· Michael Blair
A tired hardwood floor is usually a refinishing job rather than a replacement, and the difference in cost is large. Three specific conditions rule refinishing out, and none of them is simply looking worn.
How much wood is left
Solid hardwood typically has around a quarter inch above the tongue, which supports several sandings across its life. Each full refinish removes a fraction of a millimetre.
The place to check is a floor register or a doorway threshold, where you can see the board edge. If the tongue is close to the surface, the floor has been sanded to its limit.
What rules refinishing out
Boards sanded to the tongue, widespread structural damage such as rot or insect damage, and engineered floors whose wear layer is already thin.
Deep pet staining that has penetrated through the wood is the fourth. Surface stains sand out; black stains that have soaked into the grain often do not, and those boards need replacing individually.
- Check board thickness at a register or threshold
- Look for previous sanding marks and how flat the floor is
- Test a stained area to see how deep it goes
- Confirm engineered wear layer thickness before sanding at all
Screen and recoat as the cheaper option
If the finish is worn but the wood underneath is not damaged, a screen and recoat abrades the existing finish and applies a new topcoat. It costs far less than a full sand and takes a day rather than a week.
It will not remove scratches that reach the wood, and it will not change colour. It is maintenance rather than restoration, and doing it every several years indefinitely postpones a full refinish.
What a full refinish involves
Sanding through several grits, addressing any board replacement, then stain if desired and multiple coats of finish. Expect the room to be out of use for the best part of a week including cure time.
Water-based finishes cure faster and smell less; oil-based ambers over time and is more forgiving to apply. Both are legitimate, and the choice affects both the timeline and the eventual colour.