Merbau Hardwood Flooring Restoration

Floor sanding of solid wood flooring in Wimbledon

Before the restoration works...

The merbau solid wood flooring in this Wimbledon Property was overall looking tired and in serious need of refinishing. During our free survey, we did a thorough inspection of the floors and discussed with the client all possible options.

Our client has decided to go for floor sanding, of 25 sqm merbau solid wood flooring and finishing the floors in matt Lacquer.

How we made it happen...

One of the challenges we experienced while working on this project, was the amount of furniture, which we had to work around in stages.

Hardwood flooring comes usually as "tongue-and-groove" planks and would have approx. 6-7 mm sandable depth, measured form the surface to the position of the T&G on the plank. This upper layer defines what is the remaining thickness available for sanding on the plank. Depending on the overall condition of the floors, the initial solid wood floor sanding may start with coarser or medium grid. The task of this initial floor sanding stage of the hardwood flooring is to remove the previous finish and provide a good level throughout all planks.

Overall, the level of the hardwood flooring is expected to be good, due to the "tongue-and-groove" locking between the planks, however due to presence of past, current or seasonal damp in some cases the planks may get slight sides curving with the time.

Sanding the floors with fine grids (80 - 120 gr) and a good rotary buff to the merbau timber surface with high grid buffing screens is the most important stage in the preparation of the wooden flooring for finishing.

The solid wood flooring was consequently sealed with 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of Bona Mega Lacquer in matt sheen with another light screen buff between the coats, for an excellent final touch to the finish.

Did you know this about merbau flooring?

Merbau has dark rich red colour and sometimes, our clients will ask us to whiten it or "bleach" the merbau floors. We do not do that, to merbau. We tried it, but it's stubborn and we recommend to keep you merbau floors in the natural colour domain.

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