[gatotom]

I have installed my share of hardwood floors for a living yrs ago and I have a oak floor in my house. The house is 20 yrs old now and I have only refinished the kitchen and hallway once in that time.

Once the floor has been sanded the first time, there is no need to re-sand unless there is buckling of some planks, usually from alot of water on it. Forget the drum sander, it is a big mess.

If you have the oil based poly on it you have to use oil based poly to re-coat it, you can not use water based poly, it will not bond right.

To remove the old poly coat, go get some poly remover, kinda like paint remover. Strip the old poly off, vacuum and lightly sand with a palm sander or a very fast orbital. if you don't get all the old poly off you will clog the sandpaper quick,vacuum. If you want to re-stain now is the time.

Stain, wait a few minutes and wipe off with cotton rag. Let dry over night or until completely dry.

Apply at least 2 coats of poly, three is better and wait at least one day between coats. Flecto Polyurathane will do just fine.

Don't put anything abrassive on the new floor for at least 2 weeks to let the curing completely harden. if in 5 yrs you are getting alot of scratches in high use areas, simply clean floor and re-apply a new coat of poly, the more layers the better.

Hope this helps.