How to Clean, Strip Refinish Hardwood Floors - Best Oak, Walnut, Hardwood Flooring Stripping Wood Tips

Unless you have prefinished hardwood flooring and are refinishing hardwood floors you need to strip or sand your hardwood floor.  Stripping to get down to unfinished hardwood flooring so you can get to a beautiful hardwood floor. Your hardwood floor may have been covered up or you may want to strip a hardwood floor and replace it with a new wood flooring installation.  

Once you make the choice to strip your floor the next choice is stripping or sanding the floorboards. Sanding no doubt is a more thorough process, particularly if you want to return your floors to their timeless grandeur.  However if time and money is an issue  with cheap hardwood flooring or you are just going to recover the floor the solution is to strip a hardwood floor. When you strip a hardwood floor, be it cherry hardwood flooring, oak hardwood floor or walnut hardwood flooring the sequence is the same.

Tools and supplies you need:

• Dust mask
• Safety goggles
• Rubber gloves
• Thick, synthetic stripping pad
• Large paint scraper
• Stripping solution
• Putty knife
• Absorbent clean up rags
• Large wide paint brush

Step 1

Determine whether you want to strip a hardwood floor or sand a hardware floor. The big benefit sanding gives is an even floor to make the wood a feature. The minuses to sanding are, it is more time consuming, the dust from sanding can be incredibly messy and sanding requires more tool rental or purchase.

Step 2

If you have made the decision to strip a hardware floor than let’s put aside a few days to strip and clean up your hardwood floors.

Step 3

Clear all furniture off the floorboards, you want to be totally clear not moving items around when you strip a hardware floor.

Step 4

Take your can of stripping solution pouring it evenly on the hardwood floor applying it with the wide paint brush. Check on the strippers instructions but typically you wait for 30 minutes after application.

Step 5

Next step to strip a hardwood floor is scrape the congealed stripping solution off the floor, it will bubble and bring up the covering you are stripping you may have to reapply in some instances.

Step 6

The last step when you strip a hardwood floor is the clean up. Take you painters rag and slightly wet them to scrub the boards off any solution you didn’t scrub off. Use a wet rag to scrub off any excess solution that you couldn’t get off. Once cleaned the solution up take the time to dry the hardwood floor completely off. Move the furniture back in when completely dry.

Tips

• To practice to strip a hardware floor test a small area, in a corner is preferable.
• Try not to splash the thinner.
• When you are scrapping keep the scraper even making sure not to dig in and cut notches in the wood.
• Be even and patient as you scrap
• When refinishing hardwood floors you need to strip or sand your hardwood floor.
• Stripping to get down to unfinished hardwood flooring so you can get to a beautiful hardwood floor.
• Your hardwood floor may have been covered up.
• Once you make the choice to strip your floor the next choice is stripping or sanding the floorboards.
• However if time and money is an issue with cheap hardwood flooring or you are just going to recover the floor the solution is to strip a hardwood floor.
• You can strip a cherry hardwood flooring, oak hardwood floor or walnut hardwood flooring the sequence is the same..

Warning

• Protect yourself from the stripper it will burn your skin
• Wipe dry the area that you just stripped, so that the water does not get sucked in the wood, causing it to expand after you strip a hardwood floor.