Hardwood floor refinishing in Chicago — the grit sequence that actually works

Why the sequence matters more than the machine

A refinish lives or dies on grit progression, not horsepower. Every pass has one job: erase the scratch pattern the last grit left. Jump from a 36 straight to an 80 and you bury coarse swirl the machine can't see — but stain and a raking window absolutely will. The floor looks fine dry and blotchy the moment the finish goes on.

The drum passes

1. Coarse cut — 36 or 40 grit. This is the leveling pass. It takes off the old finish, flattens cupping and knocks down overwood between boards. On a badly worn Chicago two-flat, start at 36; on a lightly worn floor, 40 is plenty.

2. Middle — 60 grit. Removes the 36/40 scratch. Don't skip it. This is the pass people cut to save time, and it's the one that shows.

3. Fine — 80 to 100 grit. The pass that sets how the floor takes stain. Red oak and white oak generally finish clean at 100; maple you often stop at 80 to keep it accepting color evenly.

Edger and screen

Edger discs — match the drum. Run the edger one grit at a time alongside the drum so the perimeter blends into the field. Mismatched edger grit is the number-one reason a border reads darker than the middle after stain.

Final screen — 120. Before the first coat, screen the whole floor with a 120 mesh on a buffer. It ties the drum lines and edger together into one uniform surface and lifts the grain so the finish keys in.

Pull the abrasives for the whole job at once

Nothing kills a Saturday like running out of 60-grit belts halfway through the field. We stock floor sanding materials — drum belts, edger discs, buffer screens and hand abrasive — in the standard grits, pickup at either warehouse. Grab the full sequence in one stop.

Then the finish

Sanding is only half the job — the coating decides how it wears. See our wood floor finishes for water-based (Bona, Loba) versus oil-based, and match the system to the traffic.

Refinishing a Chicago floor this month? Call (847) 233-6300 and we'll set you up with the belts, discs and screens for the whole run.