How to Deal with Old Wood Floors without Refinishing
- 1). Vacuum the floors to remove any small particles that might damage the floors or interfere with the new topcoat.
- 2). Combine liquid floor stripper with water in the bucket according to the package instructions on the bottle of floor stripper.
- 3). Submerge a mop into the floor stripping mixture. Run the mop across the floors in a figure eight pattern to saturate the floor with the stripping mixture. Allow the mixture to sit on the surface of the flooring for 10 minutes. Consult the package instructions for the exact length of time that the mixture should be left on the floors.
- 4). Place a stripping pad on a floor machine.
- 5). Plug in the machine and while holding it above the floor, turn the machine on.
- 6). Move the floor machine across the floors, working with the grain of the wood. Do not press down. Let the machine do the work. The old finish will begin to lift from the floors. Continue using the stripping pad and the floor machine until all of the old finish is lifted. You will know that all of the finish has been lifted when the floors are dull with no remaining shine.
- 7). Vaccum the floors with a wet-dry vacuum to remove any residue from the floors.
- 8). Mop the floors with clean water to remove all remaining residues from the floors. Change the water often to make sure that you remove all chemicals from the wood flooring. Let the floors dry completely.
- 9). Apply a 1/4 cup of floor finish to the head of a dry, clean mop. Sweep the mop across the floors in a figure eight pattern to apply the finish lightly to the floors. Let the first coat dry for two hours.
- 10
Apply three to four additional coats of finish using the same technique.
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