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*DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a professional. Any advice used in this blog post is at your own risk.
When we first purchased our 1960's side-split home, we inherited the red oak hardwood floors that came with it! The top level (where the bedrooms are) had all dark, red oak floors, the main floor had a different type of hardwood (honestly, I'm not even sure what it is - I think pine? Again, not a professional), and the stairs had another type of cherry-toned wood. Everything was mix-matched, but nothing a good ol area rug and paint couldn't hide.. so we thought.
Bedroom #2 when we first bought the house
After the house was emptied and we got possession, we noticed the floors had been sun bleached from where the previous owner had her furniture and area rugs, and there was quite a bit of unevenness. This created a not-so pleasing look. We did not intend to have to refinish the floors, but this quickly was added to our list of DIY projects. (The joys of buying an older home!) Why are we DIYing this, you may ask? When it came to flooring, I wanted to install LVP White Oak or White Oak Solid Hardwood Floors throughout the whole inside of the house to create a cohesive look, while my husband really wanted to keep the original hardwood floors, but agreed that the red oak HAD TO GO. Ripping up and replacing them with white oak hardwood would have costed us a fortune, so we did some research on refinishing the current red oak. Well.. as we were getting quotes for other house projects, one really stood out to us: we were quoted $16,000 to remove the popcorn ceilings in our house. That's not a typo.. yes, $16,000. It was at that moment that I knew we were DIYing all of our house projects, including these red oak hardwood floors.
Would you pay $16,000 to remove popcorn ceilings in your home..? More on that to come..
BEFORE Pictures of all of the different types of woods (red oak, cherry oak, and possibly pine?) You can see the discolouration in the last photo if you look closely.
Thankfully we had a little over one month of a transition from our rental property to our new (old) fixer upper house. This meant about a month to complete some of our bigger DIY Renovations and Home projects prior to moving in. If there's one thing I've learned from anyone who DIY's / renovate, it's that it's not very fun to live in a reno.. let alone with kids!
However, out of the 34 days that we had in between my husband worked 31 of them, as he was in the middle of a big shutdown project at work. Which meant all hands were on deck.. early mornings, late nights, grandparents swooping in to help paint the whole interior of the house, and watching our kids / cooking us dinner so we could complete these projects before we had to be out of our rental. #blessed for our village!
Now that you have the entire backstory of why we chose to refinish our hardwood floors, let's dive into HOW TO actually do it, as an inexperienced DIYer, what I would do again, what didn't work, etc. This blog post will hopefully give you the inspiration to tackle your own hardwood floors, and act as a beginner's guide to refinishing your floors. *DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a professional. Any advice used in this blog post is at your own risk.
If you prefer to watch the process, you can do that here:
In order to DIY your hardwood floors, you first need to remove the baseboards so you can get to the edge of your flooring! We went to Home Depot for a few rentals including:
-a buff sander -a drum sander
-a edging sander
The BUFF Sander:
We opted to try to avoid using a drum sander at all costs. After a ton of research we came to the conclusion that using a drum sander runs the risk of severely damaging your hardwood floors.
As you can see in the video, the buff sander simply wouldn't cut it. It was barely making a dent. It might have worked with a LOT of extra, unnecessary work, but due to our time constraint we quickly moved on to the drum sander..
The DRUM Sander:
This was the most intimidating part of the whole project, and we tried to avoid it at all costs. As I previously mentioned, I was terrified of ruining the hardwood floors.. I knew they had potential, but at this time we couldn't afford to invest in new flooring if we ruined these ones.
Truthfully, the drum sander ended up being the easiest part of this project. My only thing I would change is if we were not on a time constraint, I would have slowed down the project, and moved our way up in grit's while using the drum sander.
Progress: BEFORE & AFTER using the drum sander (red oak to white oak)
The Edge Sander:
This was back breaking work, and one of the hardest parts of this whole DIY project. Not going to lie, I scratched the floors using this thing. Thankfully it's not very noticeable to people who come over. I think that's part of DIY - you notice all of the imperfections as you're the one who did the work. But most people are not going to notice / see those imperfections.
Using the edge sander required a lot of upper body strength and focus. If you are not careful and mindful, it would just pull you in all different directions. You have to maintain control, and not hold it in one spot for too long or it will damage your hardwood floors.
The moment I got all of the baseboards off. Outfit Link Use Code: briannewalter_
FLOOR STAIN:
We used the Bona Floor Sealer and Stain in the satin finish. We did a total of 3 coats of each for more durability, lightly sanding in between each coat. I HIGHLY recommend BONA for your hardwood floor DIY project. DISCLAIMER: They say it's for professional use only, and if you can hire it out - do it! Bona Floor products are known to take the red / orange / pink tinge out of the red oak floors. We used the Bona Traffic HD, and Bona NaturalSeal Waterborne Sealer.
Picture courtesy of BONA.com
For sanding in between coats of the stain and sealer, we used the square and buff Sander Grits attached to our Pole Sander. Everything but the BONA products were purchased from Home Depot. You really have to trust the process when it comes to the BONA products. It went on quite dark for my liking, but ended up drying beautifully to a lighter white oak finish.
When it comes to choosing your finish, I think it comes down to personal preference. Again, we chose the satin finish, but it was a toss up between Satin and Semi Gloss. We're very happy with the Satin Finish! I was concerned the matte would show a lot more imperfections, however I do not know that to be true.
BEFORE AND AFTER PHOTOS
Entryway
DIY Projects: Painted Interior of House, Removed Popcorn Ceiling, Installed Recessed Lighting, Sanded and Refinished Hardwood Floors.
Bedroom:
Staircase:
Main Living Space
In conclusion, we are so happy with how this DIY project ended. Turning your red hardwood oak floors into a beautiful and bright white oak is totally possible, even as a beginner DIYer with zero flooring experience! Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions. You can DM me on IG at any time, or comment below! I'd love to see your before and after transformations if you choose to refinish your hardwood floors! Remember, Home takes time! Good luck! xoBW
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