I have refinished wood floors a few times flipping homes. I hate wood floor finishers because they take forever to cure unless you cut them with something like mineral spirits. Plus I purchased from Home Depot’s mistake rack which made it cheap. Reviver from Minwax worked well for me on a small floor I did but it’s a small bottle. For the shine yes semi gloss is glossier than satin and gloss is shinier than semi gloss. So it’s your preference. I don’t like really shiny floors so satin is what I usually used.

5 days should be enough to move the table in as long as you're not dragging anything around and throw down some tarps to walk on. IME the finish is pretty much considered cured when the smell is gone, mostly temperature dependent, so hopefully its warm in Uranus.

Careful with that drum sander. I assume the floor is pretty bad or your removing stain, that's why all the way down to 36 grit? You can get pretty far with a buffer and sanding screens if not. Always a tough call though.

Also, make sure your dust collection is on point and you're vacuuming and wiping down between sandings and coats, that's probably the #1 path to a nice finish.

There is more to it than just the drum sander. You will need to get an edger too. It's back breaking. You got the correct grits for the job. After you finish with the drum sanding and edging you need to sand again with a buffer. I did floors with my dad for 10 years or so when I was a teenager so I may not remember everything. He liked this polyurethane called Lenmar from home Depot. It was just as good as as the more expensive minwax brand. Your floor probably is red oak. It looks good with a natural finish so no stain. Semi gloss looked the best and did a good job of hiding minor defects. I don't know which video you seen so I miybe telling you things you already know, but after you apply the 1st coat of finish wait a day or so and when you come back if it feels dry to the touch you need to buff it again with the buffer and a really worn out fine screen. You have to be kind of quick with the buffing or you will go through the finish and back into bare wood. Then you clean and vacuum all the dust really good and tack the floor with a damp towel on a push broom. Then you can apply a 2nd coat of polyurethane. If you want 3 coats skip the buffing after the 1st coat and do it after the 2nd. If you have urine stains from animals they will show up in the new finish unless you really get them out with the drum.

There are some areas of heavy wear, but I really don't want to damage the floors, and I think the 36 grit is where my inexperience could cause problems. I'd love to start with 50 if you think that would be enough.

All the videos I've watched start with 36 for a full refinish. When I started thinking about this project I was going to stain, but since I'm going natural, maybe I can start with a higher grit.

You'll have to use your best judgement based on the existing floor, how bad it is, how thick, etc. Coarse paper gets faster results and faster fuk ups. I know the process from hiring flooring contractors in houses I've built and remodeled but don't have much hands on time with drum sanders, tons of time with edgers and buffers tho. If you're just removing the old finish and not trying to remove a substantial amount of wood I'd think 50/60 grit would be a reasonable place to start.

what is cure time? I see it says up to a week min 4 days. I'll have 5 days max before the pool table goes in...

I was going to use the Varathane high traffic poly. it says 10 hours dry time. So, Sunday I should have time to get a coat of sanding sealer on, sand it down, and put a coat of Poly on before bed. Then another coat before work and a coat after on Monday. Then the pool table is delivered on the next Sat. It's really dry here this time on the, relative humidity is about 25% right now, so that should help translate to faster dry times..22

Why don't you just use laminate? It's cheaper, less of a hassle, and looks almost the same

For me it’s typically humid whether I’m in Fl or NC so drying times vary heavily. I’ve come back several days later and it’s still sticky. That is why I dilute it a little. The Reviver stuff I didn’t have the problem with.

Since it’s low humidity by you, I think you won’t have that issue. If you don’t see curing though at that low humidity within a day or two, I would do a light sand and reapply.

The Varathane product should be fine. I used one once, it worked well.

This post was pretty accurate.

I've only done hardwood floors once in my lifetime. Did a living room, a hallway, and a few bedrooms in my house when I moved in. Removed old shag carpet first, and the floors were not taken care of well, but the restoration turned out pretty well anyway.

First of all, understand that restoring hardwood floors is a huge pain in the asss. It's very time consuming. Be prepared to dedicate like 2 - 3 days to doing it all if you're doing it alone, and that's assuming you don't screw around much. Make sure the griders you use have good vacuum bags on them, and use a good dust mask when you're doing it. Close the vents in the rooms being done when working, or it'll make a huge mess of your ventilation system regarless of how good the vacuums work. Vacuum the chit out any leftover dust when you're done sanding. Might need bleach to clear spots the sander just can't get on it's own, if stains are an issue. Like this poster said, you need an edger as well as a main push grinder. Be prepared to do anywhere from like 4 - 10 passes depending on how bad a spot may be.

As to the stain, go with a darker wood color unless you're hellbent on a lighter color. Covers old chit up better. For clear coat, do 3 coats in lower traffic areas, 4 coats in high traffic areas. If you buy stuff from a chain hardware store like Home Depot, don't be surprised if it doesn't turn out perfectly even if you do a great job applying it. Get stuff from a legit flooring company if you want perfection.

Also, be prepared to notice every small scratch that shows up in the floors after you get them done. Don't try to do elaborate fixes. Just accept that it's a fact of living in a home with hardwood floors. For repairs, just buy some of those wood markers that match the color decently. They work surprisingly well for what amounts to coloring in scratches with a permanent marker.

awesome advice here, thanks! I do intend to rent the edger as well, I just didn't mention in the op. Everything I've seen says you can generally get away with 2 sandings with the edger, so I was going to use intermediate grits.