop and use it to vitrify abroad the old finish. So, plug in whatsoever holes with wood paste or wood plugs, and vacuum the floor to remove any sawdust or droppings. Once the flooring is gear up to exist refinished, utilise a paintbrush to apply the h2o-based stain or finish. Let the stain dry, and then brush on another coat if you lot want a richer color. All the same, make sure to sand the expanse before applying the second glaze to ensure a shine, even terminate. For more advice from our General Contracting reviewer, including how remove the former end using a chemical stripper, go along reading.
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