How to Remove Carpet & Refinish Hardwood Floors
- 1). Pull up the carpet by hand, or by using your hammer and prybar as necessary. Pry off the carpet strips around the perimeter of the room and pull out any errant nail heads. Use a floor scraper to take up residual carpet underlayment.
- 2). Set up the floor buffer with a heavy-grit screening disk. According to This Old House online, a screening disk is clog-resistant sandpaper that will only remove the finish of the floor, without cutting into the wood itself. Run it over the whole floor, from one end of the room and working across in courses, with the direction of the floorboards. It should take off any remaining residual material from the carpeting and grind away the top layer of floor gloss.
- 3). Vacuum up the dust. Switch out the heavy-grit disk for a medium one and repeat the screening process. The second screening should take up the rest of the top layer of old gloss and even out the surface.
- 4). Vacuum the dust again, and re-screen the floor with the fine-grit disk. It should get the surface completely free of gloss and shine, with the original color of the floor still in place.
- 5). Thoroughly vacuum the dust. Brush on polyurethane floor gloss starting at the corner of the room opposite the doorway. Brush it on with the direction of the floorboards, blowing and wiping away and residual dust ahead of the brush. Brush it on slowly and in a thin, even coat. Do the whole floor. Let it dry for a day.
- 6). Use 300-grit sandpaper to slightly de-gloss the surface by hand, with quick, light strokes. Wipe away the dust as you go.
- 7). Apply a second coat of polyurethane in the same manner as the first. Let it dry, lightly sand it, then apply a third coat. Let the third coat dry for two days before resuming use of the room.
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