Below are the answers to the questions we most commonly get asked. If you have a question not listed below, please feel free to ask us.
What steps are involved in the process of refinishing a floor?
What do we do about all of the dust?
How long will it take to refinish my floors?
What kind of finishes do we use?
How bad will the smell and fumes be?
Can I just recoat my floors instead of sanding them?
Can areas of the floor with water damage be repaired?
Can anything be done about the deep scratches in my floor?
Why does my floor have gaps and can they be filled?
Will my floor change color over time?
What is the best way to remove the carpet covering my hardwood?
What’s involved in staining a hardwood floor?
What part of a staircase do you sand?
How should I look after and clean my floors?
How long should I wait before replacing the furniture and
area rugs?
Is it possible to sand floating engineered floors?
Do we work weekends?
Do we install base-shoe and baseboards?
Do I have to remove my base-shoe and baseboards?
Do we remove furniture?
What guarantee do we offer?
What options do you have for payment?
Can I stay in my home during the refinishing process?
What time do we start in the morning?
Is there any part of the job I could do to save some money?
What insurance coverage do we have?
Do you have any references I can look at?
Who will be working on my floors?
What areas of the lower mainland do we work in?
How long should my newly refinished floors last?
What steps are involved in the process of refinishing a floor?
You can download our guide: “The Hardwood Floor Refinishing Process” which answers this question in detail.
You can get it at the Downloadable Info Sheets page.
What do we do about all of the dust?
Please follow this link over to our 99.5% Dustless System page for a detailed explanation.
How long will it take to refinish my floors?
An ‘average’ sized home in Vancouver usually consists of a living room, dining room a couple of bedrooms and a hallway and entrance. If the floors don’t need any repairs and you’re not staining them, we can usually refinish the floors in 3 days.
The first day is the longest. If things go well we usually can have the first coat on at the end of the day. The next two days we apply the second and third coats of finish. You can be gently walking on your floors 24 hours after the last coat.
If you decide to have us stain your floors, this will add at least another day to the process. Other extras like stairs, carpet removal and repairs also add time.
You can download our guide: “The Hardwood Floor Refinishing Process – The 21 Steps” which shows you the step by step process we use.
You can get it at the Downloadable Info Sheets page.
What kind of finishes do we use?
You can download our guide: “How to Choose a Hardwood Floor Finish that’s Right for You” which will answer this questions in detail.
You can get it at the Downloadable Info Sheets page.
How bad will the smell and fumes be?
Yes, the solvent based finishing products that we use do smell a little but it's usually no worse than the smell of strong paint. We don't use conversion varnish systems (such as Glitsa Swedish finishes) which can smell and gas off for weeks, leaving it very uncomfortable for you to live in your home during this time.
Our oil based finish system will have the smell of oil paint for a day or two. If it's the summer, you can have the windows open to ventilate but during the winter it will take a little longer to go away if you have your windows closed.
The water based products we use have hardly any smell to them at all.
Can I just recoat my floors instead of sanding them?
If your hardwood floor has been refinished by us previously and you have followed our cleaning and maintenance instructions, then yes this may definitely be an option. (This is of course assuming that the finish is not completely worn through and you aren’t concerned about removing most of the scratches.)
In fact recoating your hardwood floors every few years is highly recommended. If you do this before the finish has a chance to wear through, it will prolong the life of your floor and reduce the need for re-sanding.
We don’t recoat hardwood floors that we haven’t previously sanded for a number of reasons.
The main reason is that out of all the processes in hardwood flooring, recoats have the biggest failure rate. It’s always caused by the same thing - something prevents the new finish from adhering to the existing finish. This could be because of any number of things - dirt, wax, oil or countless chemicals that have been applied to or spilled on the floor.
In order to clean these floors properly, we need to take about as much time cleaning and scrubbing as we would in sanding the floor.
Additionally, most people aren’t happy with the results of “just a light sand and recoat”. Recoating your hardwood floors does not remove scratches and stains; it just covers them and gives another layer of protection to the floor.
Can areas of the floor with water damage be repaired?
Yes, this is usually not a problem at all. We will need to see these areas first and then we can give you an estimate.
Sometimes, if there is carpet covering your hardwood floors, we cannot see these areas until it is removed. When this is the case, we will stop our work and make sure you are aware of the situation and we can make a decision together.
It's always good to be aware of what caused the damage in the first place. Once the source is found, it should be repaired immediately to prevent further damage.
If you have an older house in Vancouver that has top nailed oak strip hardwood floors, there will most likely be black marks around some of the nails. This is caused by water or moisture as well. As the water penetrates the hardwood the nails start to rust which leaves the black marks in the wood.
Most people are comfortable living with minor occurrences of these black marks, chalking it up to the character and history of the floor. If you can't stand them then they can be removed but in order to do that we will need to replace the whole board.
Can anything be done about the deep scratches in my floor?
