Showed as much easier than it actually is. If you are willing to take this MAJOR project on, this is a great introductory video and gives you a high level idea of the project. There are a LOT of small tricks of the trade which are required in addition to this information. If you're staining then I suggest developing skill for using a drum sander which is probably half the work of using the square sander. Again this makes it seem much easier than the actual project. We used this and MANY more articles and videos to do our project which turned out great! Worth it the first time for learning :), not gonna try it again.
Nikhil Prasad I cant believe I redid my hardwood floor when I was 16. I stripped it, sanded it by hand, and put a finish coat on it. I’m 65 now, and would never think of doing that now! It IS harder!
I wasn't sure how this would go. To be honest I thought this was going to be a back breaker, not even close. This was my first floor and it turned out nearly perfect. I only did one room aprox, 275sqf and took less than 16 hrs from demo to finish and baseboards, even stained the floor, it was manageable. If I do the whole house I will for sure hire someone, but one room is easy and it was under $300. This was easier than laying tile. If you like doing projects, I say give it a go. If you don't have experience with power tools, working with your hands, or just lazy, please don't try this, pay someone.
Correction of This Video - If using a true random orbital sander, it would be very unlikely to damage the floor (in spite of what the narrator says in this video). A rotary sander would be a different matter, but the whole point of a random orbital sander is to allow even an amateur to sand a hardwood floor without damaging it. It would be difficult to even purposefully damage a hardwood floor when using a random orbital sander.
Just sand 3 times with 3 different types of sanders, then sand a manual sander, then clean, then apply mineral spirits, then sand again, then clean, then apply stain, then poly, wait a few days, then poly again. My head is spinning.
We have a slightly cupped floor. We leave the windows open in the summer. If we sand and refinish the floor will it crown come winter when the humidity goes away?
If you are going to stain prior to applying Poly, make sure you use the right Poly. Oil stain w/ Oil Poly.. Water stain w/ Water based poly. If you use Oil Based stain and want to apply water based poly, you'll need to make sure the stain is thoroughly dry, you;ll need to lightly sand the final coat of stain and then apply mineral spirits to take off any remaining tackiness. Then you might be able to apply the water based poly over the oil based stain..
I've done this job 7-8 times. Please note, if you decide to do this yourself, it's a ton on work. I'm in decent shape, but it's work that is very physically demanding and will completely wear you out. It's not user friendly either. If the humidity isn't right, isn't applied right, sanded correctly, etc, then you'll mess up the job and have to start over. My recommendations is to pay a professional. It's well worth the money and time! If you can't afford that, then there's always carpet. Haha.
I’m thinking about doing this myself to save money but much do you think it would cost for a professional flooring company to do this with new floor color of a 2,000 sq home😬.
Usually around $2+ sq ft for refinishing but they have minimums so if you have a really small place to do it will be more per sq ft. And that is just for labor, not including materials and travel fees. All in all look to pay bout $3 to $4 per sq ft. You may get a better deal though. I have used Angie's List in the past and had pretty good results. But it is a crap shoot.
If you have an extra 2 or 3 weeks this may work . If time is of the essence then use a belt sander along with an edger to get the job done right. The square buff sander is fir finishing between coats.
Amen brother. Just did some oak floors and rented the drum sander. Don't waste your time with jut the square finish sander. You need both and you need to take lots off the floor.
I have blindfish hardwood floors that have holes around the edges from carpet being pulled off. I’d LOVE to get rid of those! There are about a thousand of them!
You might just have to replace those planks if it really bothers you. You can use wood putty, but with that many holes, it would show when you stained it. Maybe try a test patch and see how it turns out?
Lol using that clarke 12x18 obs sander (I know because I have the same machine), you are basically giving a "buff n coat", not sanding down to the bare wood, and I really like how..at the end, the camera angle is down to the floor so that you don't have a good look at the floor LOL, trust me...if they showed that floor from a standing position LOL...this video would be ALL thumbs down, creativity at its best by the editor of this video, I could pick this video apart lol
Best DIY project. Everyone who says this is extremely difficult is most likely just lazy people. If you love creating a home and seeing a beautiful result you wont have a problem with this project. All depends on what type of person you are.
