How did refinishing your living room and dining room floors turn into a three-day project full of unexpected challenges and surprises?

Asked by Taeke Abbring

7 months ago

Last Updated: May 22, 2024

I just finished up my latest project and I wanted to share the before and after with you. When we first moved into our house, the living room floors were covered in carpet. A couple of years ago, I decided to try my hand at refinishing the hardwood floors myself. Let’s just say, it didn’t turn out too great. The dining room had fake wood vinyl that we recently pulled up with the intention of refinishing both rooms. But to my surprise, there was carpet glue underneath the vinyl that someone had previously glued down!

I thought this project would be a piece of cake since I had refinished all the floors upstairs earlier this spring. Unfortunately, the floor edger I rented wasn’t working properly, so we had to return it. I ended up using a drum sander and realized the boards were much more uneven than I thought. After some hard work and a little bit of improvising, we were able to scrape off the adhesive and carpet foam by hand with a heat gun and putty knife. Then we used an orbital sander to finish sanding everything else.

I decided to leave some imperfections in the floors because I love the look of a well-lived-in space, especially in my 100-year-old farmhouse