Service 03 / 04
Screen and recoat
Abrade the finish you already have, lay a fresh coat over the top, and the floor’s wear layer is reset without touching the wood. One day of work, almost no dust, about a third the cost of a refinish — and it buys years before the next sanding.
Image slot · svc-recoat-hero · 1600×2000 · 120-grit screen pass on an intact waterborne finish — SunLand, Sequim
- On site
- One day, most floors
- Walk on
- 24 hours
- Cost
- Roughly a third of a refinish
- Interval
- Every 3–7 years
This is the most under-sold service in the trade, because it is the least profitable per visit and the hardest to explain. It is also the single best thing you can do for a hardwood floor.
What it actually is
The finish on a floor is a sacrificial layer perhaps three to five mils thick. Traffic wears that, not the wood — until it wears through. A screen and recoat scuffs the layer so a new coat can grip, then adds a fresh one. The wood is never touched. Nothing is sanded. No sawdust, no bare timber, no change in colour.
When it works
- The finish is dull or scratched, but no bare wood shows in the traffic lanes.
- There are no grey or black spots — those mean water is already in the fibre.
- The floor has never been waxed, oil-soaped, or treated with an acrylic polish.
- You are happy with the colour and the species.
- Boards are flat and tight, and none need replacing.
When it does not
Wax and oil soap are the usual disqualifiers, and both are invisible until the test patch fails. Products marketed as floor “restorers” and “polishes” leave an acrylic film that no finish will bond through; if a bottle at the supermarket promised to bring back the shine, tell us. Pet urine that has reached the wood cannot be coated over either — those boards need replacing, which is a refinishing conversation.
The economics, plainly
A recoat runs around a third of a refinish and takes a day instead of a week. Done every three to seven years, depending on traffic and whether the house has dogs, it can carry a floor for decades on its original sanding. Skip it for fifteen years and you will pay for the sand instead — and spend one of the floor’s finite few.
We keep a recoat log for clients on the annual maintenance programme, and we tell you the year before it is due rather than the year after.
Living with it
Furniture out in the morning, floor coated by mid-afternoon, walkable in socks the next day. Area rugs and anything with a rubber backing stay off for two weeks while the coat finishes cross-linking. That is the entire disruption.
The one-day sequence
01
Test patch
A screened-and-coated square foot in a closet, checked the next morning. If the new coat lifts at a tape pull, there is wax, polish or oil soap in the finish and a recoat is off the table.
02
Deep clean
Every acrylic polish, furniture wax and oil-soap residue has to come off before abrasion or the new coat will fish-eye. This step takes longer than the coating does.
03
Abrade
A 120–180 grit screen or a maroon pad under a buffer, edges and corners by hand. Enough tooth for the coat to key into, not enough to reach the wood.
04
Coat
One coat of finish matched to what is down, cut in by hand at the walls and pulled with an applicator. Walk it in socks the next morning; rugs stay off for two weeks.
Where we do this work
The service that justifies the drive.
A recoat is a single day, which makes it the easiest thing to schedule around a ferry. We batch recoats by area — several Bainbridge or Sequim floors in one week — so ask about timing if you are flexible.
Next step
Not sure whether yours qualifies?
Tip a tablespoon of water onto a worn traffic lane and leave it ten minutes. If it beads, the finish is intact and you are probably a recoat. If it darkens the wood, call us before it goes grey.
We walk the floor, take moisture readings, and send a written scope with a fixed number. No pressure, no same-day discount.