Petes Hardwood Floors - St Paul MN Hardwood Floor Experts

Floor Refinishing
101

Do-It Yourself
Sanding

Applying Finish

Do-It Yourself
Installing

Wall of Fame
Do-It Yourself

Hardwood
Floor
Maintenance

Pete's
Contracting

Wall of Fame
Contracting

Pete Sells
Flooring

Environmentally
Sensitive

We recommend these trusted stores in our area

Our St.Paul
Neighborhood Stores

Pete's "I Did it Myself" Brag Book

So, you don't trust us when we tell you that you can actually do it yourself? Check out the photos and stories below and believe.

Rachel W. says, "I'm a giant nerd for my beautiful floors. They have improved this house unbelievably. People that didn't see it in the "before" state don't understand my joy/obsession. Just looking at these photos tonight, now that a few months have passed, I'm shocked at how bad they really were and that I was considering living on them in that condition. Thanks for all your help. I'm sure we took on too much but at least we felt like we knew what we were doing."

Back in October, Rachel and her dad, Don, spent a weekend patching, sanding and finishing 600 square feet of old, heavily finished oak and maple. Rachel is a mapmaker and her father is a university professor, so you might think they were smart enough to know better than to try to get this done in two days, but clearly they are strong and determined on top of being really smart.

They did some patching in the kitchen:

And making patches prettier in the hall:

And the living room was just plain scary, but it sanded up beautifully:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Phil J. just gave us his "after" photos, but they're all you need to see. He had his flooring milled from an ancient American Elm that was removed from the backyard. We don't know if it is because the tree was so old, but the figure in these boards is more pronounced and full of character than any other elm we've seen.

Phil finished the floors with Bona's Amberseal and three coats of Bona Mega waterborne polyurethane.

Before

Jared's floor was so bad that he had to tear everything out and install his own floor from scratch:

And look at this excellent demonstration of safe containment of sanding dust - well done, Jared!

__________________________

James B. had one of the worst sets of "before"
pictures we had ever seen. Check out the horrifying cross-cut scratch that he discovered
when he pulled up his carpet:

And he had this too:

_________________________________

Lynn A. had a kitchen covered
with old linoleum adhesive

After

Sanding is always better when you have
help from your dad:

Jared chose to finish the sanded floor with Waterlox, a tung-oil based penetrating finish.

____________________________

But James still managed to salvage his floor, which turned out to be birch:

Now, it did take five passes with four different grits to make it this lovely. The finish is three layers
of an oil-modified polyurethane.

_________________________________

But she sanded it all off!
She says:
"I forgot to mention how impressed I was at how odorless these products have become!! Incredible. Turned out to be a very good time of year to do this, with the drier air and all. A pleasure doing business with you all as usual."