I had a goal of refinishing 3 bedrooms, a hallway and living room, all of about 800sq ft. By the end of the week, with blood sweat and tears, I only had 3 rooms sanded, each turning out completely different and needing more sanding finishing touches. Also had the excitement of seeing how dust creatively can find it's way under walls and into other rooms. And not to forget the extensive work it takes to ensure you clean up as much dust as possible for the safety of your household, including after giving some of it time to settle. Job is not finished, calling for help for the 3 bedrooms and debating on throwing in the towel for the rest. Call me lazy?? Thanks bud!
Something's you diy......Something's you don't. Going with an oil poly woulda made this look a bit better. Still super diy looks to it. FYI if this floor woulda been stained it would looked like garbage. A homeowner can maybe diy a natural floor if they wanna do all the physical work. Staining is not something a homeowner should do.
Adam s exactly right! If you don't want a perfect floor, then DIY. Painting is a good example of a DIY project. Sanding floors is not. If I showed up to a jobsite and left with floors that looked like this, I'd be fired. However, when people rent machines they have no business using and realize how hard the work is (especially with the wrong equipment as in the video), they are happy with a subpar floor because they did it. Yet no-one they invite over will be impressed.
I just got done with a 75 year old house with pine floors in most of the house (about 800 sq ft) I would say its a solid 8 for difficulty but the floors were in pretty bad shape. Very time consuming not a weekend project, at least not for an amateur like me. Took me about 5 days.
I agree this should not be done by an amatuer DIYer. If you have a small sq ft to do it maybe, but many homes are going to have at least 2,000 sq ft of wood flooring and you risk damaging your floors if you make a mistake
Thanks for sharing this amazing video with us! This could be of great help to many! But I would rather hire any flooring refinishing expert. When there are so many experts then why do it yourself? However, choosing the best among them is a difficult task. One of them I know is Wayne Maher Hardwood Flooring. He has some major qualities to consider, one of them is his free in-home estimates
Look at all the color left behind. People, never use any type of buffing machine to refinish floors. These floors would look terrible with a stain. And you have to get all of the old finish up.
He didn't use a buffer. It was a 4 head oscillating sander. Unless you are experienced with a drum sander don't do it. If you intend on staining use a pre-stain conditioner otherwise you can end up with a blotchy floor and don't skip the sanding sealer before you apply a finish coat. Tape off floor registers, remove curtains, vacuum everything including walls and trim and have a fan in the window of a different room blowing out.
Y’all need to update this video. You barely sanded down the floors. This is a buff. You need a drum sander to completely strip the floors to the raw wood and then proceed to stain or coat.
Well you either do it yourself with rental machines (the Lowes around me doesn't have them, but Home Depot rents them for about 43$/4 hours) or pay a contractor like... idk... 600$+ to do your floor depending on sq ft. I bought a new house and am not in the biggest rush to move in, so I ripped up the carpet myself and am in the process of doing all of this. It's a lot of work I agree!
DonCalzone99 you NEVER want to fill all of the gaps in a wood floor because of expansion and contraction. Alot of people do NOT realise that wood floors move. It may only move 1/100th of an inch, but if you have say 100 rows that's 1 inch. Once that happens all of the wood fill cracks and breaks out from those gaps
ryan jenkins the 2.25" very old floor shown here won't expand/contract as much as a new floor or wider plank. The gaps certainly should have been filled, even if just to show where the highs and lows are.
If you are paying people, and your floor are mildly shitty, yea. If you like doing labor, and do not mind an experienced looking floor that is once again easy to clean, doing it yourself is not a big deal. I could give a damn about a professional looking job unless I am selling.
