Sanding & Refinishing Of An Old Engineered Flooring

What we had in front of us was a 22 sqm fine engineered oak floor in decent good condition. It was relatively well-preserved with the exception of the finish which, indeed, had to be removed. Besides some minor imperfections like a few gaps, we could not find any other problems with the floor, so we went on with the job.

Engineered floors are one of the trickiest to restore. Their unique design is both their greatest strength and their greatest weakness. Made from multiple layers of plywood with a relatively thin veneer on top, engineered flooring is hard to sand since it is way too easy to remove too much of the veneer and ruin the floor forever. The situation becomes even worse if the owner has previously sanded the floor and in the end - simply forgotten about it.

Whenever our teams restore engineered surfaces, we always make sure that we know exactly what we are dealing with. Determining the true thickness of the wood is vital for the process. Finally, after careful checking, we decided that the surface can be sanded. We immediately began the process by stripping the old finish with medium to fine sandpaper grits (the surface did not need coarse sanding) and proceeded to buff the surface. Once the floor was sufficiently smooth we applied multiple coats of commercial-grade floor finish and completed the task.

How Did It End?

It is clearly visible from the pictures that the while the floor itself wasn’t seriously damaged, it’s condition needed improving. We not only managed to remove the old finish but also put 4 coats of our favourite Junckers HP Commercial and all of this for a single day! Thanks to the new finish, the floor was not only restored its lost beauty but also received excellent protection capable of keeping it the potential damage at bay for years to come.