If you’re deciding whether to sand and refinish or screen and recoat your hardwood floors in Walnut Creek CA, your decision will likely like in the work involved. Sanding and refinishing flooring is going to take a great deal more work than screening and recoating, but likely leave you with a fresher and newer finish.
Sanding and refinishing your hardwood floors in Walnut Creek CA will be a multi-step process that will be carried out over several days. For hardwood floors, sandpaper is first used from rough grit to finer grit to remove the existing finish manually. After the finish has been completely removed, the hardwood floor can then be coated in your desired oil-based or water-based polyurethane.
Screening and recoating is far less laborious. While sanding and refinishing requires multiple steps, screening and recoating is largely considered to take 1. During the screen and recoat process, a screen attached to an orbital belt only removes the top layer of polyurethane, allowing the perfect surface for a new coat to be reapplied. Unlike sanding and refinishing, you’re not reaching the layer of bare wood before adding the refinishing coating.
When To Use Which Method
While the labor involved will greatly impact your decision, so will your reason for refinishing. When to use each method in common scenarios are as follows:
- Removing flooring discrepancies – Screening and recoating will only be able to remove superficial damages held within the top layers of polyurethane, as this is all that will be removed during the screening and recoating process. If there are deep scratches in your finish, they will remain after screening and recoating processes.
Sanding and refinishing, however, will break through down to the raw wood, which will remove any deeper discrepancies and leave the wood looking fresh again.
- Repairs – If repairs or weaves are required for your floors, you have no choice but to sand and refinish. The screen and recoat process may work perfectly fine for blending new to existing floors, but if any size discrepancies are found, a sand and refinish process will be your only option for fixing it.
- Changing stain and finish – If you plan to change the stain or finish of your flooring, sand and refinish will be the option you choose. With screen and recoat processes, you’re only removing the top layer of polyurethane, so when you recoat you will need to recoat using
the same materials. There will be no changes in color, and layering oil on top of water-based finishes may leave you with problems. If you’re looking to change your flooring, it’s best to start from scratch.
The Right Process For The Right Job
It’s imperative the right process is chosen for the right job. For bigger flooring refinishing jobs, or for the refinish that leaves your floor looking brand new, sanding and refinishing is the way to go. Screening and recoating is perfect for fixing smaller imperfections and brings hardwood floors back to their beauty without the need for a multiple day process.
