Occasionally, old wooden floors require maintenance to stay looking good, stain-free and protected against wear. Wood floors that have been coated with varnish, lacquer, or shellac will need to be refinished entirely if there are areas where the finish has faded completely.

A complete refurbishing job requires sanding and refinishing of the whole floor. If the floors are still in relatively good condition and just a little worn in some areas, simply re-coat the worn sections with the appropriate sealer, clean, and polish the floor well.

If refurbishing wood floors completely, follow these steps:

Step 1: Remove debris from the entire floor surface by vacuuming.

Step 2: Floors with worn finish need to be sanded either by hand or using an electric sander.

First, use 60-grit sandpaper to remove the old coat and even out any scratches on the floor. Next, use a finer grit sandpaper (120-grit) to re-sand the floor.

For softwood flooring, use sandpaper with even finer coarse, such as 150-grit sandpaper.

Step 3: Vacuum the floor to remove all the dust from sanding. Afterwards, use a cloth to wipe the floor to make sure all particles are removed.

Step 4: If you have bare wooden floors with dark stains, you can apply bleach to the stains to get rid of them. Make sure the bleach does not get into the glued seams.

Rinse off the bleach once the stains have lightened. Never use bleach on your wood floors if any type of finish has been applied on them, because the finish will certainly be damaged.

Step 5: Prepare to apply sealer to the floor. First, protect the baseboards from the sealer by taping their bottom parts along the floor’s edges.

Proceed with painting the floor. To touch up a slightly worn wood floor with penetrating sealer, apply a thin layer of the sealer over the worn out areas. Instead of the typical method of using a paintbrush, rub the sealer on the floor using a soft cloth. Other than this, follow the directions for use on the product container.

When refurbishing wood floors completely, the entire surface should be resealed by applying an even coat of surface finish or penetrating sealer to the whole floor.

Step 6: When the first coat of sealer has completely dried, apply a second layer. While this step is optional, it is recommended, because it makes the pigmented sealer appear darker and offers a thicker protective layer to the surface finish.

Step 7: Peel off the tape from your baseboards.

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