Hardwood floors add beauty and value to your home. The best way to protect and enhance that beauty is to have your hardwood floors refinished.

A few of the most common reasons to decide to have your floors refinished:

• Floors are completely worn and have deep scratches.
• Decided to remove carpet or linoleum and refinish the hardwoods underneath.
• Want to change the color of the hardwoods.

Whether Prospect Hardwood Flooring is sanding and finishing new hardwood floors recently installed or restoring an existing floor to its original beauty, we are experts at hardwood floor refinishing. We provide our customers with custom colors to compliment your décor. We will thoroughly describe the pros and cons of all procedures and finishes to you.

The process is to sand the hardwood to the natural raw wood, effectively removing the existing finish and stain. This used to be an extremely dusty process that caused clean-up nightmares. However, Prospect Hardwood Flooring uses a State-Of-The-Art Dust Containment System, capturing about 98% of airborne particles.

Benefits of using a dustless system include:

• Less airborne dust reduces the chance of finish getting contaminated.
• Relief for homeowners who are allergic to dust.
• Easy clean-up.

For the stain selection, PHW crew will do a color test on the sanded floor. This will allow you to see how your wood takes the stain. You’ll be able to customize the color.

The final process is to apply the finish. The finish is the coating that affects the floor’s appearance and gives its protection.

CHOICE OF FINISH

Oil-Modified Urethane:

Oil modified urethane is often called “poly” and is the most common wood floor finish. It is very durable and adds a rich, amber tone due to its golden blond color. Drying time is 7-8 hours; the finish is durable and has a moderate odor when drying.

Water-Based Urethane:

Water-based finishes can be fast drying, non-yellowing, have very little odor, offer great durability and can give your floor an excellent look. Drying time is 2-3 hours; to be easily coated 2-3 times in a day.

CHOICE OF SHEEN

Think of sheen in terms of “shininess.” There are more or less, three types of sheen: high gloss, semi-gloss and satin.

High Gloss:

Gloss is the shiniest sheen and has a “wet” look. It is often thought of as having a very high-end appearance. However, it can be very difficult to achieve satisfactory results with gloss when finishing on-site due to its high amount of reflection. Gloss is harder to maintain because it shows dust, scratches and scuffs more easily. 

Semi-Gloss:

Although semi-gloss is less shiny than gloss, it still maintains a fair amount of shine. Many homeowners with site-finished floors choose semi-gloss for its compromise of shine and maintainability.

Satin:

Satin has the least shine of the three and gives floors what’s called a matte appearance. This is a popular choice for homeowners. It has a silky appearance and is the easiest to maintain out of all three finishes.  Satin has a wonderful ability to “hide” small surface scratches and scuffs. This is the most common sheen for site-finished floors.