Floor Preparation, Refinishing & Care

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Refinishing of floor can be divided to two major sub categories: Mechanical and Chemical. At Z Best we specialize in the mechanical refinishing of wood floors.

Most wood floors can be succesfuly refinished by a process that, if done correctly, can increase the the value and life span, provide protection, improve safety and finally give the floor a more pleasing appearance.

The most basic and natural floor has always been made of wood, which could be trace back to pioneer times across the United States in fact, some homes and churches that were build with wood floors moved west along with their owners. This wonderful floors could be removed and taken to the new location (try doing that with carpet). Most of this old floors were nailed down.

In the 60's and 70's, with the introduction of carpet and other synthetics such as vinyl, the production of wood floors plummeted this was accelareted by massive changes in building methods, where large tract of homes were build cheaply with slabs on grade. This concrete floor is not the best of sub floor for a solid wood floor. It was only after the development of proper glues that the flooring industry had come back to full production. Today to own a wood floor is not only prestigious its also provide a good, effective, long lasting and classy alternative to synthetic floors.

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In Southern California there are many homes that have already hardwood floors installed. The most common type of wood floor in use is oak. Their are 350 different species of oak and the ones most commonly used for floors are the red and white. Oak is generally from the east coast of the United States from the north of Canada to the south of Louisiana. Today some oak, called Tan oak, is produced in northern California in Mendocino County. Other then oak the most common used types of wood floors include Ash, Maple, Beech, Birch, Douglas Fir, Elm, Gum, Hemlock, Ipe, Jarrah, Magnolia, Mahogany, Mangeo, Merbau, Walnut, Padauk, PangaPanga, Pine, Purpleheart, Rosewood, Cedar, Teak, Wenge, Cherry-American (light) and Brazilian (red). Additional materials may be found in Latin America (Honduras, Brazil and Peru), the Far East (India, Japan, Indonesia) or from Europe, Africa or Australia.

We have extensive experience in refinishing all types of wood floors using only the latest equipment and employing only the most inviormentally safe materials our goal is to provide the customer with the best floor available with the least amount of disruptions possible

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With Z- Best you can always expect the following:

• All of our tools and equipment contains dust collectors, however dust is unavoidable in the refinishing procces,And we will mask all areas as condition of the structure permits. Touch-up paint to the base may be needed and you can always clean the walls with a dry wallpaper brush.
• In new construction all doors and windows must be closed the air conditioning turned on and all pilots turned off do to the flashing of the polyurethane. Furniture appliances and any other floor covering should be moved. Keep children and pets away from the work area.

The actual process consist of the following steps:

• Inspecting the floor after all other floor covering had been removed such as vinyl square or rolled goods, carpet and other floor coverings, staples from padding, tack strip and transition pieces.
• Cut coarse 36-40 grit (depending on floor condition, some floors can be cleaned by using 50 grit as the first cut ...this can save the floor from deep cutting and increase the life and can be done if the floor is not heavily soiled). Direction and a systematic method of work is also important and different methods are used in parquet floors, floors that have heavy embedded designs or floors that need deeper initial cut.
• Medium cut 50-60 grit this cut will remove some of the high ridges from the coarse cut and by that smooth the floor.
• Inspect the floor and apply a first coat of water base wood filler, cleaning the floor with a powerful vacuum and a good sweep before the wood puddy is applied is a proven formula to a great finish.
• Final cut 80-100 grit this stage will remove most of the ridges from the drum sander.
• Buffing/screening 80-100 grit. This process will remove all scratches of the sander and the edger.
• All corners are done by hand with a scraper and edges are done with an orbital sander. Some floors may require additional sanding - like maple or beech wood. different looks may be achieved by aching different heads to the buffer, steel wool may be applied for the floor as well to get a silk finish. with solid floor the options are unlimited...

  And now the fun part:

• Vacuum and running tack cloth... absolutly a must!!!
• Stain anyone? If not sealer upon you...
• Trick of the trade: touch up of the puddy and finish or another sealer (but not before a good buff and vacuum, etc, etc, etc).

There are two major types of finish:

• Factory applied, like aluminum oxide, or impregnated finish, water base urethanes and more...
• Job site application, like water base urethane, oil base polyurethane, wax, and moisture cure. We at Z Best are experts at using them all depending on what the job requires.