I did this to 3 large rooms about 15 yrs ago. Now its time to rent a sander and do again. The prep takes the longest, and waiting for poly to dry before being abke to walk on floors is rough. I had a ladder to a window and had the whole family use it as a exit! Didn't want to take chances til I knew it was was completely ready. But it is doable,two women took about a week to complete.
Yes and no . It depends on condition on floor, sometimes you need to cut out part of floor and replace it. Depending on age of house and floor it can be hard. But this is a pretty easy job for anyone... the worst part is the dust . The hardest part is prepping it right .... it just takes time .
This video was AMAZING!!!! I used it to do the hardwood floors in my house and they came out perfectly. Thank you Lowes
Happy to help and congrats on a job well done!
D.A. Hanker
@@RNicolasRuvalcaba they said in the beginning that if you have engineered hardwood flooring you should leave it to the pros.
So much work, but dang such a great result. Our poor floors need this desperately.
for DIY's, it aint a weekend project! but like ours, Oak floors, tis worth it.
Showed as much easier than it actually is. If you are willing to take this MAJOR project on, this is a great introductory video and gives you a high level idea of the project. There are a LOT of small tricks of the trade which are required in addition to this information. If you're staining then I suggest developing skill for using a drum sander which is probably half the work of using the square sander.
Again this makes it seem much easier than the actual project. We used this and MANY more articles and videos to do our project which turned out great! Worth it the first time for learning :), not gonna try it again.
Nikhil Prasad I cant believe I redid my hardwood floor when I was 16. I stripped it, sanded it by hand, and put a finish coat on it. I’m 65 now, and would never think of doing that now! It IS harder!
I wasn't sure how this would go. To be honest I thought this was going to be a back breaker, not even close. This was my first floor and it turned out nearly perfect. I only did one room aprox, 275sqf and took less than 16 hrs from demo to finish and baseboards, even stained the floor, it was manageable. If I do the whole house I will for sure hire someone, but one room is easy and it was under $300. This was easier than laying tile. If you like doing projects, I say give it a go. If you don't have experience with power tools, working with your hands, or just lazy, please don't try this, pay someone.
Good job man, I have to do my floors too, change the colour and everything.
Awesome you liked the results. A pro could do that area in probably 3-5 hours and be done.
@@ans05 For $300?
Correction of This Video - If using a true random orbital sander, it would be very unlikely to damage the floor (in spite of what the narrator says in this video). A rotary sander would be a different matter, but the whole point of a random orbital sander is to allow even an amateur to sand a hardwood floor without damaging it. It would be difficult to even purposefully damage a hardwood floor when using a random orbital sander.
I was looking for full musicals and have now watched three vids on hardwood maintenance. I don't even own a house.
This video addressed almost everything. Only thing is the gap between boards. Even after the finish you see them in the video.
Beveled flooring.
As expected from Lowe's vids. Very helpful. Thank you ♥️
I didn't think of the small handheld sander for edges and corners. Thanks for the free tip!
Just sand 3 times with 3 different types of sanders, then sand a manual sander, then clean, then apply mineral spirits, then sand again, then clean, then apply stain, then poly, wait a few days, then poly again. My head is spinning.
We have a slightly cupped floor. We leave the windows open in the summer. If we sand and refinish the floor will it crown come winter when the humidity goes away?
Good video, easy to understand and what tools and time needed for good refinishing. Thanks.
If you are going to stain prior to applying Poly, make sure you use the right Poly. Oil stain w/ Oil Poly.. Water stain w/ Water based poly. If you use Oil Based stain and want to apply water based poly, you'll need to make sure the stain is thoroughly dry, you;ll need to lightly sand the final coat of stain and then apply mineral spirits to take off any remaining tackiness. Then you might be able to apply the water based poly over the oil based stain..
You forgot the use of sanding sealer between stain and finish. This is important as it keeps the stain from bleeding into the finish.
