I did a wood floor refinishing job yesterday - a very
large family room and an average sized dining room.
By refinishing I mean recoating the existing finish of
the wood floor. NOT to be confused with all the work
involved in traditional floor sanding. There was a
total of 680 sq. ft., which I billed at $1.30/s.f.,
for a total of $884. I started at about 9:00 AM;
finished the prep work & first coat by noon; took an
hour and a half for lunch, then came back and applied the second coat at 1:30. Things were just about
finished at 2:30. 5 & 1/2 hours of total time, of
which only about 4 hours were actual work.
$884 divided by 5 & 1/2 hours = about $160/hour,
less about $75 for materials.
The Challenger is involved in two ways:
first, to clean the floor. I just spray on my regular
carpet product - Outsolve - then use a damp cotton pad
to scrub the dirt of the floor. I next use the
Challenger with a maroon pad under it, to slightly
scuff the existing urethane surface, enabling the
new finish to grip or bond more tightly.
There are several good recoating products to select
from. If anyone is interested, I'll share my experience with the ones I've used.

Any college basketball fans out there? Don't you
just love my BC Eagles? 19 and 0 so far. ACC, here
we come!

Mark, that sounds like some great extra work...congrats

i dunno how to do any wood refinishing or sanding. i think the best thing for someone like me is to look into taking a class wouldn't you agree? don't they teach classes on it similar to the CC'ing classes that are around?

not into college ball much, but will root for the local Orangemen

go underdog Eagles! --- Derek

Hi Derek
The only instruction that I have found available in this area is at supply houses that sell ChemSpec products. One of the recoating products out there is
ChemSpec's Rx for Wood Floors. Find out if a Chem-
Spec rep is scheduled to come around and run a session. Bridgepoint Systems also sells a recoating
product. They too may have some instruction available. You may have heard the name Bona Kemi, which is a Swedish company that make a high quality
line of wood finishes. I have also used a product
called QuickShine, made by Holloway House
(www.hollowayhouse.net).
And you are forgiven for being a Syracuse fan. We hope to see their ass kicked when they come to
Boston College's Conte Forum on Feb. 19.

Bridgepoint has a fantastic video available - but their wood floor finishes are no good (too few solids, limited usefulness). If I were new to the process I'd get the Bridgepoint video and order Steamways wood finish. The Steamway product is an acrylic/urethane blend and it will cover bare spots where the old finish is completely gone. The Chemspec line looks good but I've never tried it.

Jeff
Thanks for the tip. How easy is it too apply the
Steamway products? I'm a fan of those products that
are self-levelling - that can be put down with virtually any applicator, and any skill level, rather
than those that require a relatively high skill level
in a particular technique.

Mark,

The Steamway product is self-leveling and can be applied using a flat cotton applicator(Shmop?). I just re-visited a home where I applied the product last spring. The finish held up tremendously well and the shine is still fantastic given the time since application and usage. I'm sure the Chemspec line is fantastic. Again, Bridgepoint - great company, bad wood floor finish!

Mark, that gets 4.00 a foot here, been doing it for a while now. Commercially we get 4 bucks a foot, residentially up to 6.50 a foot.

Jason
Those rates are quite impressive. What market are
you in? And could I look at your website, or other
marketing materials, to see how you market this service?

Mark