How To Recoat Lacquered Flooring

Deciding on the right finish for your wood flooring is a really important part of your flooring decision-making process.  Wood flooring finishes come in a whole range of options, such as oiled, white washed, distressed and lacquered.  Lacquered flooring is recognised for its particularly tough qualities.  Normally with a bit of a shine, even if you choose matt lacquer, lacquered finish flooring will stand up to a whole lot of wear and tear.

A lacquered finish effectively sits on top of the wood flooring, rather than sinking into the wood like oil, and as such is more prone to surface scratching than the likes of oil finish.  When lacquered finish flooring gets scratched, it tends to dull and start to look a bit tired.  There are various repair options you can try before deciding to completely recoat your floor, such as lacquer pens, but if damage is extensive, you really need to think again.  And at this point you’ll probably start to think about recoating your entire lacquered flooring.  In order to do so, you need to:

Remove all of your furnishings from your room so they don’t get in your way or get damaged with the dust that comes from sanding.  One thing to remember is that when you’re moving your furniture, you need to make sure to lift, and not drag it; otherwise you could cause even more extensive damage to your floor.

Once your room is empty, you need to go over your floor to make sure there are no nails or staples that need to either be punched back into the floor or removed.

At this point you can start to re-sand your floor to remove the old lacquer finish.  If you are doing this yourself, you should hire a drum sander and an edge sander and make sure you have a good range of sandpapers, ranging from heavy, 40 grit, to fine, around 120 grit.

When you sand your floor, you should start with the heaviest grit paper first, moving to finer paper as you progress.

Once your floor is sanded, let the dust settle and make sure you vacuum up all the dust that has been left on the floor, particularly between the gaps.  Give the floor a wipe over with a damp mop to remove the final traces of dust.

To recoat your lacquered your floor, you need to apply the lacquer, starting at the edges and working to the middle of your room and finally towards the door.  When you’re lacquering the edges, you should use a paintbrush and for the larger areas a roller.  At all times, you should work in sections and along the grain to make sure you have full coverage.

When it comes to looking after your newly recoated lacquered floor, you should be able to get away with a regular vacuum and mopping.  Because lacquered wood flooring is particularly resistant to water, you can use a damp mop with less caution than you would on the likes of an oiled floor.  That said, there should never be a need to soak your lacquered floor to get it clean.  The best option is to use a mop dampened with warm water if there is minimal staining, and for more stubborn stains, either a mild, multi purpose detergent or a detergent specifically designed to work with your flooring type.  If you’re choosing a detergent for the first time, don’t hesitate to speak to your flooring supplier or a trusted wood flooring supplier who will be able to guide you.