4 Signs it's Time to Have Your Hardwood Floors Refinished

If you are looking to make an investment in your home, it is tough to find something that can pay off quite as well as new hardwood flooring. Hardwood flooring can last you for a lifetime, but in order to do so, they are going to require a bit of care and regular maintenance from time to time. If you are familiar with hardwood flooring, then you know that at some point or another, they are going to need to be sanded and refinished again, but most homeowners aren't sure how often this needs to be done. Fortunately, there are some signs that you can be on the lookout for that will help to clue you in as to when your hardwood flooring is in need of care. While some of these signs are somewhat obvious, there are others that might be harder to notice, especially if you aren't sure that you should be looking out for them to begin with. To help you in this effort, our team of Ridgewood floor refinishing pros have taken the time to put together this short list of signs that you can be on the lookout for that will help you recognize when it's time to have your hardwood floors refinished.

Scratches Galore

Having a large number of scratches on your hardwood flooring is a clear, and somewhat obvious sign that your floors are in need of a good refinishing, especially if any of those scratches have made it through the stain on your wooden flooring. While some scratching is normal, and they typically aren't something you should see as out of the ordinary, having a floor that is covered in scratches, especially when they are in areas that are difficult to cover up with a rug or the like, it might be time to look into refinishing. Most scratching on your hardwood floors is going to be topical, and will come out with a little bit of sanding, but for larger gouges and the like, you might wind up having to replace entire boards.

Gray Boards

If you notice that any of your floor boards are turning gray, and that wasn't their color to begin with, it is most definitely time to have them refinished before they start suffering from any more damage. When your hardwood flooring is turning gray, it is a clear sign that the polyurethane is wearing off, and when this happens, it means that your floors might be absorbing water. Whether from rain, snow, spilled drinks, or even just water that you or your pets track in, this moisture will continue to seep into your home's floors until the wood turns black, at which point your only option is going to be a total replacement of your flooring.

Black Boards

As we stated above, black boards are a bad sign when it comes to your hardwood flooring, especially if your boards weren't stained that color to begin with. If you have boards on your hardwood flooring that have already turned black, it's too late for those particular parts. At this point, your best option is to just bite the bullet and replace the boards that are affected before they can cause damage to the rest of your floor.

Water Damage

If your hardwood flooring has sustained water damage, you might see separation between your floorboards, or some of them might start cupping. If your boards are cupping just a bit, this can usually be taken care of with a little bit of dedicated sanding, but if your boards have major separation, you're probably going to have to replace them.