Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Hi, everybody. I'm Gary Sullivanfrom at Home with Gary Sullivan and you're
at the at Home with Gary Sylvanpodcast. Imagine that if you've been in
a home for a while, ormaybe you just purchased a home, and
you got wood floors, and you'reprobably looking at them, you know,
if you've been in there ten fifteenyears, got a lot of kids,
You're looking like, wow, it'sgot a little bit aware, it's not
(00:31):
quite as shiny as it used tobe. You know, you're trying to
should I have those redone? Ormaybe you've been there twenty five years and
you've never had anything done and traffichas been minimal, and we've got some
scratches now, and yeah, maybeI need to do something, or maybe
I just want to change the color. I'm so sick of that color of
the wood floor. I want toredo them. If it's solid wood,
(00:53):
you can send them all the waydown and start all over if you want.
But there's a whole range of thingsgoing on before you get to that
point. And that's what we wantto talk about today. And we can
start with just a standard wood floorand what are you gonna clean that with?
Boy, I'll tell you what Isee people screw up wood floors all
(01:15):
the time, even some of thelamin. It's even some of the LVT
flooring. Really, what you wantto do is be very careful of how
you're going to clean that. Alot of times soaps have a residue,
they collect dirt, They make allkinds of floors get dirty or faster.
Then there's the orange I call themthe orange products. You know there's a
(01:40):
orange cleaner in the orange glow cleaner, the orange this, the orange of
that. A lot of your furnier, a lot of your floor cleaners,
and read what's in them. They'llcontain a paraffin wax. And how many
times have you heard I got thisswood floor, Can I just wax it
in? The person goes, no, oh, don't wax it. Don't
wax it, because you don't wantto have a eurothane floor and then have
(02:04):
somebody put bees wax on it.It's soft, the bees wax, it
gets cloudy, have to use numerouscoats. And you can take a perfectly
flying wood floor and make it lookdull and hazy. So we start off
if you're starting off brand new,is get a pH neutral hardwood floor cleaner.
(02:29):
There's a couple of brands out there. I talk about the one Jaws
Hands called hardwood floor Cleaner. That'swhat I'd use. Nothing with waxes and
really stay away with anything with siliconesin it also, So that's how we
take care of it. But overthe years, again, let's say twenty
five years, we've got a woodfloor. It's got some scratches in it,
(02:51):
it's been lived on, it's gettingdull, it's getting kind of worn,
but it's not worn, and Ilike the color. If you're going
to tackle it yourself, or ifyou're going to contact a wood floor professional,
the advices you're gonna have is twochoices. You can rejuvenate what you
have, or you can completely standdown and start all over. Yeah,
(03:17):
the price differential is extreme, atmaybe five times more to start all over.
So it's a big decision. Sowhen would you not start all over?
Well, here's kind of the ruleof thumb. If the wood floor
appears to be tired, in otherwords, it's it's you know, the
(03:42):
sheen is kind of gone. Maybeit's connected to a dining room, and
that sheen's still there because it getsless floor traffic. So if you can
see a differential in sheens of thatwood floor. That doesn't mean you necessarily
have to have the whole floor refinished. And let's say there's some scratches,
not gouges, not big dens,just scratches, okay, and maybe the
(04:06):
wood grain is just as smooth asever. You can tell there's still a
protected on there. You can youcan actually rejuvenate that and professionally you can
rejuvenate it. And if you wantto do it yourself, it can,
but it takes it takes some talentto do it right, and some patients
(04:27):
for sure. So what a professionalwould do is they'll come in and I'll
use the word a braid. They'lla braid, they'll buff out, they'll
clean, they'll a braid that surface. If you're doing it yourself, maybe
six hundred grit wet dry sandpaper.That's a lot of work. So you're
going to basically what you're doing isyou're using a little bit of an abrasive
(04:49):
to clean off that old paraffin ifthere's someone there, the dirt, and
you're going to lightly abraid that surfacebecause we're gonna put on a finish over
that you're gonna put on one coator two coats. If it's been there
for over a year and you don'tknow whether it's solving base or water base,
(05:11):
no worries. You can use either. Water base. Going over the
top of that will be a littlemore UV resistant. It's actually gonna be
a little bit harder. It's gonnadry a little faster. So some people
just like the solving base, butthe acrylics really offer you a lot and
i'd recommend going in that direction.Now we talked about scratches. What's that
(05:34):
going to do, Gary, It'llcover up a lot of scratches that you
know when they have braid that finish. It's not gonna stand it all the
way down to the green, butprobably take out the scratches out of the
varney shore. You're a thing that'son there. What about the gouges.
No, you know, if it'sa big ding out of the wood refinishing,
it is not going to be youranswer a big gouge scratch. It's
(05:59):
not gonna take that because the scratchesin the wood. A lot of the
scratches you see are basically in afinish, but if it's down into the
wood, you can get some touchup men Wax makes a magic marker with
stain in it. I've used thatbefore and hidden the scratch or the gouge
quite nicely. The ding, I'dprobably leave it right where it is.
