How much “meat” needed for refinishing hardwood floors?

391 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by mark sr, Apr 26, 2020

Username10

Discussion Starter · Apr 26, 2020

I did a “refinish” word search in flooring and there’s a glitch because after the third page of results it wouldn’t let me see any more results so I’m posting this question.

I need to know how much “meat” should be in an existing thickness of a standard oak floor for it to be “OK” to sand without running into problems. My house was built in the 30’s and we’ve lived here for 20 years with carpet. I’ve seen the floors but i haven’t tried measuring them.

Save

1 - 6 of 6 Posts

mark sr

· #2 · Apr 26, 2020

Hard to say other than you don't want to sand down to the tongue and groove.

Save

SeniorSitizen

· #3 · Apr 26, 2020

After measuring and it's determined they are 0.750" thick and if the tongue and groove is (1/4") 0.250" thick that will leave you with (1/4") 0.250" of "meat" to sand off before reaching the tongue and groove. In my experience with sanding you'll be so tired and or frustrated of sanding you'll quit long before you've removed (1/64") 0.015625 to (1/32") 0.03125 of meat.

Save

Old Thomas

· #4 · Apr 26, 2020

Hardwood flooring often has the tongue and groove offset toward the bottom, making more wood available for sanding. Mine was sanded 4 times that I know of.

Save

Username10

Discussion Starter · #5 · Apr 26, 2020

Okay so if there’s 1/4” of meat for refinishing AND since it was said that you get approximately 4 sands out of one floor, I’m going to assume we remove about 1/16” (from stripped clear coat to fine finish) for each refinish project?

Save

mark sr

· #6 · Apr 26, 2020

It's hard to say how much wood gets removed. If there is any cupping - more wood gets removed. Some folks will sand deeper than others.

Save

1 - 6 of 6 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month