Glossary
Traffic lanes
Traffic lanes are the paths across a floor where people walk the most, like a hallway or the route from the door to the kitchen. The finish wears down there first, so those paths look dull next to the rest of the floor.
What is traffic lanes?
Walk into almost any home with wood floors and you can see the traffic lanes. The floor near the walls still shines, but the path through the middle of the room looks dull and cloudy. That is where shoes, pets and feet wear down the clear finish every day.
Dull traffic lanes are one of the most common reasons a homeowner calls about their floors. The good news is that in most cases only the finish is worn. The wood under it is fine.
A screen and recoat evens out dull traffic lanes. The buffer scuffs the whole floor the same way, and a fresh coat goes over all of it, so the worn paths and the rest of the room match again.
There is one thing to check first. If the finish in a traffic lane is worn all the way through, the bare wood shows and often turns gray. A recoat cannot fix bare gray wood. That floor needs a full sand. So at the estimate, look closely at the busiest paths. If you can still see finish on them, a recoat is usually the right call.
Recoating before the finish wears thin keeps traffic lanes from wearing through. That protects the wood and can push off a full sand for years.
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A buff and recoat brings back a dull, scratched hardwood floor in about 3 hours, without sanding. What it is, what it fixes, what it doesn't, and what it costs.