Hardwood Floor Refinishing Services
Accurate Floor Care provides a variety of hardwood flooring services. Below are descriptions of the significant services that we offer. Aside from the services below, we also provide related services, including wood floor repairs, carpet removal, subfloor prep, shoe molding installation, and more. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out and ask!
Wood Floor Installation
Accurate Floor Care can install new engineered, prefinished, parquet, or unfinished hardwood floors of your choice over concrete or plywood. We can handle any installation style, such as herringbone, chevron, or angled. We can accommodate any borders, medallions, and inlays you desire. We also install luxury vinyl flooring. Please read our blog on picking the right wood here.
Dust Contained Floor Sanding
Sanding Hardwood Floors
The first step in the hardwood floor refinishing process is the actual flooring sanding. This is done with a big 8" belt sander and edgers for closer to the wall. The belt sander we use has excellent built-in dust containment. The edgers are the real dust creators of floor sanding, so we hook ours up to a big cyclone vacuum so that dust does not go airborne. We start with a rougher grit and work up to 100 grit (industry standard) on all machines. The floor sanding machines cannot get into the corners, so these have to be hand scraped and sanded. We finish our sanding with a multi-disc sanding machine. These machines are a newer technology that removes the opportunity for many of the sanding mistakes that can occur when only using a belt sander. The difference is beautiful and leaves you with a perfectly flat floor. (A good question when vetting hardwood floor contractors is if they have and use these multi-disc machines.)
Staining Hardwood Floors
Generally is an optional step in the process if you'd like to change the color of your wood flooring. A stain is a color pigment that is suspended in an oil. A floor that is going to be stained has to be sanded very well because that pigment will settle into any crevices left by a lousy sand job and highlight them. That is why the people staining your floor need to know what they are doing. We also use a process called water popping (light stains will not need to be water popped) which opens the grain of your wood and allows the staining to take more evenly. (See our blog post What is water popping?) Due to water popping and staining itself, this will usually add two days to the job. If you are interested in staining, you can check out the color chart, pick a few colors that you like, and we will show you those colors on your own floor.
Hardwood Floor Refinishing
Accurate Floor Care offers a few different options for floor finishes:
A film-building finish that gives a natural amber tone. Our most cost-efficient option, and if you are looking for a true high gloss, this is the glossiest option. The downsides are the smell and long dry times. This product will continue to amber over time, which some people like and others do not. You can walk on the floor 24 hours after the coat is put down, furniture should wait one week, and area rugs two weeks.
A film building finish that goes down clear. We often use a waterborne sealer that gives an amber tone to match the oil-based look without the smell. With government regulations on oil-based polyurethane, just about all research has gone into water-based polyurethanes, and as a result, they are fantastic products these days. They are durable, walkable in 4-6 hours, can put down multiple coats daily, and have low odor and VOCs. They are more expensive than oil-based polyurethane. There are one component water bases and two-component, to which you add a hardener. The one components are still very durable, but the two components are some of the most challenging finishes on the market today. We recommend two components for high-traffic areas: stairs, entryways, and kitchens. You can walk on this product 4-6 hours after the coat is put down, furniture should wait four days, and area rugs one week. We strongly recommend these products over oil based except for a few situations.
Penetrating Oils/Hardwax Oils
A brilliant finish that can give a natural color has a color built right into the oil or can go over the stain for infinite color possibilities. Two-tone color effects are easily possible with these products too. These products give the floor a great matte to a satin sheen, with a rich, velvety look, and leave the texture of the wood itself intact. They come in one-coat or two-coat systems and have low to no VOCs, so they are very green-friendly and have low odors. These products can be spot repaired, meaning that if you get a big scratch in the middle of your floor, we could fix just that spot rather than go from wall to wall or do the whole room. This cannot be done with traditional polyurethanes. These products are similarly priced to the two-component water-based and require a little more maintenance than a polyurethaned floor, such as a maintenance oil coat every 12-24 months for the homeowner can do. You can walk on these products 4-6 hours after they are put down. These products reach complete cure in 24 hours, meaning you can put furniture and area rugs back on the next day, and when you need a recoat, we can go around any heavy furniture.
Screening & Recoating Wood Floors
Not every floor needs to be thoroughly sanded to raw wood and refinished. If your floor only shows some surface wear, we can come in and buff the floor and give you a new topcoat. It is considerably less invasive and less expensive than complete sand and refinishes, so don't let your floors get too bad of shape. It should be a part of everyone's floor maintenance routine every 3-5 years, depending on use.
Hardwood Floor Deep Cleaning
Good for getting the ground-in dirt out of your hardwood flooring. We come in with a power scrubbing machine filled with a light cleaning detergent and give your wood floors a thorough deep clean. There is no downtime. It helps extend the life of your investment and is the most cost-effective option. It can be used to clean before buffing and recoating to give you more bang for the buck. You'll be shocked at the amount of dirt on your floors!