Anyone ever refinished hardwood floor?

[pete6032]

Live in a 15 year old condo with hard wood floor. Pretty sure it is actual hard wood and not engineered wood. The floors are mostly in good condition but clearly have had nothing done to them since they were installed. There are some parts of the floor in the kitchen that are starting to look a little worn. I've been watching videos on refinishing and it looks like an incredibly messy multi-day job where my kitchen would be out of commission. Does anyone have experience with refinishing the floors? How did it go? Also the unit is completely open concept so the kitchen floor is the same floor as living room, bedroom, hallway etc. Do I run the risk of the kitchen floor looking different than the rest of the unit if I only refinish the kitchen?

 

[Greenman]

It's messy, and running the edge sander is back breaking. A lot also depends on the quality of the equipment you can rent. Some of the old drum sanders leave a floor covered in chatter marks, it takes a long time with a disk sander to get rid of them.
The color will almost certainly be different.

 

[jmagg]

I refinished about 900sf (my first try) in my latest house. Home depot drum sander worked fine starting at 32 grit and ending at 80 (or was it 120). The edge sander is the trickiest part to get right, as it needs to be finessed into the drum sander finished areas. I ended up with a few imperfections in the doorways. You'll also need a scraper to get tight into corners. I used a product called Streetshoe as a finish. It's water base and allows much quicker turn around time compared to oil finishes. I'm happy so far with the Streetshoe finish after 3 yrs, and glad I gave it a try. The Streetshoe also is more difficult to apply.

 

[highland145]

At my old house (1950's), my previous neighbor did theirs...if I were a Lilliputian with a surfboard... I rented a floor buffer, bought some beer for my friends and we waxed mine. Looked damned good. Amazing how well gold shag carpet protected them.

At my current house (1937), put down oak in the kitchen but knew I didn't have the skill to finish them right or have the $ to pay so I winged it until we could afford to pay.

After the kitchen renovation...

 

[highland145]

Same guy has done most of the rest of the house. Dustless system, water based finish (Bona maybe) that has held up great, sock feet in 8 hours, furniture in 24, IIRC. No smell. Local couple rented our VRBO for 2 weeks because their guy used oil and the smell kept them out. YMMV.

 

[NutBucket]

I've done it twice. Just takes time and lots more time cleaning...and cleaning some more. That dust gets everywhere! The third time I paid a pro do about 1100 sq ft before we moved into the house.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I had one professionally redone, it's a huge job. I think the previous owners loved moving their furniture around, and the legs of their furniture was made out angle grinders that were turned on.

 

[Thump553]

The big cost in professional jobs is the grunt work of moving the furniture out and back in to the rooms being done. We did the moving ourselves and had it done 5-10 years ago and the cost was not much (don't recall how much) and they did a great job.