Hardwood Floor Recoat in Halifax
If your floors look dull or lightly scratched but the wood underneath is sound, a recoat is usually all you need, and it is the cheapest way to make them look new again.
What a recoat actually is
A recoat, sometimes called a screen and recoat, is a light job. We scuff the existing finish so a fresh coat will grip, clean everything down, and roll on one or two new coats. The wood itself is never sanded to bare timber. That is why it is faster, cheaper and far less dusty than a full refinish, and why it is usually a single day in a room rather than most of a week.
The limit is that a recoat only renews the finish on top. If the wear has gone through the old finish and into the wood, or there are dark stains and gouges in the timber itself, new coats will seal those in rather than remove them. At that point you are into a full sand-back, and we will say so.
How to tell if a recoat is enough
Look for dullness, fine surface scratches, and traffic paths that have lost their sheen but not their colour. If the floor still has an even tone and no bare wood showing, a recoat will very likely do the job. The quick home test is a drop of water on the worst-looking spot: if it beads and sits, the finish is still protecting the wood and a recoat will hold. If it soaks in and darkens the board within a minute or two, the finish is gone there and a recoat would be a waste of money.
Maple is the species where this matters most in Halifax. It is dense, it takes a hard-wearing finish well, and a maple floor whose finish has dulled is very often structurally untouched underneath. Recoating it keeps every millimetre of wear layer you have, which is the whole point on a floor that may need to survive another fifty years.
What we check before quoting a recoat
Not every finish will accept a new coat. Floors that have been maintained with an oil soap or a wax-based polish can reject a water-based finish entirely, and the new coat peels off in sheets a few weeks later. We test a small patch in a low-traffic corner before we commit you to a recoat, and if the existing finish will not bond we tell you that at the quote rather than after.
We also check whether the wear is even. A floor that is fine everywhere except a two-metre strip in front of the sink is a different job from one that has gone uniformly dull, and sometimes the honest answer is to recoat most of the house and sand back one room.
Have us look at your floors in person.