Flooring 101:Should You Reapply Your Own Finish Or Hire Someone?
So it’s finally come to this your floors no longer the pristine example of finer living room decoration they once were are now unfortunately worn out. Their once gorgeous finishes now scuffed beyond belief. So what are you to do? Of course reapply the finish. Then the question remains, should you do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you? We take a look at the evidence and help you judge what to do here. Doing something yourself can be incredibly fulfilling and yet the act of finishing a floor is incredibly complex, and some expertise would never hurt the process and take you through some of the more difficult and tricky situations that the process can bring up.
DIY
A DIY job has a lot of pros and fallbacks. The most prominent pro of this job is you get to personally craft your floor to the exact specifications that you desire. However keep in mind the more risky elements of the process. The tools that you use, including sanding and working with complex chemicals, with unstable VOC counts, can create a hazardous working environment.
The pros of the process however include this you know exactly what is going into the building, construction and upkeep of your floor and you will be able to fix it in the future using a few small steps in case anything goes wrong. If your floor has a wax finish for example, a finish incredibly easy to apply and reapply, then you could work with it when you have the smallest chip. This works only for a floor with a low VOC count because you would never want to endanger your life and your family’s lives by putting on a potentially toxic floor for a small scratch.
Note that a DIY job should only be done for certain floor finishes. Many are too risky and too potentially dangerous for you to work with on your own. Please refer to our floor finish guide for further info.
Likewise, it’s hard to discount just the satisfaction you will get from doing the job yourself. Also, if you are smart about the process it should all in all cost you far less money than hiring a professional. However…
PROFESSIONAL
A professional job has the advantage of knowing absolutely what he is doing at all time with the process. When you finish a floor you’re dealing with a lot of complex issues that could again potentially be hazardous or dangerous. Even the act of sanding could cause damage and hard to your hands. When you work with a professional you work with someone who knows what they’re doing at all times.
Likewise, many floors actually require a professional hand. If you have a more complex finish it is better for you to work with a professional. It will cost you more certainly, yet you will hire him with the confidence that your floors are going to look gorgeous by the time they’re done. He could also stain it in just the proper way and make sure the finish lasts you a long time with the expertise that only a professional can. Also a professional job with the expediency of expertise, will go quicker than the DIY job.
In short the decision is yours. The DIY job can help teach you how to take care of your own floors for years on end, yet the professional job can help you do them quickly. We encourage you to go with the professional job. The dangers that can be involved with the process are best undertaken by someone with experience.