Hardwood Floors-Repair, Refinish, and Restore - DIY Home renovation

We're going to sand, refinish, repair, and remove water stains on this hardwood floor. Plus, we're going to give you a bunch of inside tips and tricks that'll save you a ton of money when you go to do this project on your own. But we only got 8 minutes. So, let's get going. Oh, and every week I bring you the absolute best videos, yeah, that you can make you'll find on YouTube. So, subscribe. This is Jimmy Desta, and you are watching the dirt monkey. step when you're refinishing a hardwood floor is to remove the old finish. This is where we got to pick up a sander. But which one is right for you? We get to play with power tools. Now, to complete your project, you are going to need an orbital sander. You can get it started with a belt sander, but this is the machine you need to finish the job. This levels out any grooves. A belt sander is great for taking off a thick, heavy finish and to remove deep gouges and scratches, but this creates a nice, gentle, even surface. Now, when they sell you the the big uh sanding disc, they tell you to use the writing up and sand it. But when that one's completely wore down, I flip it to get some use out of there just to save a buck. For my final sandings, I reuse I use the used ones. Now, for stubborn spots, you can use a orbital hand sander before you hit it with the floor sander. So, if you had like major issues on the entire floor, would you grab one of the belt sanders? Yes, I would. Yep. If your floor was in really bad shape, I would go with the walkbehind belt sander, the ones that they rent out or whatever big ones. When you get into these big sanders, they're not grab and go. They can have a mind of their own, and it takes a little bit to get used to them. Watch here. It'll take off on you to go down this forward or back to go to the Go to the left. Go to the front. Go to the right. Now, there's still more to do before we can put the new finish on. This refrigerator gave us a bit of a problem and it created a water stain and a rotten spot in the floor. So, let's get that repaired so we can move on. So, you're going to remove all the loose wood. All Yep. Anything that's really punky or bad, it's got to come out. Now, to fix a rotten spot, you typically would use wood dough. But there's something that Frankie likes to use even better than that. Let's see what he's got up his sleeve. Well, I use the dusting of the sanding of the actual wood. Mix Elmer's glue with it and you got your wood putty. Have you ever done that before? Yep. How well does it hold up compared to Well, then you got you match your wood. Then you match your exact wood. So then then you don't worry about discoloration of the putty from the wood, right? Yeah. Right. How long does it hold up though? As long as this putty here will hold up. Now, when you're repairing deep gouges, you're going to have to use multiple layers. If you put it on too thick all at once, it'll crack. So, you're going to have to do this more than once. That's what she said. For deeper gouges and gaps, it's not a one coat wonder. Nope. Nope. If you can tell, I mean, I'm leaving an indent there. Good enough till she sets up your eyes. Okay. So, now we've got water stain from where the fridge leaked. We're going to be removing using bleach. Use a white rag because if you use a colored rag, the bleach will dye the the rag and uh you'll put coloring in your floor. So, this is what we're trying to get rid of. So, it's 100% just bleach. Yep. Frankie applies the bleach to the floor and then uses a steel brush. We open up the pores in the wood so I can get it clean. So, as you can tell, it's already It's coming off. It's already coming off. Hey, you've only worked on that for a minute and 20 seconds. That's about it. And we got our stains gone. Now, they do make a bleach specifically for wood, but it basically doesn't work any better and it's just more expensive. If you like wasting your money, go ahead and get that stuff. If you don't, just go to the grocery store and pick up the cheapest stuff they got. It all works the same. Now, before we can even begin to put the finish on the floor, we've got to clean it from top to bottom, getting all of the dust out. And yes, Frankie has a plan for that as well, cuz you want to get it off the ceiling, the and that wall with the rock wall. That's a dust magnet. It's absolutely critical that there's no dust anywhere in the house. So, we open up all of the windows and doors and use a leaf blower to get the initial cleaning done. Then we move on to the next stage, which is using tack rags to pick up all of the fine material. Well, yeah, you don't want to use a gas blower because of the fumes. It may leave uh film on your floor and then your poly won't take. It'll bubble. So, even the fumes from a gas blower, even though we've got this thing well ventilated, the breeze is blowing through here. Yep. Still get it does something to the wood. It just does. So, don't use a gas blower. You don't even want to use an air compressor. No. just because of the oil in the air. Just to be clear, this is a battery operated unit. After your initial dusting, you're going to need to use tack rags to pick up 100% of the dust, not a broom. That's just going to push it around and make it float in the air. But we found something that's a great alternative to tack rags. These Clorox floor dusters are exactly like tack rags. Very sticky with no chemicals, except you get 26 of them for under $5, where with a tack rag, you get a single unit for about two bucks. So, you're going to go over the entire floor two times. Yep. Now that you got your house cleaner than it's probably ever been or ever will be again, if it's anything like my house, you can think about applying the finish to the floor. Now, for today's video, we're going to be using a super fast drying polyurethane design specifically for floors. I want to caution you to read the instructions on whatever material you choose to use. Now, in this case, as long as we reapply the product within 3 to 4 hours of the initial coat, we don't have to sand in between. But if for some reason we can't do that and we allow it to dry more than 12 hours, we have to take a light 220 grit sandpaper in between coats and then we have to retack it to remove any dust we generate before we can apply a second coat. Now, this product recommends using three coats over bare wood. If you happen to be going over an existing floor with an existing finish, you can knock that down to two coats. Your application rag must match your material. Will either be for a water-based flooring compound or oil based. Oilbased. Gently stir your flooring compound. Never shake it. If you shake it, you'll generate air bubbles which can show up in your finished product. Now Frankie is using a wet edge method, meaning he's never going to let the edge of his application dry. So he has to work fast and consistently. What how much time you think you got before an edge dries, Frankie? Oh, you should have a minute or so. So now, an important thing to remember when we start this application process, it's not lunchtime. There's no breaks. No, we've got to absolutely finish the first coat before you leave. Otherwise, you're gonna have that edge that doesn't match up, right? Yep. So, make sure you time the application that you can get the entire at least first coat done. And if you're going to do a multi- coat and you don't want to sand in between, time the day right, cuz you got to have 3 to four hours in between coats. Okay. One of the things we need to point out is that during the first coat process, you're not going to be able to get absolute even coverage because this floor is going to soak it in at different rates. In fact, right where Frankie's working, there's just a little bit of a spot that didn't take quite as well as the rest of the floor. That'll have that'll be covered up during the second and third coat. So, now that you got your third and final coat on, stay off the floor for at least 24 to 48 hours with heavy foot traffic. Now, if this video's helped you guys out, do me a favor and hit the like button, comment down below, or do me a big favor and hit the share button. God bless. Go get them. Dirt Monkey out. I think I need to go run an excavator somewhere.