Hardwood flooring - refinish? Replace? Handicap friendly?
We were planning to refinish the floor ourselves but understand that both staining and sealing are multi-day processes. Our house is a standard Chicago bungalow with one hallway that connects EVERYTHING - bathroom, kitchen, etc. - so we'll need to move into a hotel when the stain and poly dry overnight. My mom (who lives with us) has a physical handicap and cannot be away from home for more than a couple days. Is it feasible to stain first, wait a month, then seal? If we use an oil-based stain/varnish could we knock out the whole project in 3 days?
Lastly, we might have the funds to install new flooring if the refinishing doesn't pan out for some reason. When it comes to the ease of DIYing it, as well as the ability to stand up to wheelchairs and walkers, is ceramic or laminate better? We REALLY want to keep the existing hardwood but I'm curious if there are options that are more resilient to hard wear and tear.
Thanks for reading!
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I would refinish the floors...but definitely hire a professional. If you don't do this on a regular basis, you will prob. do an inferior job and it will take MUCH longer.
If time out of the house is the main consideration, I would just do this natural with 3 coats bona traffic. This will dry the fastest. It will cost more than oil based, but it will save you money in a hotel.
Read more here: What are the best brands of polyurethane?
And, no, you definitely should NOT do a stain and then wait until later for the poly. While you physically could do this, you definitely should not as there won't be any protection on the floors. And, if your mom has a physical handicap, it's even more likely that you will get lots of scratches. If you do it this way, I would expect that you will need to redo your floors a 2nd time.
also, I think it would be a shame to cover up solid hardwood floors and add LVT or laminate or something on top and lower the value of your home.
If you get this done professionally and use water based poly and do it natural, you could do this over a 2 day time period and then walk on it at the end of the 3rd day. (note: you need to wait longer for furniture to go down, so you may want to do in 2 phases.