I've done this job 7-8 times. Please note, if you decide to do this yourself, it's a ton on work. I'm in decent shape, but it's work that is very physically demanding and will completely wear you out. It's not user friendly either. If the humidity isn't right, isn't applied right, sanded correctly, etc, then you'll mess up the job and have to start over. My recommendations is to pay a professional. It's well worth the money and time! If you can't afford that, then there's always carpet. Haha.
haha.. sounds like you actually are a contractor
Zac Peterson how much do you think it will be for a room that is 480 square feet, I wanted to do it my self but I don’t really want to mess up
@@angelf9800 if you want to cut your work in half 443 600 9119
I know you're type. Probably have never done manual work in your life. Soft hands I guarantee.b
Seems like sooo much work!
Azemina Ay it is a whole floor haha what do you expect
Very informative vid. Thanks for sharing Lowe's.
Middle of doing this right now. It is a lot!!! More work but it is doable
How did it come out?
And would you do it again 6 yrs later?
Great information and easy to understand.Thanks!!
I’m thinking about doing this myself to save money but much do you think it would cost for a professional flooring company to do this with new floor color of a 2,000 sq home😬.
Usually around $2+ sq ft for refinishing but they have minimums so if you have a really small place to do it will be more per sq ft. And that is just for labor, not including materials and travel fees. All in all look to pay bout $3 to $4 per sq ft. You may get a better deal though. I have used Angie's List in the past and had pretty good results. But it is a crap shoot.
We charge $4-5 a sq foot. If somebody ever tells you $1-2 they’re hack jobs. You pay for what you get.
Hi Lowe's GREAT JOB..are the sanding machines available for rent at Lowe's if not where and how much PLEASE
If you have an extra 2 or 3 weeks this may work . If time is of the essence then use a belt sander along with an edger to get the job done right. The square buff sander is fir finishing between coats.
Amen brother. Just did some oak floors and rented the drum sander. Don't waste your time with jut the square finish sander. You need both and you need to take lots off the floor.
I have blindfish hardwood floors that have holes around the edges from carpet being pulled off. I’d LOVE to get rid of those! There are about a thousand of them!
You might just have to replace those planks if it really bothers you. You can use wood putty, but with that many holes, it would show when you stained it. Maybe try a test patch and see how it turns out?
So long as one can remember the steps, this doesn't sound too hard.
Lol using that clarke 12x18 obs sander (I know because I have the same machine), you are basically giving a "buff n coat", not sanding down to the bare wood, and I really like how..at the end, the camera angle is down to the floor so that you don't have a good look at the floor LOL, trust me...if they showed that floor from a standing position LOL...this video would be ALL thumbs down, creativity at its best by the editor of this video, I could pick this video apart lol
Mark Floors stop lolling
RexworthyWatches Ok, you're right lol
Mark Floors no, you are right. I can't believe this is a certified Lowe's video. That work is shameful.
Best DIY project. Everyone who says this is extremely difficult is most likely just lazy people. If you love creating a home and seeing a beautiful result you wont have a problem with this project. All depends on what type of person you are.
I had a goal of refinishing 3 bedrooms, a hallway and living room, all of about 800sq ft. By the end of the week, with blood sweat and tears, I only had 3 rooms sanded, each turning out completely different and needing more sanding finishing touches.
Also had the excitement of seeing how dust creatively can find it's way under walls and into other rooms. And not to forget the extensive work it takes to ensure you clean up as much dust as possible for the safety of your household, including after giving some of it time to settle.
Job is not finished, calling for help for the 3 bedrooms and debating on throwing in the towel for the rest.
Call me lazy?? Thanks bud!
Does Lowe’s have someone to do this?
Sooooo........who am I gonna pay to do this????
Terrance Maloney if you live in Michigan, there’s one in Grosse Pointe!
I was thinking the same thing 😂
Like how much cost to rent that big square sander?
Amazing!
I have on question if I have few gaps so after 1 sanding feel gaps and then 2nd sanding and 3rd sanding ?
amjad amjad before the first or after the first sand. Then only spot fill before your last sand.
