Are My Wood Floors Salvageable?

A question that I receive from many homeowners is “can my floors be sanded?” or “Are they salvageable?” - more often than not the answer is yes! The available thickness (or “wear layer”) of solid plank flooring to be sanded, is 1/4”.  Under favorable conditions about 3/64” of the wear layer should be removed; this is assuming there are no deep scratches, the wood is in fairly decent condition, and an aggressive sanding is not needed.  Typically, a good rule of thumb is not to remove more than 3/32” of the wear layer.  This generally removes deep scratches, cupping, and previous sanding errors.  Keeping these measurements in mind, we could infer that under the worst conditions, removing 3/32” of the wear layer during sanding, the flooring could be sanded 3 times and under perfect conditions 5 times. The amount of wood sanded off during the refinishing process greatly depends on the skill of the flooring professional; one doesn’t want to remove too much material preventing a future refinishing nor do you want to leave any unsightly imperfections. These measurements are subjective as I’ve sanded a floor over a century old and it still could be refinished again.  I’ve also seen brand new floors that were so poorly sanded after initial installation that they could only be sanded once more.  Hiring a competent wood floor contractor could quite possibly get you another century out of your wood floors!