Refinishing a hardwood floor is one of those projects that looks intimidating until you break it into stages. This guide walks through the whole process, from checking whether your floor can even be sanded again to picking the right finish for a home with kids and pets.
Tap a board near the wall with a coin. If it sounds hollow or springy, get a professional to check the subfloor before you start sanding.
In this guide
Check how much wood you have left to sand
Solid hardwood can usually be sanded three to five times over its lifetime, but engineered wood has a much thinner veneer. Pull a floor vent or lift a threshold to see the actual board thickness before committing.
Gather the right tools
A drum sander for the field of the room, an edge sander for the perimeter, and a hand scraper for corners are the standard rental kit. Most home centers rent all three as a bundle.
Drum sanders remove material fast and can gouge the floor if you let one sit in place while it's running. Keep it moving at all times.
Sand in stages, coarse to fine
Start around 36-40 grit to remove the old finish, then move through 60 and 100 grit before a final pass at 120. Skipping grits leaves scratch marks that show up under the new finish.
Vacuum thoroughly between every grit change — leftover coarse dust will scratch the next pass.
Choose a finish that matches how the room gets used
Water-based polyurethane dries fast and stays clear, oil-based ambers slightly and is more forgiving to apply, and hardwax oil is easiest to spot-repair later. For a high-traffic living room with pets, an oil-based or hardwax finish tends to hide scuffs better.
Let it cure before moving furniture back
The finish is dry to the touch within a day, but it keeps curing for one to three weeks depending on the product. Use felt pads under furniture legs and avoid rugs until the full cure time has passed.