Everyone who watched this video was like nope then searched. " how to refinish floors without sanding" 🙂
Can we also change color of the bamboo floor
No. not unless you paint it. It is an engineered product.
Something's you diy......Something's you don't. Going with an oil poly woulda made this look a bit better. Still super diy looks to it. FYI if this floor woulda been stained it would looked like garbage. A homeowner can maybe diy a natural floor if they wanna do all the physical work. Staining is not something a homeowner should do.
Adam s exactly right! If you don't want a perfect floor, then DIY. Painting is a good example of a DIY project. Sanding floors is not. If I showed up to a jobsite and left with floors that looked like this, I'd be fired. However, when people rent machines they have no business using and realize how hard the work is (especially with the wrong equipment as in the video), they are happy with a subpar floor because they did it. Yet no-one they invite over will be impressed.
what would you have done different from just this video alone?
I dont know why they'd rough sand with a buffer but okay
@@CoxworthyXIV what would you have done
Looks like too much work for me. I think I will just hire somebody.
:) lol
You can't sand through wood finish with these sanders, this video is whats called a buff and coat.
Absolutely. They were tickling the floor 🤣. They needed a drum sander.
Those who have done this, what would you rate the difficulty out of 10? I really want to refinish mine but don't want to mess it up!
@@HardwoodMaster i need help
I just got done with a 75 year old house with pine floors in most of the house (about 800 sq ft) I would say its a solid 8 for difficulty but the floors were in pretty bad shape. Very time consuming not a weekend project, at least not for an amateur like me. Took me about 5 days.
do you guys have courses?
such a better video than the other search results
Preston thanks! After watching are you still thinking DIY or are you leaning toward hiring a pro?
Lowe's Home Improvement i am the pro. lol i do home improvement for a living.
Wow, that's quite a compliment coming from a pro! Thanks again.
Cheers
Thanks.........love it so helpfull
I agree this should not be done by an amatuer DIYer. If you have a small sq ft to do it maybe, but many homes are going to have at least 2,000 sq ft of wood flooring and you risk damaging your floors if you make a mistake
Good DIY project for professionals. Lol 😂 where am I getting all these equipments from?
You can rent the sanders and buffers from lowes or home depot.
Drum sander is $64/day around me
You rent it form the hardware store.
Soo..... what if it IS engineered hardwood? Nobody is gonna sand off 1/8" of the top layer, what's the big concern?
More effective to use a 6mm lint free roller.
If anyone in Northern Virginia is looking to get there floors Refinished reply to me!
Thanks for sharing this amazing video with us! This could be of great help to many! But I would rather hire any flooring refinishing expert. When there are so many experts then why do it yourself? However, choosing the best among them is a difficult task. One of them I know is Wayne Maher Hardwood Flooring. He has some major qualities to consider, one of them is his free in-home estimates
Do you have too sand after applying the sanding sealer ??
jonathan gonzalez yes
jonathan gonzalez na
Do they have the vinyl in ceramic tiles?
Look at all the color left behind. People, never use any type of buffing machine to refinish floors. These floors would look terrible with a stain. And you have to get all of the old finish up.
He didn't use a buffer. It was a 4 head oscillating sander. Unless you are experienced with a drum sander don't do it. If you intend on staining use a pre-stain conditioner otherwise you can end up with a blotchy floor and don't skip the sanding sealer before you apply a finish coat. Tape off floor registers, remove curtains, vacuum everything including walls and trim and have a fan in the window of a different room blowing out.
Y’all need to update this video. You barely sanded down the floors. This is a buff. You need a drum sander to completely strip the floors to the raw wood and then proceed to stain or coat.
Not as easy as they make it seem. And can be quite expensive
Well you either do it yourself with rental machines (the Lowes around me doesn't have them, but Home Depot rents them for about 43$/4 hours) or pay a contractor like... idk... 600$+ to do your floor depending on sq ft. I bought a new house and am not in the biggest rush to move in, so I ripped up the carpet myself and am in the process of doing all of this. It's a lot of work I agree!
