Kadee’s hardwood floor blog
Lots of great info to help you refinish your hardwood floors.
Can you ever get the ‘perfect’ stain color?
We recently did a phone consult for a customer who needed help with a stain job that didn't quite go to plan. She hired a contractor to sand, stain, and finish her floors, and asked for some actual stain samples to choose from. You may not know this, but not every...
Fix medium to large holes without replacing the whole floor board
Sanding jobs always have surprises. So, you've taken on a floor sanding project. You're smart, you're confident, and you're ready to sand. But you pull up carpet in that last room and find a problem like this: Carpet stretcher gouges. Lots of hardwood floor had...
2023 National Wood Floor Trade show Predictions and Insights!
“Do people even go to trade shows anymore?” It seemed like a very old-fashioned, beforetimes thing to do, going to the national convention of the National Wood Flooring Association. But this year's expo was in Milwaukee, easy driving distance for Pete's. And we've...
Why you should care about the VOC level of your floor finish
Low odor polyurethanes have lower VOCs. And lower VOCs are healthier for you and healthier for the planet. But it is more difficult to engineeer low- or no-VOC protection. Hardwood floor finishes need to incorporate really hard, wear-resistant resins and solids in...
How do I fix orange hardwood floors?
“We don't want orange floors.” When we first help a typical DIY floor refinishing customer, we ask about their hopes and dreams for their refurbished floor. Their most common wish is to “take away the orange.” We hear that and can help.Many hardwood floors still...
Don’t decide to refinish your floors over breakfast and expect to be done by dinner.
This happens all the time, but especially on Saturday mornings. A new homeowner shows up at our St. Paul storefront at 9am, no appointment, no job pictures, no plan. But they are determined to rent sanders right now because have just pulled up their carpet and...
An alternative approach to fir porch floor replacement
Here in the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, we have a lot of historic housing stock with covered fir porches. We need porches to take advantage of our short and glorious summers. But wood exposed to sun and weather year round takes an extreme beating and...
Why do I have to sand my brand-new, raw wood floor?
It’s new; isn’t it already perfect? I know – this seems crazy, right? This beautiful, fresh-from-the-mill, newly-planed wood gets nailed to your subfloor, and now you have to sand it? Why??It’s not that the wood surface isn’t smooth. After installation to your...
Can I use Rubio Monocoat on my kitchen countertops?
OMG please do! We didn’t plan for this when we first started carrying Rubio Monocoat, but almost half of what we sell now is for coating wood other than floors.And countertops are the perfect project for Rubio:No stink. Most countertops are already in place by the...
Random Thoughts on Refinishing Fir and Pine
As we’ve probably told you a million times already, Pete’s is proudly located in Minnesota. So the lion’s share of our customers have floors made of northern woods like oak, maple, or birch. But the next most common wood in these parts is Douglas fir which we see...
What do I do when my sandpaper keeps gumming up?
We love this question so hard. Because any time your sandpaper is gumming up, it is not a problem; it is a SOLUTION! When sandpaper is loading up, it means that the friction and heat created by the paper as it spins on your floor is actually melting off the old...
Do my floors have pet damage, or water damage?
"Can you tell me if this will sand out?" Some customers come to us unsure of whether their floors can be saved. But about 25% of them arrive with panic in their hearts and photos like the ones above, hoping that we have a magic cure.Most water stains sand out; most...