Hardwood floors, when designed and maintained properly, give your home a bright, new look. If your hardwood floors have seen a lot of use over the past year, it might be time to repair them. You could polish, refine, or paint your hardwood floors to change the color instead of replacing them entirely.
Furthermore, if you are the type of person who enjoys giving their home a makeover now and then or tries to keep up with home design trends, choosing a hardwood floor style that will last a lifetime may seem daunting. The good news is that while hardwood floors will last a lifetime, their color can be changed.
Can You Change The Color Of Your Hardwood Floors?
Yes, by sanding and refinishing your current hardwood floors, you can improve the color of your floors. Most people are unaware that when they refinish their floors, they can change the hardwood floor colors. You may use light, dark, or red tones or a combination of the three. Here’s how to do it to support you with your projects.
Sanding and Refinishing
A dulling floor, or one that has mild to serious scratches, should be sanded and refinished. The procedure restores the floor to its original state. It also offers you the option of staining your hardwood flooring to improve the color. Are you ready to take on the challenge? To sand and refinish hardwood floors, follow these steps.
- Remove all furniture, window treatments, and rugs from the space: To keep dust out of the ducts and electrical work, use painter’s tape to cover the vents and other electrical boxes. Remove any nails or staples with needle-nosed pliers. Any loose boards should be nailed down.
- Fix and repair: Search for wider gaps or cracks in the floor and fill them with wood filler and a sparkle knife. If the floors are badly damaged, a trowel filler, a thinner wood filler that spreads and covers a wide area, should be used. Allow for full drying of the filler. To clear all dirt and dust, clean the floor with a damp rag.
- Sand the floor: you’ll need a drum sander for this. Working with a drum sander, on the other hand, is difficult. Start by sanding with 40-grit sandpaper. The paper is coarse and does a thorough job of scratch removal. Stopping will leave permanent marks on the floor, so keep moving across the floor at a slow, steady rate. Change the grit paper as needed until the floor is smooth.
- Buff the floor: buffing the floor removes small sanding marks and leaves it perfectly smooth. A pole sander takes a little longer to set up, but it’s also simpler to use and less expensive than a buffer. Buff the floor in a back-and-forth motion with the grain of each board.
- Preparation for sealer: the house must be completely clean at this point. While the finish is drying, wipe down the walls to prevent dust from falling to the floor. Water popping, which is a combination of alcohol and water, is the easiest technique to use. This causes the wood grains to grow, making it easier for the stain to penetrate.
- Stain the wood: If you want to change the color of the wood, you’ll need to stain it. Choose an oil-based stain in the color you like. Use a lambswool applicator or a staining sponge to apply the dye. As you work your way from one corner of the room to the door, don’t let the edges dry.
- Coat the floor with a polyurethane sealer: after the stain has dried. It provides excellent water and scratch resistance and needs little maintenance. The sealant is available in several finishes, including glossy and matte.
Glazing and Coating
Glazing hardwood floors repels moisture and dirt while also adding strength to the wood and protecting it from hard objects’ damage. Get a floor-glazing product that forms a tough, almost plastic-like seal over the surface. It is applied in thin layers, and each layer must be buff with very fine sandpaper before the next is applied to ensure that the next layer adheres.
- After you’ve finished staining your floor, vacuum it thoroughly to remove any dust. Swirl the gloss around after gently pulling it up from the bottom of the can. It should be done gently to avoid the creation of bubbles,
- Begin pouring a line of gloss near one wall, perpendicular to the direction of the floorboards and the same length as your lambswool applicator, from the far corner of the roo away from the door.
- As required, add more gloss and gloss backward along the surface, moving slowly to avoid producing bubbles. Keep on until the whole floor has been glossed.
- Allow the gloss to dry completely overnight. Buff the polished surface with 220-grit sandpaper by hand, rubbing just enough to remove the shine and leave the floor slightly dull.
- In the same manner, as the first step, add a second coat of gloss. Please enable it to dry, then buff it with 220-grit sandpaper, clean up the dust, and repeat the process. The third coat should not be sanded; instead, it should be left shiny.
Whitewashing
Painting anything with a whitewash to give it a fresh look and lighter color is known as whitewashing. It works well if you want a more diverse combination of furniture and finishes for a trendy, beachy vibe. If you’re comfortable dealing with hardwood flooring, here are the steps to take.
- Remove the varnish from your floors first, as it serves as a buffer between the whitewash and your wood floors.
- Using whatever whitewash you want. It may be a white stain or a white tinted sealer that suits the wood’s grain on your board. Coat a small portion at a time with a 4-inch brush, as it dries easily.
- Leave time for the whitewash to completely dry after it has been applied to the entire floor. Take a moment to consider the final appearance and color. If the floor is too bright, you can go over it again, but if any spots are slightly too dark, you should sand them down to make them even.
- Once you’re satisfied with the final result and the floor is absolutely dry, Apply a coat of water-based polyurethane lacquer to your floor to protect the stain.
It would help if you sanded the floors to change the color of the hardwood floors, whether you are changing the color to match the tone of your home or your floors are looking worn out. You can’t easily apply stain or paint to already-finished floors. It won’t look good, and it won’t last because it’ll peel off. You will be eternally grateful if you carefully follow the steps of the approach you chose.