CoC Knowledge I was quoted $1600 for a business to do mine. I'm gonna rent and do it myself.
Do I have to clean my floors before I sand?
Anything you can get up first, the better, to preserve the amount of work involved.
Yes if you have waxed it. If you don't the sanding will grind the wax into the floor.
Ok, thanks for letting me know that I'll need to pay a professional. No way am I going do all of this!
Lol
This is like saying physics is easy
I just paid over 10k to have downstairs done. Worth every penny
Good luck staining that LOL
And then call someone to do this.
Damn lots of sanding
Honestly that’s the worst part. MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A MASK
320 grit lol bro no
This is hard to watch for any professional floor refinisher smh
But this is for DIYers who cannot afford a pro like yourself. Believe me, if most of us given the option; we would hire a pro!
You didn't fill all those cracks/gaps with wood filler ! Utter insanity !
DonCalzone99 you NEVER want to fill all of the gaps in a wood floor because of expansion and contraction. Alot of people do NOT realise that wood floors move. It may only move 1/100th of an inch, but if you have say 100 rows that's 1 inch. Once that happens all of the wood fill cracks and breaks out from those gaps
Especially on an old loose floor such as the one in the video. Most homes built in the 50s 60s etc.. are hand nailed and all of them move quite a bit
ryan jenkins the 2.25" very old floor shown here won't expand/contract as much as a new floor or wider plank. The gaps certainly should have been filled, even if just to show where the highs and lows are.
Character in the flooring is priceless. If you wanted perfection you should have installed new flooring over the old.
They didn’t fill the floors very well🙄 I do this professionally and I wouldn’t of got paid for work like this
Wayyy too much work
who else cringed at the sound of the buffing
cheaper if you just put new floor
If you are paying people, and your floor are mildly shitty, yea. If you like doing labor, and do not mind an experienced looking floor that is once again easy to clean, doing it yourself is not a big deal. I could give a damn about a professional looking job unless I am selling.
Sucks
"Refinishing solid hardwood is a good DIY project" LOL are you taking uppers or what's wrong with you?
Felix Stanek Do It For Me is always an option. ;)
"and job will only cost $2500 dollars, have fun!"
ALWAYS THE ANNOYING MUSIC!!!!!!!!
is that kevin costner? :)
I’ll save everyone some time. Replace your floors.
what a joke ...dyi project..???
I put a whole wood floor down myself. Still looks amazing.
Some of us are capable
Patryk Slomczynski
Lol
Oh Lowe’s. i work with you guys, and this isn’t a good video. If you want Lowe’s, I can teach you how to sand properly.
Looks worse than before
Hell naw.
this is def not DYI. not one bit. omg.
RasheedaTV thank you!
I am a woman and I installed hardwood floors in my mom's house. If I could....You can do this.
A skilled and hardworking woman....
I did this to 3 large rooms about 15 yrs ago. Now its time to rent a sander and do again. The prep takes the longest, and waiting for poly to dry before being abke to walk on floors is rough. I had a ladder to a window and had the whole family use it as a exit! Didn't want to take chances til I knew it was was completely ready. But it is doable,two women took about a week to complete.
Looks like you didnt do anything at all, shouldve stained it
Come on guys don't make people spends money
Then dont watch this, if you dont want to spend some $$$ in your pocket.
Disgusting
This made me sick
this is ALOT of work, and takes an actual hired team days to do.....
I can't imagine trying to do this myself, do not attempt please.
Yes and no . It depends on condition on floor, sometimes you need to cut out part of floor and replace it. Depending on age of house and floor it can be hard. But this is a pretty easy job for anyone... the worst part is the dust . The hardest part is prepping it right .... it just takes time .
Don’t use this video actually refinishing hardwood floors is difficult if you’re not a professional you’re not gonna do it right