How to refinish your wood floor with hardwood floor finish

Hardwood floor finish

Who wouldn’t love this: an interior hardwood floor with brilliant visible grain, laid in your favorite pattern – herringbone or ladder pattern. Transparent, crystal clear finish foor hardwood floors not only seal the wooden floor by closing the pores of the wood, but also proteccts the wood floor from abrasion from walking and using the floor in your home. Furthermore, hardwood floor varnish and finish forms a barrier on hardwood floor against penetrating moisture and dirt.

A transparent hardwood floor finish enhances the appearance and lets parquet floor shine. If a wood floor is varnished, it is much easier to be kept clean. To find out what types of interior hardwood floor finishes and varnishes exist, and which hardwood floor finish to buy, keep on reading, because we will show you the steps on how to finish your hardwood floor as well!


What are hardwood floor finish and hardwood floor varnish based on

Binders are what holds paint together. They are a type of resin or oil. The binder is emulsified in either water or another solvent; that’s why on tins of hardwood floor finshes you can often read water-based, oil-based or fast drying. The two key ingredients in hardwood floor varnish and finish are:

  • Acrylics: acrylic-based wood varnishes, finishes and lacquers are mostly waterborne. They are low-odor and therefore an easy and practical solution for home floorings where walking traffic is low to medium like living rooms. They tend to become brittle quite quick where sun hits alot, and have the tendency to form flaws as well. They are on the upside among the lowest in price.
  • Polyurethane: Polyurethane coatings are very elastic and therefore durable. 2 component Polyurethan lacquers for wooden surfaces are considered of the highest quality. Mixes of polyurethane and acrylics are not uncommon as a hardwood floor finish, so are Polyurethan-Alkyd resin combinations.

Buy hardwood floor finish

Varathane Water- Based Crystal Clear Satin Floor Finish 1 Gallon
Varathane Water-Based Floor Finish
  • 1 Gallon
  • Crystal Clear Satin
Bona Mega Wood Floor Finish Satin 1 Gallon
Bona Mega Wood Floor Finish
  • 1 Gallon
  • Clear Satin
Varathane Oil-Based Clear Semi-gloss Floor Finish 1 Gallon
Varathane Oil-Based Floor Finish
  • 1 Gallon
  • Clear Semi-Gloss
Deft Interior Exterior Water-Based Polyurethane Finish Gloss 1 Quart
Deft Water-Based Polyurethane Finish
  • 1 Quart
  • Clear Gloss
Minwax Super Fast-Drying Polyurethane For Floors 350 VOC 1 Gallon Semi-Gloss
Minwax Polyurethane for Floors
  • 1 Gallon
  • Clear Semi-Gloss

When it’s time to renew the hardwood floor finish

Apply hardwood floor finish

Applying hardwood floor finish like the pros is done with a roller.

Hardwood floors will get worn out after several years of being kicked and walked on. Scuffs or stains on the floor made you use furniture and rugs as disguise rather than decoration. But floor damage does not mean you have to get the whole thing expensively sanded back and recoated, or carpeted. Wood floor paint or floorboard paint is the inexpensive solution for your wood floor. So why not try and do it yourself:

DIY: Finishing hardwood floor by yourself

You might be the experienced floor finisher because you had to do it since years, than you won’t learn much here, but if you are a newbie to hardwood floor finishing, read ahead. We show you the steps of how to finish your hardwood floor:

1. Cleaning the hardwood floor

Before anything exciting can happen, you have to clean an prepare the floor properly. And believe it or not, it is the first step to a perfect wood floor, because dirt or oil compromises on adherance of the finish which means the varnish or finish will not last.

So to clean, use a mild wood cleaner or parcqet floor detergant suitable for the type of wood of your floor. Use according to the instructions on the bottle and let it dry thoroughly.

2. Sanding the hardwood floor

Next, you need to sand down the hardwood floor step by step. That means you dry-sand it, starting with a rough grain and build up to a finer one – possible are 3 steps: P60, P120, and P180. After the finest stage of sanding, the sanded floor needs to be vacuumed.

By the way: If you have a large surface to sand, consider using a disc sanding machine; with a little practice it saves valuable time, and labour.

3. Seal Hardwood floor with hardwood floor finish

Working transversely to incidence of light, apply first layer of hardwood floor finish with a roller. Let dry for several hours. Repeat applying the wood floor varnish/finish as a second layer. After this second layer is dry, sand it with a disc sander or manually (ca. P220/240) in order to smooth out erected woodfibres. Afterwards, apply the last layer of wood finish.

The freshly finished hardwood floor should not be used and walked on for at least 12 hours, while complete curing takes about 10 days.

Please always follow the instructions on your wood coating. It might diiffer from our step-by-step guide.

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