Before:
After:
It turns out that refinishing hardwood floors wasn't as simple as following directions. After a few days, the color continued to change. And the parts that had shown the most excessive wear still look distinctly different. What to do? Too late now, now that the final coats have been applied.
The process took about 8 hours in total, over the course of several days. First I had to scrub the floor clean because it was heinously dirty. At first I was scrubbing by hand (bristle brush and scour pads and Simple Green... a magic formula!) then I figured to use an industrial floor polisher which saved a tremendous amount of time.
Then I sanded the floor by hand with 120 grit sand paper. (Probably should've used a machine in this case but was too lazy to go buy one or rent one and plus have major fear of sanding a hole in the floor). Then I sanded the floor with 220 grit sand paper. And swept up and vacuumed up all the bits of dust.
Then I used "golden mahogany" wood stain by Varathane (purchased at Home Depot). You have to wipe it on with a clean cloth, let it absorb for a minute (max 3 min) and then wipe off the "excess" so that there isn't an unbalanced amount of stain in some parts.
Since most of the original stain was not stripped off, the blended color looked quite nice. It was the worn out parts of the wood (where no stain was left) that the color absorbed differently and still looks different. In hindsight, I perhaps should have coated those parts with polyurethane before staining, but who knows if that would have helped. I'm no professional!
After the stain dried for 24 hours (I cheated, it was only 22, and in cold weather no less), I applied three coats of semi-glossy polyurethane approx every two hours using a lifesaving applicator brush (attached to a broomstick). And voila! (I say lifesaving because it was the only part of the process where I was not on my hands and knees breaking my back).
After 3 days, you can begin using the floor with "normal wear."
After one week, the worn out parts were pretty apparent. But I rationalized - still a lot better than what it was "before." And from a distance, you can hardly tell!
The process took about 8 hours in total, over the course of several days. First I had to scrub the floor clean because it was heinously dirty. At first I was scrubbing by hand (bristle brush and scour pads and Simple Green... a magic formula!) then I figured to use an industrial floor polisher which saved a tremendous amount of time.
Then I sanded the floor by hand with 120 grit sand paper. (Probably should've used a machine in this case but was too lazy to go buy one or rent one and plus have major fear of sanding a hole in the floor). Then I sanded the floor with 220 grit sand paper. And swept up and vacuumed up all the bits of dust.
Then I used "golden mahogany" wood stain by Varathane (purchased at Home Depot). You have to wipe it on with a clean cloth, let it absorb for a minute (max 3 min) and then wipe off the "excess" so that there isn't an unbalanced amount of stain in some parts.
Since most of the original stain was not stripped off, the blended color looked quite nice. It was the worn out parts of the wood (where no stain was left) that the color absorbed differently and still looks different. In hindsight, I perhaps should have coated those parts with polyurethane before staining, but who knows if that would have helped. I'm no professional!
After the stain dried for 24 hours (I cheated, it was only 22, and in cold weather no less), I applied three coats of semi-glossy polyurethane approx every two hours using a lifesaving applicator brush (attached to a broomstick). And voila! (I say lifesaving because it was the only part of the process where I was not on my hands and knees breaking my back).
After 3 days, you can begin using the floor with "normal wear."
After one week, the worn out parts were pretty apparent. But I rationalized - still a lot better than what it was "before." And from a distance, you can hardly tell!
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