Refinishing hardwood floors

[Danestress]

We are having all our downstairs floors refinished and having hardwood installed in the two downstairs rooms that are currently carpeted. There is only one room that will not be affected downstairs.

 

What do I need to know about getting ready for this? I have a good (highly recommended by homeowners and a contractor I trust) company to do the sanding, staining and finishing. He does not do the furniture removal. We may rent a pod. We could feasibly move everything upstairs, to the garage or into the one unaffected room, but part of me wants to rent a pod so can take our time and not live with chaos in the process. I am hoping this is an opportunity to get DH and I to do a major purge of stuff.

 

I think the question I have is how much everything needs to be moved. For example, can things in cabinets stay there? Does everything need to come off the walls? If we have bookshelves, would it work to put plastic over them but leave the books in the shelves? We will be having hardwood installed in our master closet. Can clothes in the shelves remain there if we cover the shelves with plastic?

 

My mom lives a mile away and we are going to live with her while the work is being done. Anything we need during that week we can keep at her house, so that will make it easier.

Still, I am a bit anxious! If you have done this, Is there anything you wish you had known?

[wintermom]

We refinished our hardwood floors ourselves last summer. We moved the piano and bookcases into the tiled kitchen and covered them with sheets, and the rest of the furniture we stored in the garage. You need everything off the floors, for sure. There will be a lot of dust in the air from the sanding, so covering furniture in the area is a good idea. I can't remember if we had much on the walls, as we were also painting the walls at the time. I don't think it's a big deal, but they will get very dusty.

 

It doesn't take all that long to complete the sanding and staining, but the layers of finish do take longer. It takes hours for the layers to dry. 

[mellifera33]

We refinished our floors years ago. Our biggest problem was keeping the dog off the floor as the finish dried. We removed everything, including pictures on the walls, because it got really dusty. The sander has a vacuum that sucks up sawdust, but it's not leakproof, and it was really a dusty job. 

[KatieJ]

We refinished hardwood floors in our bedrooms. We were redoing the closet in master, so it was empty. Guest room hasn't muchnin it, but we completely empties it as well. Sanding raising dust but it was contained to that room.

You will need to completely empty those rooms, even the closets. They cannot work around bookcases and those sanders are huge. Clothes would be in the way and get full of dust.

[KungFuPanda]

You have to empty everything g before you move it. It's just too heavy otherwise and things shift so that it's not good for the furniture or the person moving it to try to do it full. Also, leave more time than you think you need to move things. Movers do it fast. They throw everything in boxes and just DO it. If you're doing it, you will think about every item, purge along the way, dust things, relocate things, and have random conversations about found items (because you can't just NOT stop and talk about your son's middle school NaNoWriMo book that was bound complete with a cover illustration).

 

Guess who spent half the day yesterday trying to clear her dining room to redo the floor? Guess who is only half done? Guess who has all but three rooms in her house compromised by The Great Flooring Project of 2017? I drop de at college this afternoon. By tomorrow her room will be temporary storage.