It depends on the wear and tear on your hardwood floor. Here’s how you know what you need to get your floors looking new – or almost new – again.

• Refinishing is necessary when you have deep scratches that go beyond the finish and into the wood. Sanding will level out the surface. Refinishing is also needed to repair other damages like warping, or water and urine spots. 
• Screen and recoat is perfect for floors that only have bothersome surface scratches such as from pets, furniture moving, or from that sand you brought in on the soles of your shoes. If the finish is worn down, but not completely to the wood, this might also be an option. 
• Cleaning and buffing is for everything else, even for floors with superficial scratches that don’t really bother you because they’re hardly noticeable. With cleaning and buffing alone, you may notice a miraculous transformation. 
• Wax and acrylic removal is for those floors that have a buildup of wax or acrylic polish. If that’s your floor, then no matter which service you choose, you need to get that removed. Wax and acrylic polishes not only build up over time, dirt and grit can penetrate them, leaving your floors looking dull and cloudy.

Please don’t.

Professional finishes that are applied to wood flooring when the floor was installed, or later if it was renewed, actually eliminate the need for polishing.

Whether it’s a film finish or a penetrating natural oil, those finishes are specifically crafted to endure regular use for many years, if not decades, while handling daily foot traffic with ease.

But, as these finishes naturally wear over time to a point where their initial charm begins to fade, floor owners often contemplate how to restore the luster of their significant flooring investment.

Polishing seems to them to be the simple answer for them. But the problem with polishes is they can build up and actually make your floor look worse over time. That’s why it’s not uncommon for us to be called in to remove those wax and acrylic polishes.

The problem with polishes is they can build up and actually make your floor look worse over time. 

Oh, sure, the chemicals in wood floor polishes can add an artificial shine to any floor, but they are only meant to last for a couple of weeks, at the most. After a short time, they dull, accumulate scuff marks, and because they are penetrable, even dirt gets pushed into the polish. The result is your floor looks dull and hazy. 

And to make matters worse, when it comes time to refinish or screen and recoat, the polish or wax if you’ve been using that all has to be removed first. That’s a nasty job! See the video we posted above demonstrated the process and the mess involved. 

One word: BUFFING

Yep, that’s all you need. And we do that after every hardwood floor cleaning service we do. 

Hardwood floor cleaning by a professional company costs a fraction of what sanding and refinishing would cost, and in many cases can restore your wood floor to its original beauty just like refinishing does. It depends on the condition of your floor, though. Call us out to take a look. We’ll let you know what you need. 

If cleaning and polishing aren’t good enough for the wear and tear we’ll see, screen and recoat may be. That, too, is a FRACTION of the cost of wood floor refinishing and is VERY OFTEN all you need or ever will need! Recoat means it gets a new coat of polyurethane just like you would with refinishing. It’s the deep sanding that’s not included, but not necessary if all you want to do is remove surface scratches or get a new finish that has worn off. We’ll be adding screen and recoat to our hardwood floor services soon. 

Here are our prices: 
Wax/acrylic removal and polishing: $2.50 sq ft.
Deep clean and polishing: $1.50 sq. ft.

Our pricing is based on the time and effort we know it will take to give you the best results. This is key. We take the time to do it right. We don’t cut corners. We also don’t bait & switch. What we quote is what you get. 

Typically, your hardwood floors will be ready for use and walk-on traffic within a few hours after the service is performed. We also work after hours so there will be no interruption!

You should:

• Allow drying time of at least one to two hours before you walk on your floors in sock feet.
• Protect floors from getting wet for 24 hours after application.
• Return furniture to your floors (with suggested use of felt pads) after 24 hours.
• Return rugs to floors after 24 hours.

Hardwood floors should never be cleaned with wax, oil soap, or other household cleaners. The finish will dull and refinishing will be more difficult. We recommend using a microfiber flat mop and a pH neutral cleaner like Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner. Do not use Bona’s polish though! It will create a buildup and make matters worse. See the other FAQs on polishing. 

We recommend cleaning your wood floors professionally once or twice a year to prevent build-up of dirt and grime.