Has anyone restained a prefinished wood floor?

15 years ago

We are remodelling a kitchen and family room that are open to oak floors in the dining room, living room and foyer. The existing floors are 8 yr. old prefinished solid Mirage with a light, natural stain Would love to put in cream cabinets, a cherry island and a darker hardwood floor(throughout the remodelled kitchen and family room) and so want to consider sanding and restaining the floors throughout the rest of the first floor (LR,DR, foyer and hallways) to match.

I've put off sanding and restaining until now, even though the floors have been scratched a bit by kids and pets since the factory finish itself is gorgeous and I've heard it's never really the same after it's sanded and restained.

My Qs: Has anyone done this with the prefinished floors (ours are the Mirage solid wood) and how did it come out? How expensive should this be? Also, I was hoping to put in a dark stained cherry island. Can you mix oak floors and cherry cabinets?

Thanks very much!

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Comments (7)

eastcoastmom
Original Author
15 years ago
bump?
TxMarti
15 years ago
We did, but it was many years ago, and it was a solid wood, not engineered wood floor. The new finish looked great at first but scratched really bad. We didn't really have any choice, it was in bad shape.

When we bought our floor, the salesman told us that most people replace rather than refinish, that no engineered floors hold up forever. I was disappointed to hear that.
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eastcoastmom
Original Author
15 years ago
A belated thanks marti8a- I don't know why I never saw your post last month! Our Mirage floors aren't engineered. What they are is a 3/4" solid wood with a 7 coat factory applied finish. As you say they look great initially but tend to show the scratches in the surface. However, they are supposed to last forever as they are solid hardwood floor throughout. Since we have to decide on floors this week or next I'm bumping up again and wondering if anyone has experience with a prefinished (as opposed to site finished) hardwood floor and has either

1) rescreened without resanding (what does this do to the microbevel and can the finish ever look as good?)

or

2) resanded, rescreened and restained this kind of floor

Thanks!
boxers
15 years ago
Mirage make a good product. If you rescreen it will make the finish look just like new. Your not sanding off the aluminum oxide finish so the wearability is still there. AO can be applied in a factory setting only and is rated 2 1/2 times more durable than site finished. Of course you can sand down and restain a solid. Its done every day. Ask the installer how the bevel will affect the stain?. It is harder to remove the AO finish but its done all the time. If you do decide to recoat it will take out any surface scratches and make it look new.
eastcoastmom
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks boxers! So it sound like if I restain I lose the extra durability of the aluminum oxide finish but that if I just rescreen and recoat that is not the case? I'm not sure how much of a real world issue the extra durability is, since you do see plenty of scratches with this product, even if they aren't all the way into the wood.

My real concern is that the multi coat factory finish won't be duplicated looks wise, but you seem to suggest that's not the case. Another issue is that my floor guy says that if we sand and restain the microbevels will need to be hand scraped to be preserved - otherwise I lose them. So that's a second concern. I guess I'm just nervous to restain because despite the scratches it's a great looking product as is and I don't want to do anything to compromise its appearance.
boxers
15 years ago
AO is applied at the factory mixed with urethane. Sometimes ao may be added to the first few coats but not to the actual top coat of urethane. Why? because AO tends to look a little cloudy so the top layer often is pure urethane which will shows scratches etc. When you screen your just abrating the top surface to insure new finish will ashere to it. Your not sanding off the aluminum oxide, its still there. When you add a new top coat your adding finish and eliminating the scratches but the finish from the factory is 99% still there.
eastcoastmom
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks, boxers. That makes sense

Has anyone restained a prefinished wood floor?

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TxMarti

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Has anyone restained a prefinished wood floor?

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