How Can I Restore Color to My Hardwood Floors?

Hardwood floors add a great look to your home and make every room they are placed look sophisticated and classy. It is very hard to beat the beauty of a hardwood floor when they have been laid right and finished properly.

There is one drawback to hardwood floors.

These wood floors lose that luster and shine. Then just about any flooring material can beat the look of a hardwood floor. When your floor is showing its age, it is time to restore the color, the luster, and that shine you love so much.

To learn how to do this task, if you do not know already, just continue to read our article. It has the information you want to know about before you tackle the job of restoring the color to your hardwood floor.

The Process of Restoring Your Floor’s Color

It may seem like a long and tedious job but in reality, that depends on your experience and knowledge. The more you know the easier the job becomes. Here are the few steps you need to take in order to restore the color to your hardwood floors:

Step 1- Determine What Finish is on Your Wood

The word ‘finish’ simply means the protective coating that was used to keep the wood in top shape for years. There are different types of finish that can be used and each one will have a different process to remove it.

When you find out the finish, then you know which process will work best on the floor.

Step 2- Find the Right Treatment

As we said, once you find out the finish that was used on your floor, you can pick the right treatment. For a wax finish, you can use liquid floor wax or a colored paste. Make sure to use a cleaner that is made for wax floors first before applying one of those two products.

Do not use a water-based cleaner on a wax finish. Use a circular motion when applying the new finish but be careful, some floors are so bad, you have to do the tough job of refinishing.

Step 3 – Apply a Floor Renewing Product

There are many of these around and it may be best to get some expert advice before you buy any one product. Floor renewing products are not all the same and they are not all made to work on all wood types.

They are also designed to work on specific floor finishes and that may be a bit hard for the DIY handyman to figure out. Then some treatments are temporary while others are permanent. You will need to know which way you want to go before you buy.

Step 4 – Refinish the Floor

This is actually the last option to consider, and your floor has to be in really rough shape before you take this step. In refinishing, you have to sand the floor, go with the grain always, clean up the sand particles, and then use a top stain, sealer, and varnish.

This step takes a lot of work, experience, and know-how. It is very easy to remove ruin your nice hardwood floor during this step. It is best to let the pros handle this process.

Restoration Options

It is always best to start with the simplest and least risky option when it comes to doing just about any repair task. This is true with hardwood floors as they can cost a lot to repair or redo if you make a mistake.

The first alternative to refinishing a floor is to give it a deep cleaning. Sometimes it is just a little dirt, a little dull wax that is ruining the look of your floor. Cleaning it should bring back the color without too much work.

If that doesn’t do the trick, then you can move on to the next option which is using one of the many floor restoration products that do not need sanding. These products help revitalize your floor without all that heavy and risky work that refinishing brings.

These products go under the name of floor renewal kit, floor restorer or floor reviver, or something similar. They are not a stain but a product that helps breathe life back into old-looking floors.

Then sometimes, your only option will be refinishing as the floors have gone too long without proper maintenance and care. You just have to bite the bullet and get the job done.