I'm having my wood floors refinished - what to expect?

Has anyone had their hardwood floors redone? Should I being doing any prep? What can I expect as far as drying time and odor? Will all my molding be damaged?

Thanks!!

When we had our floors refinished, we had no furniture, so we just packed what we needed a stayed with my mother and father. The whole thing should've been relatively quick, but they messed up our stairs, meaning they didn't sand them down sufficiently, so they had to come back and redo that...oh, and they put the wrong polyurethane on our floors, so they had to come back and redo everything..they put a satin finish instead of a high-gloss.


Everything finially worked out, and our floors look great, but it was a three week ordeal because of all the mistakes. My experience is not the norm, our contractor just used a really bad company. But like I said, the finished product is oustanding.

You have to post pics!

I don't really remember much in terms of odor, I think I blocked it out because I was just so darn happy that they finally got it right.

Well the odor is just terrible. It gave me a headache and I even felt lightheaded - that was with the windows open.

Make sure to put plastic up around the room or rooms so to block the dust from getting all over everything...


It should be completely dry and 'walkable' by the next day. Good luck.

It depends on whether you are doing the water based or oil based. We did water based bc it only takes 2 hours to dry- although we didn't go in till the next day just to be safe.

Dust does get everywhere- on the walls, cabinets, windows, wherever. I blocked off the upstairs with heavy plastic (you can get the rolls at home depot) and taped it with blue tape. It is time consuming but the dust easily wipes off.

Your moulding will not be damaged- the guys who do it usually are good. As far as odor- if you leave the windows open for a few hours, the smell goes away. I don't think the smell is that bad though.

Oil-based lasts much longer. Do NOT put furniture in for 72 hours. Our guy told us 48, and we wound up gouging the polyeurathayne. Yes tape up all the openings to the rest of the house so dust doesn't get all over.

I learned much too much about this topic a few months ago. Our co-op only allowed us to used water-based poly because it has less odor than oil-based, but it's still strong. I'd recommend spending a night or two away after they do it - we tried to sleep in our apartment the same day they did it and we felt like we killed some brain cells from the fumes.

Also, keep in mind that a high gloss water-based poly is not as shiny as a high gloss oil-based.

I also had the wood restained (which might have accounted for some of the odor). Some of my floor moulding got stained at the bottom, but it was easy to paint over.