Oxford Homes Direct

GUEST ARTICLE: There are various reasons why people decide to sell their property and these vary immensely. Regardless of the reasons, every single property owner is looking to get a fair price for their property that consists of the market rate and the investment they placed into the property over the years. As your estate agents will tell you, market rate is often controlled by factors outside your control, but the same cannot be said for the interior look of the property. The state of the property’s interior is even more important in cold and wet countries such as the UK where people tend to spend more time indoors and therefore potential buyers place more attention to the state of a property’s décor when they picture themselves living there. In this article we aim to tackle the state of a property’s wood flooring and explain how to rejuvenate the wood, as wood is one of the most popular types of flooring solutions in both domestic and commercial properties. Most property experts agree that having well fitted wood flooring can increase the value of a property, though they often disagree as to the precise increase in value. Therefore, in properties that already have wood fitted, it stands to reason to make the floor look as best it could. Even if you are skeptical as to any value increase, surely it won’t hurt, would it? Durability of wood species (measured in a test called the Janka Ball Hardness Test) is estimated at 25 to 50 years of service life. Wood that may appear heavily warn on the surface could look modern again by taking a few simple steps. These steps rejuvenate the wood by sanding away around 1mm of top layer thereby exposing new wood. In fact, property owners are often unaware that the process could be repeated many times over the lifetime of the floor. Once the old layer has been removed, the wood is recoated to enhance its durability. Best of all, any necessary machinery and equipment can be hired from local DIY shops with ease. The work does not require any previous experience. Sanding The Floor Step By Step – Sanding is meant to remove the tarnished top layer that after years of service have its fair share of battle scars. Solid wood can be sanded many times, while engineered wood between 4 to 6 times depending on the thinness of the top layer. 1. Start by lifting items of furniture of the surface so you are left with a clear view of the working surface. Inspect the floor to ensure there are no nail, staples and so on that may damage the machinery. 2. Hire an orbital sander from your nearest building merchant. Orbital sander is the most user-friendly and suitable for property owners with no or little DIY experience. 3. The sander as the name suggests, requires sand paper to remove the top layer of the wood. The grit of sand paper (a scale of fine to rough) is measured from 40 to 120, so we suggest buying a range from fine to rough. 4. Sand the floor using the heaviest grit first and as required move to the finer grit. Inspect the floor to ensure sanding was done evenly across the surface. 5. Hoover the dust of the floor including the dust between the gaps of the floorboards. It is important that all the dust has been hovered so we recommended hovering at least twice with a 10 min gap (thereby allowing airborne dust to fall to the ground). Recoating The Floor Step By step – Wood flooring is covered in a layer of transparent coat that is meant to improve its durability by providing basic protection. 1. First you will need to decide on the type of coating. Although it may look the same when applied to the floor, each coating acts differently to protect the wood. 2. The most common are lacquer, oil and UV oil coating. Lacquer is popular because it makes the wood almost waterproof as it sits on the wood, while oil is better at preventing common wear and tear damage as oil sinks into the wood. Lacquer is quicker to wear, while oil is more durable., though not waterproof. 3. Apply your preferred coating using a brush or roller. When doing so, be careful not to leave any puddles of coating as excess liquids could damage the wood. Allow the coat to dry naturally for a few hours. 4. For better long lasting results, after the first coating has dried, apply a second coating and again wait a few hours before allowing contact with the floor. This process is meant to bring the look of the property’s wooden flooring up to date. It can be done over one weekend day and in one afternoon. Worth the time of your property requires it. Article written for Oxford Home Direct estate agents by solid wood flooring vendor wood and beyond.