“Specific to old wax or shellac, what is the most effective approach you have to resanding an old floor?” John Alford – Alford’s Custom Hardwood Floors There are several factors to consider when resanding a shellac and wax floor and not going back with the same finish process. First, the abrasive you go through easily will double, if not triple, on the first cut as the shellac with heat up and re-emulsify, filling up your paper. You may need to drop down to as low of paper as 16 grit to effectively remove the wax and shellac. After that, you can sand as normal. Be careful of which finish you a ..read more

Photos courtesy of Kyle Neuroh | Neuroh Hardwood and Neulight I still remember the first time I attended the NWFA Wood Flooring Expo. It was 2014 and being held in Nashville, Tennessee, my market town, so I was able to drive in for the day and take it all in. I had only started my business, Neuroh Hardwood, a couple of years prior, and this was my first time seeing all the manufacturers and meeting other professionals from around the country. I’ve always been an idea person, and now having the opportunity to meet decision makers from different companies, I started sharing from booth to booth t ..read more

Photos courtesy of Sheaves Floors At Sheaves Floors, we have what some might think is a unique sand and finish crew. It’s me and my mom, Darlene Sheaves. Sheaves Floors is a family-owned and operated business started in 1993 by my parents, Jeff and Darlene Sheaves. When the business began, we only did sports floors, including anything from racquetball to basketball courts at large universities. As time passed, we started to transition into the residential side of hardwood floors. We opened a retail store in the early 2000s. We had quite a few crews, but as the years passed, the workforce was d ..read more

Making the right choices in the abrasives used on any wood floor sanding job is one of the major keys to success. The main idea is efficiency, as any professional will tell you that when you are using the right tool, sandpaper, and grit at the right time in the process, not only is the time expenditure kept at a minimum, but the quality of the finished product will seem to take care of itself. In this article, we will cover the things to consider while using the big machine, edger, and multi-head, so you can get the most out of the choices you make concerning the abrasives you choose. Big Mac ..read more

  I was called out to inspect a floor where the homeowner had some concerns with the sanding and finishing of their hardwood floors. The issues they had were the wavy appearance of the floor, applicator marks, and scarred baseboards. The homeowners had purchased the home back in 2006. The home had existing Brazilian cherry (jatoba) floors. To the homeowner’s recollection, the floors looked very good until a leak from an upstairs bathroom left standing water on the floor in the kitchen. They contacted their insurance company. A restoration company quickly responded to remove the puddles a ..read more

Photo courtesy of NWFA“What are some of the more notable changes you’ve made in your sanding process since you first came into this industry?” Avi Hadad – Avi’s Hardwood Floors Inc. I remember the first NWFA school I attended, like it was yesterday. It opened up my eyes to what really was out there. The schools made me pursue the best results I could achieve. I improved my sanding and finishing techniques while adding newer specialty machines to the process. Todd McDonald – Maple Ridge Handscraped The biggest changes in the industry would have to be moving to a belt sander versus a drum sander ..read more

Photos courtesy of NWFA unless otherwise noted. Texture in wood flooring is where a wood flooring product has been hand-carved or sculpted, resulting in an uneven surface. Texture can be developed in many ways, including scraping, wire-brushing, carving, distressing, or even in how the flooring is put to use. The textures we’re seeing in the field today are drastically different from those wildly popular just 10 years ago and even more extreme from 20 years ago. Here are some of the details of each: SCRAPING One of the most-common and historic textures on a wood floor is a hand-scraped texture ..read more

Photo courtesy of NWFA At first glance, the science of sanding and grain technology may not sound like the most interesting of topics, but with the level of sanding needed to be done today for oil wax finishes, dark stains, and trying to please very picky clients, understanding the differences between abrasive products and the science behind producing a fine scratch pattern can help you achieve that furniture quality finish that is sought after. The topics we will cover here are the different types of abrasive grains, the properties of abrasive grains that determine performance, and the unique ..read more

By Robert McNamara and Kurt Bischoff SHUTTERSTOCK © You might ask yourself, “If I don’t read product labels, why would I read a product’s safety data sheet (SDS) information?” The reality is, if you use products and don’t read product labels, you’re probably going to run into problems at some point. The same is true with the product’s SDS. If you use chemical products and don’t read the SDS, you most likely will run into some real problems as you are dealing with health and safety issues. The Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) (29 CFR 1910.1200(g)), revised in 2012, requires that the chemical ..read more

Terry Patton Photos courtesy of Terry Patton A customer called wanting information on subfloor repair. When I arrived, he took me up the stairs to a bare floor. The other contractor he had hired scribbled some stuff on the floor, like “too high” with a circle or “low spot” with a circle, and I noticed a lot of scribblings on the floor. We went from the living room to the dining room, down the hall (which seemed to be the only flat spot of the house), to the three bedrooms. All throughout, there were notes on the subfloor. Through the tour of the hilly valley of a subfloor, he mentioned that th ..read more