Wood Flooring Remodeling: A Guide to Affordable and Effective Renovation

You love your house. But there’s no doubt it parts of your home need updating. If one of those areas is a floor that’s old and worn out, there are some very affordable and easy home upgrades you can make through wood flooring remodeling.

Having your floor remodeled brings new life to your home, and it’s even something you can do yourself as a DIY project. But before you decide which floors in your home need remodeling, it’s essential to plan everything out beforehand. It’s in the planning stage that most people go through the pros and cons of wood floor renovation and upgrades in their homes.

You may be trying to sell your home or just want to upgrade it for the next few years. You just know you want to enjoy it, so no matter the reason, it’s vital you have a guide. This guide will help you figure out what and how to renovate once you decide to move forward.

Read on and learn all you need to know about planning your wood flooring remodeling project.

Flooring Remodeling

Before you do a deep dive into a home’s remodeling project, it’s good to know all you’ll need to plan and put together for any flooring remodeling you plan to do. There’s also an added benefit if you decide you want to renovate various areas in your home.

Every renovated and upgraded area adds value to it. If you decide to keep your home or sell your property, adding value to your home is always a benefit that offers its own rewards. Many people decide to renovate and start with replacing flooring in their homes because they know flooring helps set up the entire home’s aesthetic look.

A remodeling project can be done all at once or in stages room by room. Many flooring remodeling enthusiasts will default to hardwood product on their floors and decide to take on their steps as well. The perception is hardwood is the go-to for long-lasting, high-shine, and natural material that can’t be beaten.

In truth, hardwood and hardwood variations offer many flooring and stair choices. Engineered hardwood stairs offer you stair treads in Red Oak, Maple, and Hickory.

Stair Treads

You can even go exotic if you want and select an exotic wood for your stair treads. You can purchase premade stair treads that help you get a higher grade of wood and consistent color. The higher grade of wood ends up staining better and usually ends up matching the new flooring very well.

Your stair tread will be closed, boxed, or open on one or both ends for easier installation. That means the return hangs over the edge of the step by a couple of inches. So when you order your stair treads no matter what wood product you’re purchasing, it’s best if you have a return that hangs over your step edge by a couple of inches.

What Easy Home Improvements and Upgrades to Make

There are two ways you can upgrade a home that brings immediate notice. These instantaneous and noticeable upgrades happen when you repaint your home or remodel your floors. When a homeowner chooses to get the flooring upgrade, it helps reflect the home’s improved aesthetics while also providing longevity for the flooring.

The homeowner then gets a bonus to their home of unlimited value. Quality flooring allows a house to shine. Hardwood is appealing, and many high-quality wood laminates options are very affordable.

You can even go eco-friendly and use bamboo and cork on your floors, which gives them luster, shine, and longevity. If you already have a quality hardwood on your floors, but it’s dull and scratched up from constant use, you can easily give it a good sanding and refinishing. Deciding to do it yourself or hire a professional remodeling expert are both viable options.

It’s essential to set up your budget in advance, so you know what your costs are as you move from stage to stage in your remodeling project.

How to Renovate Your Flooring

There is a process for renovating flooring. If you follow this process, you will have the best wood flooring renovation at the most affordable price. After all, you know you want an affordable and effective renovation. 

The question is, how do you bring all the floor remodeling moving parts together? You bring the moving remodeling parts together by starting at the beginning. 

#1 – When You’re Refinishing a Real Wood Floor

Remove any staples, nails, or anything else protruding from the surface of the old floor. Make sure you very thorough, or when you go to sand your floor, you’ll keep tearing up sandpaper on protruding nails.

#2 – Sand, Sand, and Sand Again

Sand down your floor with a power sander. You always want to work in the direction of the boards and never move the sander across them. You always use and move through your sandpaper from coarse to fine as you power across the floorboards.

There can’t be enough said about how difficult edgers can be to control, so rather than get in a fight with one, it’s okay to use a hand-held sander. The hand-held sanders allow you to get as close to the edge of the walls as possible. It’s crucial that when you remove the old surface with a scraper to use 80- and 100-grit paper by hand to finish removing the last of the old floor coating.

#3 – Vacuum and Mop

You want to mop the floor down with a rag and water. Once the rag has taken up as much of the debris from the old finish as possible, rinse and repeat. Remove as much dust and old finish debris as possible. 

You want to make sure you get up as much dust and hair as possible, for once it gets in the filler or coating, it can make for a duller or lumpier wood floor finish.

#4 – Wood Filler

You’re going to notice some large holes in the wood after you strip it down. Use a wood filler that matches the color of your floor. Fill in any holes with a scraper and smooth it over, allowing it to dry for as long as the directions state.

#5 – Wood Sealer

It’s at this point you want to apply a coat of wood sealer to close the pores in the wood floor surface. You only need a paintbrush for this, and it’s easily painted on and will leave a smooth wood surface. Try to allow it to dry for a couple of hours as you’ll be applying a stain or floor finish over it.

#6 – Floor Coating

The floor coating you’re going to put on is polyurethane or wax. This coating prevents soil and grime from getting into the wood grain. You want your coating to be as light in color as it can be.

That’s because you want your beautiful and shiny floor grain to be shining through. You paint the floor coating on with a brush and always work in the direction of the floorboards. Put three coats on and give each coat several hours to dry. 

#7 – Curing the Floor

Give the floor two or three days to cure and don’t set your furniture on it until at least that amount of time has passed. You want to set your furniture on the floor and don’t drag it across the floor when you’re rearranging your furniture. You also don’t want to clean your wood flooring after remodeling it for at least a week.

Inexpensive Items You Will Need for the Floor Remodeling

Other than how hard you work on making your remodeled floor shine, there’s nothing more important than having the items you need to make it happen. You’ll want to make sure you have the following:

• A power sander
• A hand-held sander
• Various grades of sandpaper
• A broom
• A vacuum cleaner
• Rags
• Paintbrushes
• Sealer 
• Floor finish/Wax

You want to make sure you rent your power sander from a hardware store or reputable rental store. You don’t need to purchase something you may use a couple of times in your life. With the power sander, you rent you want to rent a belt sander as it’s easier to operate and smoother to work than a drum sander.

If possible, find a sander to rent that has a dust-collection bag with it as that helps you minimize all your sweeping, dusting, and mopping that’s required after you sand down the wood.

Most Bang for Your Buck

In the end, if you find all of the above too much money or effort, you can use the basic snap-to hardwood installation that can still beat out wall-to-wall carpeting almost every time in looks and value. It doesn’t matter what type of floor remodeling you choose to do. It only matters that you plan out what you want to do next.

Allow yourself a bit of time to read a guide like this one on how you do it. The result will be a floor that enhances the beauty and value of your home. The beautiful new aesthetically pleasing remodeled floors, create a type of shining sanctuary that others will want to know just how you brought such new life into such old floors.