The Importance of Sanding For Hardwood Floors

Seeing scratches and scuff marks all over your home’s hardwood floor is never pleasant. This doesn’t come as a surprise because floors do deteriorate through time, and of course, you can do little with guests in their shoes or lethal high heels. There are two options if you’re thinking of having your floor looking burnished like new: replacing it entirely or laminating it. However, the best solution that can bring your wooden floor looking like it’s been restored to its original state, is sanding.

Sanding can help make a worn-out wooden floor look fresh and good as new. Floors can take on a smoother sheen because sanding removes the worn topmost layer. With a new layer in place, stains and varnish can be absorbed better to give off a sleeker surface gloss. Compared to having a new hardwood floor in place, sanding is, of course, cheaper and more environmental friendly because it helps prevent the use of timber, and thus reduces the need to cut more trees. Lamination is also more expensive compared to sanding; lamination is also more susceptible to moisture and scratches, which may make it more difficult to refinish.

A well sanded floor due to its leveled state is primed for staining or varnishing, which would make it more impermeable to dust and allergens; it can also be easier to clean. Primed wood flooring, moreover, helps keep an ideal temperature within a home for as long as it keeps, which can be a very long time.

Tips on Maintaining Timber Decking

Timber is a durable and classic option that you can have for your deck; its simple elegance can turn your deck into an architectural beauty and a symbol of the resilience of natural materials. However, timber decking is not without maintenance needs; in fact, you will have to clean and maintain it regularly if you want to ensure its longevity.

Cleaning

Purchase an efficient brand of wood deck cleaner that can work efficiently on timber without damaging the material, and be sure to follow the manufacturer’s instruction when cleaning. Apply the cleaner to your deck and spread it with a paint roller, making sure not to get any splattering over your body or on your plants.

Sealing

Sprinkle water on your deck; if the water collects into beads, it’s still efficiently sealed. If the wood soaks it up, however, you will have to buy a reliable wood sealer to apply on your deck. There are many types that you can choose from, such as clear or tinted sealers. If you want to maintain the natural look of your timber deck, though, you might want to consider the former.

Repair

Check your deck’s condition regularly – look for signs of rot, insect infestation, mold, mildew or water damage. Rotten timber will have to be replaced, but other problems like mold can still be removed, unless you’ve been ignoring the maintenance needs of your deck for an extremely long time.

Valuable DIY Floor Sanding Tips

Doing a big DIY project, like floor sanding, is a great way to save money. However, as this is a major project, it is definitely important to know what you are doing. Hence, consulting instructional guides and videos floating around the Internet are a prerequisite for any homeowner. Even if instructional guides and videos help a lot, it is important to take note of the following tips:

Knowledge and Safety: Familiarize yourself with the four main tools that are used for finishing wood floors: drum sanders, orbital sanders, edge sanders, and palm sanders. Learn how to use each tool properly and wear safety gear, such as safety goggles, earplugs, and dust masks.

Patience and Acceptance: A 10×12 foot floor is a big sanding project. Understand that tasks like these cannot be finished in one session alone, and it will take you some time to finish them. Accept the fact that there are bound to be imperfections in your work, as floor sanding is not something that you do regularly.

If the task proves too difficult, there are companies that provide professional floor sanding services, and their knowledgeable contractors can assist you if the floor sanding project proves to be beyond your expertise.

When Decks Bend

Making a curved feature in a block of wood is relatively easy; all you have to do is guide the saw in a curving direction. Making a curved feature in a deck, however, is a different story.

This involves actually bending the wood beam to create the curves, resulting in a deck that forgoes the traditional quadrilateral deck design. Normally, any deck project that involves bending requires going beyond pure wood to get it done. Case in point: composite lumber. Its flexible properties resulting from the addition of plasticizing agents to wood fiber allow deck builders to bend the wood with ease.

Deck builders often use cantilevering to build the curves in these types of decks. By cutting the ends of joists in different lengths, the curve can be incorporated into the deck structure later on. Workers will heat beams using a special blanket to allow the beams to fit into the curve. Depending on the type of composite lumber or material used, they can bend up to more than 10 feet.

This generally applies to any part of the deck with a curved feature, not just the corners. Some deck designs may incorporate curves into the deck floor or the benches built above it.