First of all you have to figure out the type of wood you dealing with, they’re all kinds of woods there is software and there is hardwoods.
The hardwoods are your floor, your steps, handrails, nosing at the end of steps or edges of floors. These might be maple or oak or cherry.
The softwood is usually base boards, door casings, door jams, in regular circumstances.
Before starting a DIY refinishing staining project make sure you have
· clean rags
· good-quality bristle brush such as ox hair, this is a very high-quality brush. It holds more paint and apply smoother and stays fresher after cleaning. And usually this type of brush has a good metal cover (stainless) over the brush end.
· special pad applicator (lambswool) for applying varnishes usually this can be a 4 x 12 rectangular pad on the end of the swivel that has a fabric attached to it which you soak in the clear varnish or urethane
You have a few choices on different surface finishes, the most popular one is polyurethane and this is what I’m going to talk about. You can get this material in everything from satin to gloss. And the glossier your floor finishes the more it will show the dust.
Make sure that you have stained the floor it should be completely dry. There are two different types of polyurethane drying times. Choose the one you want it could be slower drying polyurethane or fast drying polyurethane. If you use a slower drying polyurethane you will collect more dust. If you use faster drying polyurethane your DIY refinishing procedure has to be more experienced.
Make sure you stir up your polyurethane in the can with a stick and don’t shake the can because it will make bubbles in the polyurethane, and you don’t want apply bubbles. Make sure that you scrape up the bottom of the can with a stick to get all the solids dissolved into the solution. Stir slowly until it completely stirred up.
Once you’ve got your can stirred up nicely make sure that your room has a couple windows open to ventilate the room because this stuff stinks. Be careful that you’re not opening the window or the door to another place that is attracting dust this might even be worse.
To start with I usually wipe the floor free of dust. I usually moisten my applicator with some varsol, and I mean just moistened we’re not washing the floor we are just pick up the dust. After the floor had been dusted off I use a fresh lambswool applicator pad cloth.
Dip the applicator pad into the tray, just get the pad itself wet with the solution and not the whole head try to stay nice and neat. Start rubbing down from the corner the floor all the way out to the doorway systematically not leaving large puddles or deposits of polyurethane on the floor better to put a thin coat on a couple times that have heavy deposits laying all over your floor, also work in the direction of the floor not against it.
