INSTALLATION PROCESS

Most sand jobs take a minimum of three to four days. Stain and finish drying times can extend the process. Dark and pastel stains add time to the job, especially if a water base finish is used.

 

Dustless Sanding & Refinishing

We keep our machines serviced so as to keep dust to a minimum.

Power Needed

Our machines require 220 volts of power to run, and not all homes have 220 volt receptacle. Therefore, we run wires from your fuse box or circuit breaker to our machines. This gives us a constant and steady flow of electricity, as well as not having to interrupt electricity in the house.

Stain Colors

We show wood stain colors as soon as we get a small portion of the floor sanded. It is best to have a picture, or sample of the color that you are wanting. If we show more than 2-4 colors in the same range, most people have a difficulty choosing. If you show us an approximate color, we can usually show 3 colors or shades and it will be easier to make a choice.

Sanding

Sanding the floors means that we sand all of the finish and stain off of the existing floor, sand the floor flat, and remove approximately 1/32" of wood. Most 3/4" hardwood floors can be sanded 6 times as long as a professional company sands the floor each time needed. Hardwood floors should last 100-150 years, making hardwood floors the longest lasting value for the home that can be purchased if cared for by a professional team.

Our sanding process starts with either a drum or belt sander for the middle of the floor, a circular (edger) sander for the edges, hand scrapers for corners, and the final is the finer sanding by a buffer with a screen. We meet or exceed national standards set forth in the guidelines by the National Wood Flooring Association.

Drum or Belt Sanders
These are sanders that take 220 volts of power. They sand the bulk of the floor. They can use various grits of sand paper to achieve the desired results of every type of wood. We usually start sanding the floor with 16, 20, 36, 40, or 50 grit sand papers, depending upon the type of wood or top finish that we are sanding. A typical red oak floor starts with 36 grit paper, then, we use finer paper until we reach 100 grit for the final sanding. All the first cut on the floor is what we refer to as the "rough cut". The rough cut must be done with the drum or belt before the edger can finish the edges. Once the edges are done and fined off, the drum or belt can do it's final sanding. The main goal of these machines is to sand the old finish off and leave the floor flat.

Edger or Circular Sander
The edger sands all of the edges and places where a drum or belt cannot fit in to. The edging is done much like the drum or belt as fa as the paper is concerned. It is not unusual to have the ability to use only 100 grit on the edges. Once the edging is done and the drum and belt has finished, scraping and screening is next.

Scraping and Screening
Scraping is done by hand. We use a very sharp paint scraper to plane the wood on the edges of the floor, corners, under cabinets, and stair treads. Scraping must be done before the screening process. Screening is performed with a buffer floor machine, which has either a 100, 120, or 150 grit screen. This screen is just like a dry wall sanding screen, in which, this process smooths out the floor evenly to blend all of the other previous processes. Screening the floor is also the process that is done in between each coat of finish. After all of this, the floor is finished and needs to be vacuumed. When we vacuum, we try to clean up as much dust as we can from counters, cabinets, shelves, sills, base boards, base shoe, and vents. Not only does this help the potential of dust blowing on to a freshly stained or coated floor, but also helps with the clean up.