How Many Times a Hardwood Floor Can Be Refinished

Hey folks! This is Tim from A Team Hardwoods LLC.

Welcome to another Q&A session where I answer questions from you all on the internet.

Today's question is:

"How Many Times a Hardwood Floor Can Be Refinished"

Summary:

Tim explains that how many times a floor can be refinished has a lot of variation. For a new floor, the answer depends on how the subfloor was prior to installation, but he estimates roughly four to as many as eight, nine, or ten times. It also depends on the type of flooring, whether solid or engineered, and on the wear layer thickness of engineered products. To assess where a floor is in its life cycle, Tim first looks inside heat vents to gauge how much wear layer remains in that area. He then inspects the rest of the floor for unevenness or humps, since those high spots may be thin. If the floor is roly near the heat register, a heavy hard sand may be unwise, and he might recommend a clean screen and top coat instead. He also checks where carpet meets the floor, and if nails are exposed on top, the floor is past its life.

Answer:

That has a lot of variations. If it's a new floor, depending on how your subfloor was prior to installation, you're probably looking at four to maybe eight, nine, or ten. It also depends what type of flooring you used, solid or engineered, and the wear layer on the engineered. To check, a lot of times we look in your heat vent first to see how much wear layer is in that area. Then we inspect the rest of your floor to see if there's any unevenness or humps throughout your house, because in those areas it may be pretty thin. If you're thin at the heat register and you have a roly floor, it may not be the greatest idea to do a hard sand. If it's not in bad shape, we may recommend a clean screen and top coat. We can also check where carpet meets up, and if you see nails exposed on the top, then it's past its life.