When sanding, we try to take off as little wood as possible to prolong the life of your floor.
If you have extremely deep marks in your floor, the best option for the overall floor is to replace the damaged boards. If you would rather us sand a little deeper we can do this but you must remember that the more we sand off the less floor you will have. Most hardwood floors can only be sanded 3 - 5 times.
Why does my floor have gaps between the boards and can they be filled?
Anything made of wood is subject to expansion and contraction resulting from changes in humidity throughout the year. Because of this it is common for cracks and small gaps to appear in hardwood floors, especially floors with wider planks.
Most of these will only appear seasonally during the changes in moisture levels.
During winter, the humidity inside your home drops quite significantly when the heat is turned on. Because of the change, everything wood inside your home, including your hardwood floors, will shrink. This is a standard thing that happens to all wood floors and its nothing to be worried about.
To reduce the chances of getting cracks in your floor, you can make an effort to keep the humidity level between 45% and 55% throughout the year by using a humidifier.
In older homes with fir floors, gaps are very common. Over the years, during many winters and summers, the house and floor settles, it contracts and expands many times over and this takes its toll, leaving space between the boards.
Other times the hardwood flooring was not installed tight in the first place.
We have also come across a number of fir floors that have very large gaps because they have been sanded down so much that the entire top part of the groove was removed and the tongue was left exposed below.
In most cases with fir floors, we don't recommend filling in between these gaps for a number of reasons:
• For one, as we have already mentioned but especially in these older homes, there is too much movement seasonally. As well, due to the age of these homes the sub floor is usually not as stable as it used to be and walking over it causes movement between the individual boards. Both types of movement in the fir floor will soon "eject" the filler.
• In addition to this, over the years these cracks have accumulated wax and dirt and this greatly prevents the adhesion of filler. Try running a knife through one of the gaps yourself to see what we are talking about.
Because of the movement and the years of dirt and wax buildup in the joints, the filler will refuse to hold properly. When it becomes loose and ejects it leaves sharp-edged, ugly gaps and gets ground into the newly finished floor surface.
Thankfully, these old fir floors look really amazing sanded up and restored even with these gaps.
If you have one of these older fir floors, count yourself lucky; many home owners and designers would love to have a floor like yours. In fact there are a number of people salvaging these old floors and reinstalling them in newer houses because they love their look.
Will my hardwood floor change color over time?
Yes, you can expect to see a difference in the shade of your hardwood floor over a period of time.
The cause is from direct or indirect ultra-violet sunlight rays. You will notice the difference mostly in areas of the floor covered with a rug. It’s best to move the rugs in your home around from time to time in order to minimize this.
By using our water-based finishes, which have built in UV inhibiters, you can greatly delay this natural occurrence.
What is the best way to remove the carpet covering my hardwood floors?
You can download our guide: “How to Remove Carpet Without Damaging Your Hardwood Floors” which answers this question in detail.
You can get it at the Downloadable Info Sheets page.
What’s involved in staining a hardwood floor?
You can download our guide: “Staining Hardwood Floors” which answers this question in detail.
You can get it at the Downloadable Info Sheets page.
What part of a staircase do you sand?
We only sand the actual treads or steps and sometimes but not often, the risers of the staircase. We never sand spindles, railings or stringers. This is far beyond the scope of floor work and you are much better off having a tradesman competent in this field look after this for you. We’d be happy to provide you with the number of a business that does this type of work.
Most risers – the back, vertical face of the stairs – are covered with a very thin veneer over plywood. Because this veneer is extremely thin, it can’t be sanded. You have a couple of choices as to what you can do with the surface of the riser.
First, the most common option that our clients are choosing is to paint them with a durable paint that matches the stringers (the wood side part of the stairs). This is a very popular look among designers and can be found in all of the latest home trend magazines. It’s a very classy look that has the benefit of visually opening the staircase providing an airy, spacious feeling.
You also have the option of re-veneering them but painting the risers is a far cheaper choice. It’s also much easier to maintain the risers down the road as all you will need to do is give them a fresh coat of paint every few years if needed.
How should I look after and clean my floors?
You can download our guide: “How to Look After Your Hardwood Floors” which answers this question in detail.
You can get it at the Downloadable Info Sheets page.
How long should I wait before replacing the furniture and area rugs?
Ideally, a full week would be great for furniture but we know that this isn’t always very convenient. The finishes we use are 70 – 80% cured after 1 - 2 days, so we would advise you to wait at least that long. If you can wait longer, great, if not, just be extra careful for the next few days.
Please make sure you use the felt pads that we supply for you.
As far as area rugs, we strongly suggest that you wait at least 2 full weeks - a month is better - to let the finish cure before placing these on your floor.
Is it possible to sand floating engineered floors?
You can download our guide: “Engineered Floors – Can They Be Sanded” which answers this question in detail.
