Finishing wood floors: kinda long, but need your help please

We are just moving into our house and painted two bedrooms which came out beautifully. But these rooms had gross carpet in them so we ripped those up to expose the wood floors beneath. These floors are not in great shape. They look like they were probably finished long ago, but they really do need it again. This is something we were not factoring in For now, I cleaned one room with hot soapy water and tomorrow I plan on using murphy's oil soap. Do you think that will be ok for now? If not, how much would it cost and how long would it take to have someone come in and refinish two small bedrooms? Would having them come in and sand, and all of that ruin our newly painted walls??

ps...sorry so long!

Re: Finishing wood floors: kinda long, but need your help please

yes...what you should have done was rip up all the carpeting first, have the floors refinished next, and THEN painted the rooms. Refinishing the floors now will only leave a film of sawdust all over the walls.

did you already put down baseboards?

because those too will need to be removed in order for the floors to be refinished.

if there are no baseboards yet, then maybe you can refinish the floors......
maybe you can cover the walls with plastic to avoid some of the sawdust from settling on the walls???

Re: Finishing wood floors: kinda long, but need your help please

I used Unique Floors in Ronkonkoma...and they were very reasonable and did a great job! They did not ruin the existing walls that were painted...however there was lots of dust!

FM if you would like contact info. Good Luck!

Message edited 7/2/2006 10:52:34 PM.

Re: Finishing wood floors: kinda long, but need your help please

We used my DH's cousin well distant cousin. I had never met him before this. He told us to go ahead and paint first. I didn't want to but he said better to paint now then take a chance on getting paint on your newly finished floors.

Anyways he did an amazing job and he cleaned up. I only found dust in one spot on one wall in the corner and we had our whole house done.

His name is Ron and his company is Hardwood of Bellmore. His number is 516-409-8315. I know he does all of LI!

Re: Finishing wood floors: kinda long, but need your help please

We are getting our floors refinished this week. We were told that we'd probably have to touch up the baseboards. I would think any reputable refinisher would not trash your walls just to get the floors done. Not everyone is in the market to repaint their entire room when they want the floors refinished.

Re: Finishing wood floors: kinda long, but need your help please

We ripped up carpet also when we moved in to expose the hardwood floors. We ended up refinishing them about 6 months later. Anyway, the floors were in decent condition. I mopped multiple times b/c so much crap kept coming up (mostly black stuff). Eventually, after many moppings they were cleaner but very dull. So, we took the plunge and had them finished. It only cost us $400 but we ended up only doing the living room/dining and hall (b/c the other 2 rooms with HW floors were already exposed and in good condition). It was dusty but not horrible. We had to touch up a few spots on the walls but that was it. Good luck!

Re: Finishing wood floors: kinda long, but need your help please

This is good to know. We're getting hardwoods put in right now and I wasn't able to get the rooms painted and now I feel better that I didn't. I'm scared of the fact I'm going to be finding sandy dust for the next year though!

Re: Finishing wood floors: kinda long, but need your help please

Hey Mary Beth!

It's Dani. When we moved in we got our co-op(you know the size) redone and it was about $1100. If you want have Scott give Greg a ring and he can give him the guys #.

Congrats on your new home!!

We just started looking and it is a pain!!

Re: Finishing wood floors: kinda long, but need your help please

Posted by mbtieds

We are just moving into our house and painted two bedrooms which came out beautifully. But these rooms had gross carpet in them so we ripped those up to expose the wood floors beneath. These floors are not in great shape. They look like they were probably finished long ago, but they really do need it again. This is something we were not factoring in For now, I cleaned one room with hot soapy water and tomorrow I plan on using murphy's oil soap. Do you think that will be ok for now? If not, how much would it cost and how long would it take to have someone come in and refinish two small bedrooms? Would having them come in and sand, and all of that ruin our newly painted walls??

ps...sorry so long!

Re: Finishing wood floors: kinda long, but need your help please

Posted by Tah-wee-ZAH

Posted by mbtieds

We are just moving into our house and painted two bedrooms which came out beautifully. But these rooms had gross carpet in them so we ripped those up to expose the wood floors beneath. These floors are not in great shape. They look like they were probably finished long ago, but they really do need it again. This is something we were not factoring in For now, I cleaned one room with hot soapy water and tomorrow I plan on using murphy's oil soap. Do you think that will be ok for now? If not, how much would it cost and how long would it take to have someone come in and refinish two small bedrooms? Would having them come in and sand, and all of that ruin our newly painted walls??

ps...sorry so long!

You always paint FIRST then refinish floors so you are doing the right thing. We painted my entire house and then refinished the floors before moving in. The floors were exposed hardwood for 35 years and were BLACK in spots from the three boys and St. Bernard that lived there. They were never refinished since 1971 It's AMAZING what some sanding and poly will do. People who come into my house are amazed by the floors, before and after. I have a name of my refinisher if you want it.

There is also this stuff called "Rejuvenator". There are a lot of hardwood floor clenaing products that claim to be able to restore luster to your floor. Well, when DH and I sold our previous house none of them did the trick like rejuvenator. I'd try this first if money is a bit tight.

Most likely all of the ground in dirt into the carpets wore away the protective layer of ploy on your floors. Right now you have bare wood and it must be sealed. Water is the enemy of wood floors. Never leave wood floors wet. Wipe and dry immediately.