Help for my hardwood floors

We are retiring and moving into our retirement home. (yay!) It's only 13 years old, but the hardwood floors could stand a pick me up. They aren't awful, but I was thinking of having them refinished. Now we are getting down to the wire with our move over there and of course I haven't gotten that scheduled yet. I also want to get wood put down in one bedroom on the main floor that is currently carpeted. Only room (other than bathrooms) on the main floor that is not wood. So I know I should probably get that done at the same time so they can stain them all the same color. So now I'm thinking of waiting a bit before I do the whole sand/refinish process. Is there anything I can do to 're-polish' my wood floors to make them look better until I get them refinished? Sorry this is so long. We have never had real hardwood floors, only engineered that we couldn't refinish, so that is new to me. Thanks in advance!

 

Can you post a picture of what they look like now so we know what you are dealing with?

 

Only comment, having them done prior to moving will be so much easier than having to live through the process, even the "dustless" equipment is still not 100%.

Plus it will give them time to fully dry vs trying to rush just to get everything complete.

 

Agree w/Marq- having floors refinished while living there is a nightmare. Steve

 

Actually we are in Houston, and they are in Georgia, so unfortunately I don't have a picture.

 

I've scuffed sanded quite a few hardwood floors and then applied a fresh coat of poly to give them new life. Works well if the existing finish isn't worn too bad. Assuming the existing hardwood finish is in decent shape it shouldn't be too hard to match one room of new flooring to it.

Sanding new hardwood or sanding old wood done to bare wood creates a lot of dust! The advice to sand before you move in is spot on.

 

What do you mean 'scuffed sanded'? How long should it dry before we move in? What's the usual time from start to ready to move in?

 

If the existing poly is in decent shape you can sand it lightly removing most of the scratches [but not sanding thru the poly] The light sanding both removes some of the defects/wear and gives the new poly 'tooth' to adhere well to the old poly.

I don't know too much about the water based polys but the old traditional oil base poly takes 72 hrs to cure ..... you can fudge a little.