You can get it at the Downloadable Info Sheets page.
Do we work weekends?
Refinishing floors is a very demanding job. During the weekdays we work extremely hard so we need to have the weekends off for our beauty rest and be ready for another busy week.
If only a top coat that is needed to finish a job and you have a very tight schedule, we may be able arrange to do it on a Saturday afternoon but please don't count on this.
Do we install base-shoe and baseboards?
We can install brand new solid wood base-shoe to match the wood on your floor if it is needed. We will then finish it along with the floor.
We do not install any baseboard or primed base-shoe at all but we can recommend someone for you if you like. We also don’t remove existing base-shoe and re-install it as most old base-shoe will get badly damaged during the process and be impossible to reuse.
Do I have to remove my base-shoe and baseboards?
No, it’s not necessary to remove them if you’d rather not. This will save you a lot of time and money by not having to replace them if they’re in good condition. We will be able to get up extremely close to the base-shoe (or ‘quarter round’) with our sanders and the rest of the old finish we’ll remove by hand scraping.
Please realize there might be slight scuff marks during this process and you may need to give them a fresh coat of paint when we’re finished.
Do we remove furniture?
Because we are not professional movers, our insurance unfortunately doesn’t cover us for any damage done to your furniture, so we will need you to have it all removed prior to our arrival.
We can provide you with the name and number of a great moving company that many of our customers have used and have been extremely happy with if you like.
What guarantee do we offer?
Please take a look at the Our Amazing Guarantee page. It will fill you in on all the details.
What options do you have for payment?
We gladly accept cheques and cash.
We know that a lot of people collect air miles and would like to put their payment on Visa, we will be happy to arrange for payment by Visa but we have to add a 3% surcharge to the bill to cover the transaction fees. Usually it’s not worth it.
Please don't ask us if we will give a cash discount or take off the GST as we will have to politely refuse. We are a running a legitimate business and we do all our business above board. You will be happy to know that this honesty is carried over to our dealings with you as a customer as well.
Can I stay in my home during the refinishing process?
Yes, it is possible to still live at home during this time with a few restrictions.
When the finishes are applied and drying, you won’t be able to have access to those areas for at least 8 hours. On the finish coat we like to have it out of bounds for 24 hours to ensure a top quality job.
This can pose a bit of a problem if the areas you are having restored are hallways or areas you need to access for bedrooms or washrooms etc. If this is the case, or if you are having your entire house refinished, it may be best to stay somewhere else for a few nights.
If you’re sensitive to the products we use, it also may be better not to sleep overnight while they’re drying.
We can arrange to coat the hardwood floors in the morning so the drying takes place during the day; or at the end of the day so they dry overnight. I know it can be a bit of a hassle during this period but the results will definitely be worth it.
What time do we start in the morning?
When we begin a job we show up right at 8am. We like to get a good start on the day so we can get as much done for you as possible. Of course, if that doesn’t work with your schedule, we can arrange something else more suitable for you as well.
For recoats, it depends on your schedule. If you’re away for the refinishing process and you give us a key to your home like most of our clients then it won’t matter. Otherwise we’ll work in with what is best for you – morning or afternoon.
Is there any part of the job I could do to save some money?
Yes, and we encourage you to do everything you possibly can to save yourself some money.
The best way to save some cash would be to remove and dispose of any carpets, underlay, smooth-edge, staples or unwanted base-shoe yourself before we arrive.
If you are handy, you could also tackle any repairs that are needed – we will be more than happy to give our advice on how to do this properly.
You could look after the base-shoe installation yourself as well.
What insurance coverage do we have?
Please follow this link over to our Why We’re Different page and see reason number 12 which talks about our insurance coverage.
Do you have any references I can look at?
We have a whole page full of letters and feedback from our many happy clients on our Pictures and Feedback page.
If you’d like the name and number of the client we’re working with at this very moment, please call or email and we’d be happy to share it with you. (Providing our client agrees.)
Who will be working on my floors?
Please follow this link over to our Why We’re Different page and see reason number 6 which talks about who will be working on your floors.
What areas of the lower mainland do we work in?
Please follow this link over to our Contact Us page to see where we work.
How long should my newly refinished floors last and what should I be doing to keep them looking great?
That depends on a lot of different factors. Will you be wearing your dirty shoes in your home? Do you have pets? How many? Are they allowed to race around the house with long nails? Are you willing to spend time regularly sweeping and cleaning your floors? Are you going to use runners and area rugs?
As you can see, there’s no simple answer. I’ve seen floors that we’ve finished more than 15 years ago still look great because they were looked after well and I’ve also been back to floors within a year that had been horribly abused and thus needed a lot of attention.
It’s difficult for us to know how you are going to care for your new floors. We urge you to read and apply the tips in the Cleaning Guide we leave you as well as use the hardwood floor cleaner and felt pads. These things will ensure your floors will look great for many, many years.