How often your laminate flooring wears out depends on where you live and the atmosphere there. We can all agree that dull flooring can ruin a home’s look as it’s the most noticeable thing a guest sees. Here are some ways you can refinish your laminate flooring.
To re-laminate your floors: gather your materials, clean your floor, fill the scratches, smooth out the fillings, and polish your floor.
1. Gather Your Materials
Before you start, make sure you follow this list carefully to avoid setbacks:
- Laminate floor shiner
- Laminate wood filler
- Plastic putty knife/silicone spatula/plastic scale
- A non-abrasive, dry rag
Make sure that everything you have is clean, unexpired, and reusable. Any abrasive objects will interfere with the process and make it harder to finish up.
2. Clean Your Floor
There will be holes, grit, grime, and dirt in between the worn out spaces. It could get in the way of achieving a perfect finish. Make sure you carefully clean the flooring in sections and get immediately to work before any more dust can settle in.
When cleaning off hard grit, be gentle when scrubbing it off to avoid any more scrapes in the flooring.
Close your windows and turn the fan off to avoid dust flying around and resettling into the scratches in your laminate flooring. It’s best to get rid of furniture from the room to ensure it does not contain dust that can fall to the floor.
It’s best to broom, vacuum, and mop the floors for maximum cleaning. Once done, wipe the floor with a dry cloth and allow it to dry further. Once you’re confident that it has no damp patches, proceed to the next step
3. Fill the Scratches
Keep your wood filler ready and make sure it matches the color of your flooring so the end result doesn’t not look splotchy and awkward. With your wood filler, go ahead and squeeze it into the dents and scratches in your floor. Be sure to coat the scratch properly and work the product into place with gloved fingers.
PRO-TIP
Be sure to protect your skin when using chemicals as you never know what you could be allergic to. You also want to avoid being pricked adn pierced by any loose shreds of wood.
Ensure that there is enough wood filler so that it spills over the tops of the scratches and dents. The last thing you want is to be stingy and realize the filler has not settled properly and flatly into the spaces.
4. Smooth Out the Fillings
Using a plastic putty knife, or a silicone spatula, or any other flat tool that is not made of steel, scrape off the excess fillings. Do not leave any traces on the better parts of your flooring as it will dry out really hard. Scraping off bumpy fillings off of flat surfaces will ruin your floors.
Once smoothened out, allow it to dry for at least an hour or so. Come back to check if the filled in dents and sand out the surface carefully if you feel the floor is bumpy.
WARNING!
Using materials made of metal will eventually make more scratches in the wood.
5. Polish the Floor
When the fillings are dry, spray the fixed area with some floor shiner.
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Leave the floor shiner for about 15 seconds so that your floors are perfectly laminated and smooth.
Once all is said and done, wipe the polish off and let your floors rest for a day to ensure there are no smells and odors left behind to seep into your furniture. Do not open your windows until after the floor has dried completely. Give your floor one last sweep with a broom before bringing in your furniture again.
How To Prevent Your Floor From Wearing Out Faster
You might want to consider some preventative measures after you’re done with the work. It’s always good to slow down the wear and tear to save on time and resources.
Investing in good rugs can do exactly that. This is especially helpful when you have furniture that is bound to be shifted and scraped across the floors.
Always have your heaviest furniture closer to the edges of the room. This will keep the center of your room open for easier movement, avoiding things like scraping the vacuum too hard to get into nooks, tripping, and more.
Wear slippers in the house. People are prone to wearing shoes in the house, but some can have pretty abrasive under-surfaces. Purchasing soft slippers to wear in the house will do your floors good.
Conclusion
And there you have it! 5 easy steps to re-laminate your floors and save a ton of money while at it! All you have to do is gather your materials, clean your floor, fill the scratches, smooth out the fillings, and polish your floor.