Hardwood Floor Refinishing in Maple Ridge and the Lower Mainland

If the wear is only in the finish, a screen and recoat is usually enough: the old finish is scuffed with a floor machine and a fresh coat goes on. It never reaches the wood, so scratches in the wood, grey worn-through lanes, stains and dents stay. The new coat also has to stick. Wax, oil soaps and shine-restoring polishes can make it peel later, so a small test patch comes first, and a floor that fails it usually needs a full sand.

Anything wrong with the boards themselves is dealt with before the sander goes on: loose boards fastened, squeaks fixed, and boards with deep gouges or black stains cut out and replaced with matching wood, since sanding only goes so deep.

Thin gaps that open in winter, when the heat dries the air indoors, are normal and best left unfilled, because filler gets crushed when the boards swell back. Wide, permanent gaps in old fir can be left as character or filled with thin strips of wood, each glued to one side of the gap only, so the boards can still move.

Cupped boards, with their edges higher than their centres, are a moisture problem. In the Lower Mainland it's usually damp from a crawlspace with bare soil and no vapour barrier, or a leak. That has to be fixed first, which is usually work for a plumber or a crawlspace contractor. Then the floor is left to dry until moisture readings on the boards, not the calendar, show it's back in line with the rest of the house, which can take weeks. Sanded flat too soon, the boards dry out with their centres high instead.

Hardwood stairs can be refinished too, but each tread and nosing is sanded with small machines and by hand, so they take longer than their size suggests. Ask how you'll get up and down while the finish dries. A lower sheen hides wear on the treads, but it doesn't make a finish much less slippery. If grip worries you, ask whether the finish going on has an anti-slip option. Rough steps found under old carpet were never meant to be seen, and those need new treads rather than a refinish.

Take your time choosing a stain. The same colour looks different on oak, maple and fir, and maple and fir can look blotchy. Choose from samples on your own sanded floor, with a little finish over them if possible, and look at them in daylight and again in the evening. Darker colours show dust, pet hair and scratches more. Changing the colour later means sanding again.

The finish is what protects the wood, and there are three common kinds. Oil-based polyurethane is tough and turns a warmer amber over the years, with the strongest smell and the longest wait between coats. Water-based polyurethane dries clear, smells much less and dries faster. Hardwax oils mostly soak into the wood and leave little or no film on top. They're easy to touch up in one spot, but they need re-oiling from time to time. Matte and satin hide scratches better than gloss. Ask which product is going on and how to care for it.

Once the finish starts going on, the rooms are off limits until each coat has dried. Every finish gives off fumes while it dries, oil-based ones the most. People sensitive to fumes, babies and pets, especially birds, are better off elsewhere for those days. With solvent-based products, pilot lights on nearby gas appliances should be turned off while the finish goes on, because the vapour can catch fire.

Dry and cured are different things. A finish is usually dry enough for socks a day or two after the last coat, but it keeps hardening for days to weeks. Furniture usually goes back after a few days, on felt pads, and rugs often wait a couple of weeks. The finish's own instructions set the exact times. Cold slows every finish, and damp air slows water-based finishes most, so turning the heat down or leaving windows open to a cold, wet Lower Mainland day can stretch them.