Does the hardwood flooring in your facility look a little dingy and you wished you could bring it back to life, but don’t have a fortune to spend? Unless you have a floor that does not get used or is relatively new, it’s likely this is true. Well, there are a couple of ways to revitalize that old hardwood and there might be an inexpensive solution that you weren’t even aware of.
Obviously, you can do your best to clean your flooring with a product recommended by your floor’s manufacturer. It’s always important to check with the manufacturer before you use any product because there are certain products that are not appropriate for hardwood floors sealed with a urethane, which yours almost certainly is. Oil soaps and wax are two such products that should absolutely not be used, since both will make the floor slippery, especially when perspiration is involved.
But we’ll assume that you’ve done the best to clean your floor, or else it’s on a regular maintenance schedule and still you have a dingy looking floor. At that point, most people think of a total resanding of the floor, which is a messy, time-consuming and expensive undertaking. But there can be an interim solution, which you might consider doing every couple of years.
This process is known in the flooring industry as screening, so named because of the abrasive screen used under a buffer in this procedure. This process basically takes off the top dingy layer of finish and roughs up the layer of finish beneath that so that a clean new layer of polyurethane can be applied. The floor is simply buffed, the dust vacuumed up, a new coat of urethane applied, and the floor is usually ready to use again the next day. If you have some minor scratches in the finish, these can even be treated at this time and filled in before the final coat of finish goes on. The whole process is extremely economical, with most floor professionals charging you somewhere between $.50-$1.00 per square foot. It’s a really inexpensive way to give your floor a brand new appearance.
Of course, there are times when screening is simply not appropriate, such as in cases where the floor has simply incurred too much damage, or the existing finish has worn too thin to be screened. If there are deep scratches or dents that go into the wood, or if the wood has been damaged by excessive water, there’s simply no escaping a total sanding and re-finishing. In this process, all the finish is sanded off and the wood is sanded into an even surface again, through the use of progressively lighter grades of sand paper. Then the floor is re-finished with two coats of sealer and two coats of new urethane, with screening between each seal coat after drying. This process can be very time-consuming, since each coat of finish requires at least 12 hours to dry before another coat can be applied. It can also be very loud and dusty, at least during the initial sanding phase, and so contractors usually recommend that the facility, or that area of the facility be closed during that process. In addition, depending on the type of urethane used, the smell can be very strong after the finish is applied and it is recommended that the facility be well ventilated before the area is reused. Because of the time involved and the materials used, as well as any repairs that need to be made once the floor is sanded, this process is considerably more expensive. I’d give you a price range, but it varies so much between different regions of the country, that all I can say about it is that it’s considerably more expensive than a screening, but still less than replacing the entire floor.
Still, a full sanding will completely restore your floor in most cases and doesn’t need to be done very often unless significant damage has been done. Most solid hardwood floors can be sanded five to six times over their lifetime before they become too thin to continue to be structurally sound, but this lifetime is likely 20 to 30 years or even longer.
So, if you’re tired of that dingy floor, call a hardwood flooring specialist and ask them whether screening your floor is a possibility. Screening is not an especially difficult process so you may be lucky enough to have maintenance personnel on staff that can do it for you. It could well make a major difference in the appearance that you have been unable to achieve by cleaning alone and, who knows, it might attract more members to that area of your facility.
Steve Chase is the General Manager of Fitness Flooring. He can be contacted at 866.735.5113, or by email atsales@fitnessfloors.com, or visit www.fitnessfloors.com.
