Refinishing Floors

Bamboo is considered a hardwood in the flooring industry, which is a common misconception.  Bamboo is actually a grass and is the fastest growing woody plant in the world.  This makes them a renewable resource and perfect for use in flooring.  But since bamboo isn’t technically a type of wood the way you would go about refinishing bamboo flooring is different.

The main difference between refinishing a hardwood floor and a bamboo floor is that refinishing a bamboo floor is much more in-depth.  Basically, it is just a bit easier.  Of course, due to the importance of refinishing any flooring in the home it is quite the undertaking and one that has a significant amount of steps involved.  The main difference between refinishing hardwood flooring and bamboo flooring is the amount of sanding done.

When you refinish natural hardwood flooring you’ll have to do a good amount of sanding.  How much sanding you’ll have to do is dependent on the amount of damage the hardwood flooring has sustained.  When you sand a natural hardwood floor you’re not only sanding the top polyurethane layer of the floor but some of the actual wood floor beneath it.  This is done to remove any deep rooted scars, stains and other damage evident in the floor.  When you’re refinishing bamboo flooring only that top, plastic like layer of the floor is removed.  The actual bamboo is left untouched.  After the top layer of the flooring is sanded away a fresh coat of polyurethane is applied.  That is allowed to dry, and then sanded again with very fine sandpaper in order to encourage the adherence of another coat of polyurethane.  This is done anywhere from two to three more times.  Then the floor is sealed.  This creates a strong protective outer layer which serves to protect the floor from nicks and stains.