LESLIE: Evan in Rhode Island, come on down. What can we do for you?
EVAN: Hey, I wanted to ask a question in regards to redoing my wood floors. And I wanted to know what would be the most durable finish I could put on that …?
TOM: Yeah, I would say it’s an oil based polyurethane; not water based polyurethane. If you’re doing this yourself, the product that you can buy – you know, you’re going to buy a product like Minwax, for example; which is pretty good stuff. It’s not as good as the stuff the pros use, which they generally mix up and sort of cures in place; the kind of stuff that you might see on a gymnasium floor.
LESLIE: It’s almost even like a resin coating.
TOM: Yeah, but that’s way over and above the ability of the average homeowner to put down. So I would say that what you should do is use a good quality oil based polyurethane. I do not recommend water based polyurethane for floors. Great for furniture but lousy for anything that needs some sort of abrasion resistance.
How bad are your floors right now, Evan? Do you have to take it all the way down to raw wood or are you just trying to refinish it a bit?
EVAN: I would like to take them all the way down.
TOM: Alright. So then what you’re going to do is you’re going to have to have the floors sanded – professionally sanded. Don’t recommend you do that yourself. And then the next thing that you’re going to want to do is use a sanding sealer on there, assuming you want it to be clear, and then probably two to three coats of oil based polyurethane on top of that. And by the way, the best way to apply that is with a lamb’s wool applicator. It basically gets mopped on with a lamb’s wool pad attached to a standard painting, sort of roller extension handle. And you start at one end and work your way out.
LESLIE: And let it dry well.
TOM: Yep, exactly.
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