Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

So Dh and I are debating about refinishing our wood floors. We never did it when we moved in 4 years ago and now with an additional 4 years of wear and tear it needs it bad!
But DH thinks its too much hassle to move everything out etc.

So tell me have you refinished the floors AFTER moving it?
How much of a hassle was it?
Whats the timeline really - 3 days, 5 days (we would stay with ILs while the floor was being done)
Also did you do every room on one floor or just one or two rooms etc?
Basically tell me the good, bad and ugly...


Thanks so much!!

ETA: another question...what did you do about closets, did you move everything out, finish the floor in there, seal them off etc.

Message edited 2/16/2011 1:50:13 PM.

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

ooh. im interested to know this too and was just about to post a similar question!

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

I did it before I moved in - only to 2 rooms and 2 years alter we are going to start another room that is empty at the moment
I can tell you that it wasn't all that bad - can you go maybe room by room or 2 rooms at a time so lets say you do the dining room, move all that furniture into another room for a few days, then move back and go onto another room?
I can tell you that it smells horrible, so do it when you can have windows open and there is going to be a lot of dust - even months later i have found dust in random spots!
I love love love how the floors look so i def think it is worth it but it is all up to you and if you want to live like that - or maybe you can rent one of those pods and load everything in there??

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

We did this to our house before we moved in...I have to say I was in there for a few mins and the smell was AWFUL....plus you shouldn't walk on the floors after for a while so not sure how that would work

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

We refinished 2 weeks after moving in so we just moved everything back out. I will say the smell was horrible. They said we could move back in 2 days after they were done but honestly, we had to wait 5 extra days bc i could smell it. And the cleaning afterwards- the dust gets on mouldings and windowsills and walls, not on the floor.

I thought it was an unpleasant experience.

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

Thanks!

See we live in a ranch. My main living areas are where it really needs it, My 3 bedrooms arent bad at all, and honestly I want to put large area rugs down in the kids rooms soon so I am not worried about those 3 rooms.

So My thought is to do the hall, living room and dining room. There is alot of furniture (dining room table, china closet, sectional, entertainment center, end tables etc) obviously but we could move some stuff into the Playroom or garage. I know its a hassle but I just think it needs it and it will be worth it. I keep telling my DH the longer we put it off, the more wear that goes on and in the end I am afraid that certain areas (like in front of the door) will get damaged and need more than just refinishing.

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

I did it after we moved in and I will never do that again! I had the living room, dining room, stairs and landing done and it took 4 days. First day sanding and repairs that need to be done, then they put the stain on and first coat of poly. Second day they did second coat of poly. You couldn't walk on it for 2 days after that. It needs time to cure. The longer it cures the harder it is. Unfortunately, the dog got through a barricade and walked on the living room floor (well tried to as I heard her paws sticking to the floor), so if I lift the rug now I have a reminder of her foray with her paw prints, LOL!

The smell was HORRIBLE! If you can stay elsewhere, I highly suggest you do!

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

Thanks ladies.

I have a DS and a baby on the way (would do this probably in the early summer) so we would definitely move in with my ILs for a week or so. And I am thinking afterwards I will hire a cleaning crew to come in and do a hard core cleaning...

I just feel like in the end is there an alternative? I mean we could be here 5 more years or 20 more years, so at some point its going to need to be done. KWIM?

Anyway keep the advice/experience coming.

Also if you did just one or two rooms at a time did you seal off other areas with plastic or something??

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

I didn't seal off any rooms. You want as much air circulation as possible (think cross breeze). Like I said, the smell was horrible, I mean really bad fumes and I wouldn't want to be in a sealed room with those fumes (although I think you said you wouldn't stay while being done). I would do it now, before your new baby arrives, otherwise, it would be that much more difficult and inconvenient for you down the road.

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

We did it last year. It really wasnt too bad. We did every room except our bedroom, which included pulling up carpeting in 2 rooms. We moved everything to the basement, garage or kitchen.

The smell wasnt too bad, but the dust was worse. We were able stay there while they were doing it...we came home around 8:30 every night and took our shoes off before we stepped onto the wood floor. It was fine.

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

We had our floors sanded and stained about a year after we moved in. We put most of our furniture in our garage; and the other half of our stuff in our kitchen. Our kitchen is all tile so that was the only extra floor we had to use as space.

We covered everything to minimize the dust. It worked out really well actually. We have pendant lighting in our DR and Kitchen so we covered them with plastic. Anything you can think of; cover. They did a very neat job and the dust wasnt as bad as I thought it would be; but you still want to cover as much as you can. Actually DH covered our entire wall of kitchen cabinets with plastic; since we wanted to prevent as much dust getting in or them as possible. So buy a lot of plastic and a lot of tape. It comes in handy!

We ended up staying over our friends house....which we thought was only going to be for one night. But the smell was so bad; that we ended up staying for 3 nights. So just be prepared for that. The smell of the polyeurethane is so strong; it will give you a headache.

We also had it done in the summer; so the smell just stuck around a little longer.

It really wasnt a big deal. I would do it again.......just not in the summer.

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

We did it before we moved in. Our floor guy told us not to stay in the house. He stipped and stained on mon, poly on wed, second coat poly on friday. We then put brown paper down on high traffic areas. Thie smell was AWFUL. I came in to take a pic of them, and had to leave. It was gross.

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

We had the entire house done, however we are living at my moms for now. Honestly, it is VERY messy- dust EVERYWHERE-inside the kitchen cabinets, on top of door sills, window blinds, baseboards- EVERYWHERE!!!!! The house is completely empty and we plan on getting cleaning service in before we move in. The total time-including pulling up rugs, repairs, stain,etc almost 8/9 days.

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

You might want to look into water based poly. Those smell much less than the solvent based poly. You will have to hunt a little bit to find someone who does it-not everyone does it-and don't believe the contractors who say it doesn't wear as well. Here's some more info:
http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-Projects/Flooring/Floor-Refinishing/water-based-vs-oil-based-polyurethane-floor-finish/Step-By-Step#step1

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

We had our floors done after we had been living there. We had the LR and DR done and the baby's room (which was done with a water based polyurethane). We stayed at my ILs for almost a week. I was pregnant at the time so we were extra cautious. Had I not been, I probably would have gone back after 2 days or so.

The dust was definitely a PITA but we had no furniture to worry about since we were ordering new stuff which got delivered after.

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house

we did the same thing as you are planning - living room, dining room and hallway last spring. we had been in the house for 2 years. we moved ALL furniture into the bedrooms and kitchen. covered everything and i even took down the curtains. the dust gets every where (even on the walls!). the floor guy used plastic to sort of seal off the other rooms. it definitely helped with the dust. however, he had to partially go into the bedrooms because we did the hallway and the bedrooms all have finished hardwood as well.

when he did the poly, he opened the doors and windows to help with the smell. we stayed at my inlaws for the entire time. we did 3 coats of poly so you have to wait a day in between each. and then you have to wait another day i believe before you can walk on them. then another day or two before you can move the furniture back. it was definitely a long process. but totally worth it!

the smell is pretty bad. but if you can open the windows, it helps. not sure if you want to wait until April when the weather is a little warmer.

we did the closets as well. we moved some stuff out and he was able to get in, sand and seal. if you are really worried about the dust, you should move everything from the closets also.

Message edited 2/17/2011 10:10:35 AM.

Re: Refinishing wood floors - while living in house