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How do I clean up after floor refinishing?

17 years ago

We just had our hardwood floors refinished, and there is dust everywhere! We are cleaning up this weekend before moving in. Any tips on how to get all that sand off the walls without damaging the new paint job we had done before refinishing? Using a Swiffer seems to be working but is time consuming; using damp paper towels turned out to be a bad idea. Any other ideas?

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Comments (5)

brickeyee
17 years ago
A vacuum with a wide brush attachment.
perel
17 years ago
A shop vac + wide brush is ideal. You'll probably want earplugs, too.. cheap shop vacs tend to be loud. But they're better at brute suction, which is what you want here, than regular residential uprights.
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You aren't really going to know for sure until you pull up the carpet and get all the old finishes off the floor. The floor could have been painted because the finish was wearing off and the owners at the time didn't want to bother with refinishing. Or the floor might only ever have had the faux finish that you saw, and when that wore out, it got painted instead. What you really need to find out is if the wood itself is finish-grade or not. And to do that, you are going to have to remove the finish, at least in a small area. What was in the kitchen might or might not be the same as what was in the other rooms in the house--if the kitchen originally had linoleum, there might never had been hardwood in the kitchen, even if the rest of the house had hardwood.And you never know what various owners have done. My 115 year old house has wide pine board flooring in most rooms, while the living and dining rooms were upgraded to hardwood at some point--and the living room sort of has a parquet pattern in the wood. There are three different styles of window trim, but the baseboards and crown molding are the same throughout the house, so it's a complete puzzle. In your case, I'd stop talking to friends and get someone who is experienced at refinishing floors in older houses in to look at your floor. Then maybe get a second opinion. Make sure these people are experienced with older houses. Because from your description, you might have hardwood and then maybe again you don't.
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atelier
17 years ago
Too bad your contractor didn't do a better job of dust abatement (taping up plastic sheeting, taping doors shut, evacuating airborne dust with a fan, sealing air ducts, using machines with vaccuum attachments...) I'd use a shopvac with a soft brush (watch out for little plastic wheels that can mar the paintjob)

To actually pick up all the dust:
Then get a nice big terry cloth/microfiber hardwood floor cleaning mop (see link)and wipe down the walls.

Good luck and a note to everyone else out there- ask your flooring contractor what steps he will take to minimize dust in your house- and think about the value of your time cleaning up after him!

Here is a link that might be useful: best dustmop for hardwood dust
talley_sue_nyc
17 years ago
I'll second the suggestion for the microfiber cloth after you've vacuumed. I used one as a tack cloth after sanding, and then I couldn't pick anything up w/ a true tack cloth.

I did have to beat the sawdust out of it from time to time, but it worked really well! If you were following up the vacuuming, you probably won't have the "overload" problem I did, since I used the microfiber cloth first after brushing the worst of it off.

But several people have said the microfibercloth will never release all the sawdust it has accumulated, so you should toss it or it will scratch glass, stainless steel stoves, etc. Mine washed up fine, at least I *think* it did.

where in the sam hill to you find a soft, wide brush attachment for a SHOP VAC?
floorguy
17 years ago
now, some may get a better idea why some sanding contractors are less expensive then others.

In todays word of sand & finish, if the contractor is not using dust containment with vacuum pick up as they are sanding, they have got to be less expensive then the guy that has all the bells and whistles, and I bet also a better finish job, with less junk & debris in the topcoats

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