London is busy enough without having to tiptoe around floorboards that have been freshly refinished and are being allowed some drying time. Especially as you should wait 24 hours before walking on your floors again, even then you should only wear socks, and you should really be allowing 4 days before moving furniture back into the room if you’ve used a slow drying product such as an oil-based polyurethane. Whereas refinishing your floors can take just a few days, if you want the best results from your finish, it’s worth noting the following that can all be factors in damaging your floor if they’re reintroduced too soon.
Pets
This isn’t always possible, but it’s recommended that you keep dogs away from your floorboards for 2 weeks after you’ve finished them with polyurethane. If it’s not possible for your dog to stay with someone else, or in another part of your home for this long then you can always try socks for dogs! These work for some but not all dogs but are a great alternative to segregating them to stop their claws damaging your newly finished floors.
Rugs
Again, when working with polyurethane, you need to allow time for the floors to breathe. If you absolutely can’t live without rugs on your floor for 30 days then you can sometimes get away with moving them in after a few weeks but be cautious. Polyurethane is a very robust, reliable finish but drying time is absolutely critical in making sure it lives up to its full potential.
Moving house
Refinishing your hardwood floors can be disruptive to a busy, London lifestyle. Especially if you’re having to move in and out of different rooms to make way for mobile furniture whilst trying to deal with what is actually quite a mucky process. It can all get a bit much! For this reason, most people opt to refinish their floors before they move into a new place. Here at GJP, we work with many customers looking to refurbish the floors in their new home. It’s essential that you plan ahead for this work to be done with all the necessary people involved before closing. Not allowing for sufficient time to get the work done before your move in date can mean that you may not have enough drying time and the work cannot go ahead. Ample time after closing and before the move in date is the way around this!
Our final words
At GJP, we serve customers across the whole length and breadth of London so we understand your needs. We know that plans can’t always be as set in stone as is desired when you’re battling with big city life so for your upcoming refinishing project, we’ll work round our customers in order to plan ahead as meticulously as possible. You want to decide whether you’ll opt for an oil or water based polyurethane because it’s the best choice for your floor, not because you ran out of time!