(06:20):
If it's in a heavy traffic area, maybe you replace the board. And
here's a challenge here too. Whenyou replace the board, it's probably not
going to match even if you usethe exact same stain, because you're a
thing. If it's a solving basethat was put on their originally, it
ambers over time. So if wereplace the board, we use the same
stain, right, it's going tobe lighter. So maybe the ding with
(06:46):
the re you know, not thewhole refinished job, but the enhancer the
cleaning. If you've got a couplepretty big dents and dings, maybe it's
something you want to redo the wholefloor, which we're going to get to
so five times more expensive. Butwhat it allows you is to change the
color of the wood. So maybeyou I don't know, maybe you have
(07:10):
a white colored wood or a brightscreaming gold yellow or something and you want
to change it to like a hickory. Then you're gonna go down to a
standing process. And of course it'sseveral coats of standing is a big chore.
You got to have a lot ofenergy to do this. It's gonna
take about a three, four orfive day process, whereas the other one's
pretty much a one day job.And what they'll do, they'll stand with
(07:33):
the grain, they'll stand with thebaseboards, they'll restain it, they'll put
several coats of finish on there.They'll be able to stand out the gouge
scratches, they'll be able to standout the big dings. So really,
in effect, what they're doing isthey're taking what you have. They're standing
all the way down to the barewood, and they're literally starting from over,
(07:57):
starting over. Now I'm talking aboutusing solid wood flooring. If you
have engineered floors where there's plywood inthe middle, you're probably able to do
that. One time. I wouldcheck with a professional to make sure that
would be able to be done.You don't know if it's been done one
other time, but you need tosee how much veneer you have there a
(08:18):
solid color wood or solid wood floor, there's no problem there. You can
stand down a quarter of an inchif you want, and there is a
talent to standing that down you're usinga big drum stander, but that might
be something you want to take alook at again. If it's a floor
that's been there for a long timeand kind of beat up, you know,
(08:39):
starting over or changing the color,starting over. And if it's just
a matter of a haze and somelight scratches, maybe just a brad to
finish another coat of protective I hopethat helps you make up your mind and
kind of rejuvenate those floors. Again, big difference in price, So again,
I think it's always best to reallyconsult a professional to get their take
(09:03):
on what they would do to makesure you get the results you're looking for.
Hey, you can join me onthe radio ask a question about your
home every Saturday and Sunday nine tonoon. That's Eastern time. Thanks for
joining me.
Hi, everybody. I'm Gary Sullivanfrom at Home with Gary Sullivan and you're
at the at Home with Gary Sylvanpodcast. Imagine that if you've been in
a home for a while, ormaybe you just purchased a home, and
you got wood floors, and you'reprobably looking at them, you know,
if you've been in there ten fifteenyears, got a lot of kids,
You're looking like, wow, it'sgot a little bit aware, it's not
(00:31):
quite as shiny as it used tobe. You know, you're trying to
should I have those redone? Ormaybe you've been there twenty five years and
you've never had anything done and traffichas been minimal, and we've got some
scratches now, and yeah, maybeI need to do something, or maybe
I just want to change the color. I'm so sick of that color of
the wood floor. I want toredo them. If it's solid wood,
(00:53):
you can send them all the waydown and start all over if you want.
But there's a whole range of thingsgoing on before you get to that
point. And that's what we wantto talk about today. And we can
start with just a standard wood floorand what are you gonna clean that with?
Boy, I'll tell you what Isee people screw up wood floors all
(01:15):
the time, even some of thelamin. It's even some of the LVT
flooring. Really, what you wantto do is be very careful of how
you're going to clean that. Alot of times soaps have a residue,
they collect dirt, They make allkinds of floors get dirty or faster.
Then there's the orange I call themthe orange products. You know there's a
(01:40):
orange cleaner in the orange glow cleaner, the orange this, the orange of
that. A lot of your furnier, a lot of your floor cleaners,
and read what's in them. They'llcontain a paraffin wax. And how many
times have you heard I got thisswood floor, Can I just wax it
in? The person goes, no, oh, don't wax it. Don't
wax it, because you don't wantto have a eurothane floor and then have
(02:04):
somebody put bees wax on it.It's soft, the bees wax, it
gets cloudy, have to use numerouscoats. And you can take a perfectly
flying wood floor and make it lookdull and hazy. So we start off
if you're starting off brand new,is get a pH neutral hardwood floor cleaner.
(02:29):
There's a couple of brands out there. I talk about the one Jaws
Hands called hardwood floor Cleaner. That'swhat I'd use. Nothing with waxes and
really stay away with anything with siliconesin it also, So that's how we
take care of it. But overthe years, again, let's say twenty
five years, we've got a woodfloor. It's got some scratches in it,
(02:51):
it's been lived on, it's gettingdull, it's getting kind of worn,
but it's not worn, and Ilike the color. If you're going
to tackle it yourself, or ifyou're going to contact a wood floor professional,
the advices you're gonna have is twochoices. You can rejuvenate what you
have, or you can completely standdown and start all over. Yeah,
(03:17):
the price differential is extreme, atmaybe five times more to start all over.
