Refinishing Floors - Whats the best way to go?

Question

I have a Rental that I am repairing. Originally the tenants told me they would be moving in on the fifteenth of December but I found today it will be tomorrow instead. I am leaving the house at 6am and will try to piece together the finishing touches by the closing of the day.

My partner who is also my companion and myself are debating which to do: Sand the floors and restain, or find a new solution to get the gunk off.

I had a gentlment spend four hours trying to get the crap off the floor and he was only able to finish about 10% of the entire job. From that alone, it sounds to me like we need to go one step further and just rent a machine that will sand down the living room floor and refinish the wood. If we do that....My biggest concern is how long it will take to completely dry..."?"

My partner suggests we just find a new solution, but I am worried we will not have enough time to do so, judging how long it took with the gentlment from earlier. Do you know of any solutions?

We are so limited with time. Pretty much we only have until the close of tomorrow to complete our project. So do you know of any good products for gunk on floors that work like a charm? Or would you suggest sanding and refinishing. If we do that, how long does it take for stain to completely dry? Also the weather out here has been very cold.

Answer 1

Without any detail about what the floors will be after the fact; certainly any effort now will take longer than it will for the new tenants to move in.

I'd probably lay a new SUB floor OVER; and proceed from there. Obviously if you intended to sand and refinish any floor you're looking at no less that 2 days; possibly 3 to the walk on stage.

Steven Wolf

I'd do a new sub floor and change my thinking about wood floors finished; especially because it's a rental.

No offense but so many good reasons in Real Estate investing to but/ fix/ flip; as opposed to renting.

Answer 2

The machines that they use to sand down floors are very powerful and can ruin a floor by gouging it if you don't know how to use the machine. Secondly the fumes of any stripping solution or stain will last a long time so your are in a tight spot. The dust from it is going to be all over the place as well. You should have told the tenants that the place was not going to be ready until the 15th. There is no way you are going to get all that done in 24 hours.

Answer 3

move all the furniture and rent the big belt sander, get the courses grain paper and take it down .then finish with good staian drying time at least 24hrs if u want to do it right or hirer some guy to do a half xxxjob

Answer 4

To do a really good job you need to sand, but that will take at least two days, one to sand and one to stain. I have not had really good luck with the removals.