It can be kind of tricky to figure out whether your should buff and recoat refinish or replace a hardwood floor altogether.
Buffing vs sanding hardwood floors.
Buffing is quick simple and affordable.
Buffing mainly addresses damage and imperfections in the sealant layers protecting your hardwood floors.
What is the difference between buffing and sanding.
Buff and recoat screen the floors in question if.
Rachel frampton august 6 2018 at 1 54 pm.
A buff and coat or screen and recoat is what we recommend providing there is no major damage to the actual hardwood.
We ve been wanting to refinish our old hardwood floors and really liked your advice on how to use grit sequencing.
I hadn t really considered that you should use multiple grits to sand your floor but your advice to start with the most abrasive grit and work down to the finer grits makes perfect sense and should give us a wonderful finish to work.
The best candidates are floors that have minor surface damage or faded worn finishes.
But often that s the wrong solution.
Here s how you can decide what you need to do.
When a wood floor loses its luster the usual solution is to sand it down to raw wood and completely refinish it.
On the other hand sanding of wood floors entails sanding the top layer of the floors to remove the polyurethane scratches and dirt.
Refinishing hardwood floors is the right solution.
Buffing is a superficial treatment to the top layer of polyurethane and does not address any deep scratches and dirt that is in the grain.
It can also add life onto your hardwood floors because you don t need to sand them down and re.
Buffing or abrading the existing coat before refinishing or alternatively applying a chemical etching kit.
This is great news because a screen and recoat is often one of the most profitable jobs a contractor can take on.
You can also buff floors made of other materials like tile to bring back their luster.
If your hardwood floor is only lightly worn damaged or scratched you may be able to refinish it without sanding.
There are two basic methods.
You may want to buff your floors instead of sanding them if the finish of the floor is looking dull and scratched.
Most of the time you can simply buff and recoat the floor.