So it's a big decision. Sowhen would you not start all over?
Well, here's kind of the ruleof thumb. If the wood floor
appears to be tired, in otherwords, it's it's you know, the
(03:42):
sheen is kind of gone. Maybeit's connected to a dining room, and
that sheen's still there because it getsless floor traffic. So if you can
see a differential in sheens of thatwood floor. That doesn't mean you necessarily
have to have the whole floor refinished. And let's say there's some scratches,
not gouges, not big dens,just scratches, okay, and maybe the
(04:06):
wood grain is just as smooth asever. You can tell there's still a
protected on there. You can youcan actually rejuvenate that and professionally you can
rejuvenate it. And if you wantto do it yourself, it can,
but it takes it takes some talentto do it right, and some patients
(04:27):
for sure. So what a professionalwould do is they'll come in and I'll
use the word a braid. They'lla braid, they'll buff out, they'll
clean, they'll a braid that surface. If you're doing it yourself, maybe
six hundred grit wet dry sandpaper.That's a lot of work. So you're
going to basically what you're doing isyou're using a little bit of an abrasive
(04:49):
to clean off that old paraffin ifthere's someone there, the dirt, and
you're going to lightly abraid that surfacebecause we're gonna put on a finish over
that you're gonna put on one coator two coats. If it's been there
for over a year and you don'tknow whether it's solving base or water base,
(05:11):
no worries. You can use either. Water base. Going over the
top of that will be a littlemore UV resistant. It's actually gonna be
a little bit harder. It's gonnadry a little faster. So some people
just like the solving base, butthe acrylics really offer you a lot and
i'd recommend going in that direction.Now we talked about scratches. What's that
(05:34):
going to do, Gary, It'llcover up a lot of scratches that you
know when they have braid that finish. It's not gonna stand it all the
way down to the green, butprobably take out the scratches out of the
varney shore. You're a thing that'son there. What about the gouges.
No, you know, if it'sa big ding out of the wood refinishing,
it is not going to be youranswer a big gouge scratch. It's
(05:59):
not gonna take that because the scratchesin the wood. A lot of the
scratches you see are basically in afinish, but if it's down into the
wood, you can get some touchup men Wax makes a magic marker with
stain in it. I've used thatbefore and hidden the scratch or the gouge
quite nicely. The ding, I'dprobably leave it right where it is.
(06:20):
If it's in a heavy traffic area, maybe you replace the board. And
here's a challenge here too. Whenyou replace the board, it's probably not
going to match even if you usethe exact same stain, because you're a
thing. If it's a solving basethat was put on their originally, it
ambers over time. So if wereplace the board, we use the same
stain, right, it's going tobe lighter. So maybe the ding with
(06:46):
the re you know, not thewhole refinished job, but the enhancer the
cleaning. If you've got a couplepretty big dents and dings, maybe it's
something you want to redo the wholefloor, which we're going to get to
so five times more expensive. Butwhat it allows you is to change the
color of the wood. So maybeyou I don't know, maybe you have
(07:10):
a white colored wood or a brightscreaming gold yellow or something and you want
to change it to like a hickory. Then you're gonna go down to a
standing process. And of course it'sseveral coats of standing is a big chore.
You got to have a lot ofenergy to do this. It's gonna
take about a three, four orfive day process, whereas the other one's
pretty much a one day job.And what they'll do, they'll stand with
(07:33):
the grain, they'll stand with thebaseboards, they'll restain it, they'll put
several coats of finish on there.They'll be able to stand out the gouge
scratches, they'll be able to standout the big dings. So really,
in effect, what they're doing isthey're taking what you have. They're standing
all the way down to the barewood, and they're literally starting from over,
(07:57):
starting over. Now I'm talking aboutusing solid wood flooring. If you
have engineered floors where there's plywood inthe middle, you're probably able to do
that. One time. I wouldcheck with a professional to make sure that
would be able to be done.You don't know if it's been done one
other time, but you need tosee how much veneer you have there a
(08:18):
solid color wood or solid wood floor, there's no problem there. You can
stand down a quarter of an inchif you want, and there is a
talent to standing that down you're usinga big drum stander, but that might
be something you want to take alook at again. If it's a floor
that's been there for a long timeand kind of beat up, you know,
(08:39):
starting over or changing the color,starting over. And if it's just
a matter of a haze and somelight scratches, maybe just a brad to
finish another coat of protective I hopethat helps you make up your mind and
kind of rejuvenate those floors. Again, big difference in price, So again,
I think it's always best to reallyconsult a professional to get their take
(09:03):
on what they would do to makesure you get the results you're looking for.
Hey, you can join me onthe radio ask a question about your
home every Saturday and Sunday nine tonoon. That's Eastern time. Thanks for
joining me.
At Home with Gary Sullivan News
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