Floor Sanding – Transforming an Old Wood Floor

One of the most satisfying DIY jobs within the home is lovingly sanding down an old wooden floor and transforming it into a beautiful new surface. It is not recommended to carry out floor sanding under your own steam on a parquet floor as these require specialist sanding machines and should not be attempted by the complete novice.

Time should be taken to ensure that the correct equipment is hired; your local floor sander hire centre should be able to offer advice. Remember that pine floors no matter how flat they seem will invariably dip in the middle of each board. If the wrong equipment is used you will most likely end up with an uneven result after all your efforts.

To carry out the task of sanding a wooden floor you will require a large sander for the main area, a specialised edge sander for any edges as well as any stairs. The sanders are extremely powerful and they need to be to achieve the right results. When using the sander, keep it moving to get a nice even finish and remember not to leave the sander in the same place for too long, even one extra second and the sander will eat the floor. It is always better to sand with the direction of the grain rather than going against it. When approaching the end of the room it is important not to panic, simply turn the sander around and head in the opposite direction, you can stop at any time and you must not let the sander run away with you.

There might be gaps between the floorboards that you would rather not see; if this is the case it is possible to fill the gaps. This can be a time consuming project and it should be remembered that when the floor is stained or varnished the filled gaps will appear a different colour than the floorboards.

Once the main area of the floor has been taken down to new wood, there will be some marks remaining due to undulations in the wood but these can easily be removed with the use of the edge sander. Then use the edge sander to sand the areas of the floor close to the skirting board, with this done it is time to change the grade of the paper and repeat the process.

The point of changing the grade of paper used is to remove the scratches caused by removing the top layers of wood. The local sander hire centre should be able to advice you on which grade of paper to use for each stage. It may be necessary to carry out the process several times; changing the grade of the paper used each time, to achieve the smooth finish desired.

When completely satisfied Hoover the floor and repeat after several hours to guarantee that you have removed all the dust. It is well worth hiring an up to date sanding machine purely on the grounds of how much dust is created by using old sanders. Then wipe the floor surface with white spirit on a rag and allow it to evaporate for several hours. Cleaning the floor in this fashion will degrease it and prepare the surface for staining or varnishing.