Can Hardwood Floors Be Sanded Too Much

Sanding should be done parallel to the grain sanding across grain patterns can cause permanent damage to the wood that may not be repairable.

Can hardwood floors be sanded too much.

Most hardwood floors that were installed in the 20s and 30s fell into disfavor by the late 50s and were covered with carpet effectively preserving them. Just so can cupping hardwood floors reversed. If you notice a veneer measure the thickness with a ruler. A moderate amount of pressure may be needed to sand.

A typical nail down inch tongue and groove wood floor can be resanded several times by a good professional flooring contractor. Full thickness strip hardwood flooring can handle up to 4 sandings in its lifetime. The average amount of wear surface removed by a skilled sand and finish pro over a flat subfloor during a total resand would be 1 32 to 3 64 inch. The thickest engineered floors can be sanded and refinished between 3 5 times due to a top layer of about 4 to 6mm.

Most beginning floor contractors would have a tendency to sand too much off the floor decreasing the overall life and leaving little or no wood for the next sanding. For solid inch hardwood about inch of the material above the tongue can be removed before the wood is weakened. The good news is that hardwood floor cupping can be reversed setting the planks back to their original condition. The first thing you must do when you notice a cupped floor is to identify the source of moisture.

Since normal sanding will remove from 1 64 to 1 32 of the wood surface the surface can be sanded from 6 to 10 times or more before the floor needs to be replaced entirely. If it measures between 3 16 and 1 8 inches you should sand with extreme caution preferably with an orbital sander. You can change the color closely match and replace warped stained or termite ingested planks silence squeaky boards and fill gaps or patch knots. I don t want to get into another rant about how much i m not too fond of oiled wood floors.

Part of the appeal of hardwood is that it lasts so long. Is is important to figure out if your floors are solid hardwood or engineered. Engineered flooring cannot be sanded and refinished in the same way that solid hardwood floors can. If the floor is resurfaced every 10 to 20 years the.