How to Add Shine to Dull Laminate Floors

Laminate is a form of flooring that has a layer of wood veneer or other material which is usually covered in some kind of gloss, giving you a shiny, durable floor. That shine can wear off over the years. You can't sand down into a laminate floor the way you can with the wood floor, because the laminate itself is not hardwood. However, you can screen it, taking off the existing gloss and replacing it with new gloss without affecting the actual surface of the laminate itself.

Rotating floor buffer (rented)
Refinishing screens in medium and fine abrasion
Vacuum
Polyurethane
Paintbrush
Extra-fine sandpaper

Instructions

- 1
  Load the buffer with a medium refinishing screen. Start the machine. Run it over the floor in the direction of the boards, moving it forward and back. It should remove most of the existing gloss.
- 2
  Vacuum up the dust. Reload the buffer with its fine screen. Run it over the floor again, taking up the last of the old gloss. Vacuum the dust.
- 3
  Brush on a coat of polyurethane gloss with a paintbrush, starting at the furthest corner of the room from the entrance. Use light, even strokes, going with the direction of the floorboards.
- 4
  Let the polyurethane set for eight hours. Hand sand it with extra-fine sandpaper to remove the glossy surface so the next coat will adhere. Vacuum the dust.
- 5
  Apply a second coat of polyurethane in the same manner as the first. Let it dry eight hours. Hand sand. Vacuum. Apply a third coat. Let it set for 24 hours.

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