refinish floating engineered wood floor?

17 years ago

Hello Garden Web,

I am wondering if anyone has had any experience refinishing a floating engineered wood floor?

We are doing some other renos in our home, and one of the installers put some serious scrapes in right the middle of our living room floor *grrr*. I would like to have the entire 500sq ft refinished, but my flooring guy said because the floor is floating, when they sand it with the machine, there will be grooves where the floor is not even.

Has anyone tried to refinish their floating floor? What was your experience? I'm not sure if my flooring guy is just "not interested" in doing the work, and thus advising against it. When he was out of the room his employee told me that I should do it, and that the grooves would not look nearly as bad as the scratches...

The floor is a brand called "Haro" Parquet, and the top layer is 2.5mm thick.

Featured Answer

ekn2108
Original Author

17 years ago

Thanks for your tips everyone!

I decided to take the advice and bring in a professional. I pulled open the phone book, and looked for wood flooring company that specialized in refinishing.

They just came by and had a look. Screen and recoat was not possible due to the scratches were too deep. He said he refinishes floating engineered wood floors all the time, and never had a problem. I have a cork underlay, and concrete below that.

They use a very delicate sandpaper. I think he said he starts with 80 grit, then finishes with 100 grit.

So now I am just waiting for the quote... *gulp*. I hope it is not too much.

The neat thing though... We have very light oak wood floors, and they have faded to yellow. He said when he recoats it he can use some sort of UV protection, so that the floors will stay the original wood colour. That sounds pretty great!

I'll post when I have the quote, and when the job is done to let you all know how it goes.

Thanks again for the tips!!!!!!!!!!

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Comments (12)

floorguy
17 years ago
You need one of these...

This is the 220 volt model called a Super Bee, but they also have a 110 volt called a U-Sander.

http://www.hardwoodfloorsatlanta.com/aa%20sander.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1567693}}
ekn2108
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks floor guy,

But have you ever used one on a floating floor? If so, how was the result?

Because the floor underneath is not 100% level, the concern is that the weight of the machine will push down the floor in some spots, and leave grooves...
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boxers
17 years ago
why not just recoat it? It will get out most of the scratches and make it look new and it won't need to be 'sanded.'
floorguy
17 years ago
I feel the U-Sander or the SuperBee, will work fine. They are slow and not aggressive. They are fool proof practically. Just don't advance too many sandpaper grit coarseness's 40-60-80 is recommended.

Have you looked into the Basic Coatings: TyKote system??
mpeterson31769
17 years ago
With a top layer of only 2.5mm, I would also recommend that you look at doing a screen and recoat and not sanding the floor. Of course if you have any deep scratches that actually go into the wood, you might need to do a full sanding.

Basic Coatings TyKote is a good system for doing a recoat. You can also look at products by BonaKemi.

Hope it all works out.
ihateclosets
17 years ago
don't sand the floor if there is a foam underneath. if its floating over just concrete it can be done by a good floor refinishing professional. engineered resands are the most difficult floors to refinish because there is not much of a wear layer to sand without going through to the next layer of wood. if the floor flexes under the sander then it will cause the sander to eat throught the wear layer and will result in replacing that board.
ihateclosets
17 years ago
hardwood floors floating over a foam underlayment cannot be sanded. the floor sander will eat through the wear layer of the engineered wood if the floor flexes. if it is floating only over concrete then it can be sanded by a good refinishing professional.
boxers
17 years ago
I'd ask still for a price on a screen and recoat from someone else. If you have a few boards with deep scratches do a board replacement on just those boards. You most likely have an aluminum oxide finish of the factory finished and the site applied finish will not be as durable. If you can recoat you will be adding finish on top of a good factory finish. Either way you will get great looking floor, but if you can avoid the mess of resanding I'd choose that option.
ella_socal
17 years ago
I'm also thinking of refinishing my floating engineered wood floor (on concrete) in order to change the color. Has anyone heard of doing this and then applying an oil-based finishing topcoat? No reason I shouldn't be able to, right?
canonsue
17 years ago
If the installer put the scratches in then I would have them pay for the fix. That is the reason that they should have liability insurance.
HU-681624842
6 years ago
I’m looking into refurbishing my floating floor and would like to know how hour yours turned of out