Re varnishing a floor.

[Drawweight]

My wood floor was varnished 10 years ago and naturally it’s looking patchy in the areas with most traffic and I suspect some of it has completely worn off.

Ideally I’d love to take the easy route and just slap another coat or two on to of it, would this work or will the whole lot need sanded down.

And if so what’s the best method, it’s only about 4m x 4m.

[sherman]

Do it once.
Do it properly.

[OutInTheShed]

sherman said:

Do it once.
Do it properly.

With varnish, it's often better to give it a quick coat well before it needs properly re-doing.

If there are patches where the varnish is completely worn through, they will look different to varnishing over old varnish.

You can preview how it will look by wiping over the surface with white spirit.

How much prep to do depends on the standard you want to achieve.
It might be OK with a light rub down and a few coats.
You might find it acceptable to only take the worst planks back to bare wood.

Very often you won't get it looking like new, without going through the top layer or removing too much wood etc.
But 'new' is not always the aim.