The process is always the same – empty the room, make sure your floorboards aren't damaged and that the floor is safe and secure, sand the main surface of the room with the drum sander, use an edging sander for the outer edges of your room, clean and varnish, oil or paint when you've finished.
Start in the middle of your floor and sand from end to end, overlapping each pass by just an inch or two. You'll do this several times—once for each grit of sandpaper you're using. In between stages, clean the floor to remove dust and dirt. While sanding, you'll need to keep moving.
Orbital sanders are best for floors that require a light to medium sanding. If you need to prep a floor for a new top coat of clear finish, an orbital sander is the right machine.
Professional floor sanding and polishing generally takes a short amount of time — for instance, a typical three-bedroom house with flooring in good condition would take three days for the floor sanding professionals to sand and polish.
You want to give the new finish time to harden and cure. We recommend waiting a minimum of 24 hours before you walk on your floors– and 48 hours is even better. Start with socks only and keep pets off the floors for a few days.
An average-sized room (bedroom, lounge or hallway for instance) should take a day to sand and a further day to hand finish and varnish/wax or oil. However unforeseen circumstances such as repairs to the main body of the floor or the replacement of some boards may mean the job will take longer.
Turning the Floor sander on and off is done by pushing the buttons on the front of the handle, left is on and right is off. Make sure you have a good grip of the floor sander before you turn it on, as it will try and pull away from you.
For a floor in better condition, you should get three P80 grit sheets. These numbers are for an average sized room, so if the room is exceptionally large, you should consider increasing the amount of sandpaper to four or five sheets.
However, for some reason, some people still prefer sanding their floors by hand. They swear that sanding the floor by hand will provide you with flawless results. They consider sanding the floor by hand as a true form of craftsmanship, considering how detailed and more complex the whole job is.
The Golden Rule of Sanding
The golden rule for choosing your sequence is to never skip more than 1 grit. For example, if you start with P80, and need to finish at P240, rather than using every grit from P80 – P220, you can do P80 – P120 – P180 – P240. This sequence cuts out P100, P150 and P220.
Avoid sanding too fast, or too slowly.
It's a bit of a “Goldilocks” issue – going too fast can lead to poor results, with sections not sanded enough or missed entirely, and going too slowly can lead to over-sanding or cut-through in some areas.
You can leave the baseboards in place unless you're planning to replace them. You need a pristinely clean floor before sanding, so sweep it and then dust mop it to get up all debris and dust. Make any necessary repairs to gouges and cracks in the floor before sanding.
If you're using both the electric sander and the edger in 140 square-foot floor space, it will take you roughly 5 hours to do three sanding passes. Another thing you must take into account is how old your house is. If yours is 50 years old or more, you'll need extra time to complete it.
Your floor needs to be sanded in stages with progressively finer abrasives for the best finish. Starting with grit 40, then grit 60 and finally grit 100 is tipically a good procedure for most wood floors. The goal with the first coarse abrasive is to remove the old surface coating and to flatten the surface.
Never use water to clean your newly-sanded hardwood floor. In fact, once they've been sanded, don't use any cleaning products for about 10 to 14 days. Once that time has passed, just use a soft brush to sweep them daily to keep on top of the dirt and dust that naturally occurs.
WHAT IS EASIEST WAY TO SAND A FLOOR? Use the right tools, use the right grit sandpaper and change it often. Take your time and make sure that the drum of the sander never stays on the spot to avoid sanding grooves into your floor. It's physically hard work but not difficult to do.
During a sanding project, choosing the right grit sequence is critical. You want to start with a rougher abrasive that eliminates all stock and finish, followed by successively finer grits that clear away sanding marks until a smooth finish results.
The process for sanding a floor by hand would be, as a general rule, to start on a 40 grit sandpaper and work your way up to 100 or 120 grit paper to leave a fine finish. It is important to keep any sander moving so it does not dig into or burn the floor.
They are traditionally caused by some sort of failure in the big machine. Bad sandpaper alignment, uneven wheels, incorrect drum pressure, imbalanced drums, loose V-Belts, failed bearings, or even poor subfloor construction are all common issues that could produce chatter marks on the floor.
You can sand in any direction, letting the machine do all the work. Make sure, however, to always keep the unit moving when it is running, to prevent the sandpaper from getting clogged with dust or old finish.
Handheld belt sanders are easy to use, very lightweight, and a lot more affordable than other machines. They're also a good choice for beginners and for projects that include smoothing out rougher surfaces or stubborn scratches or cracks.
Close all doors and windows to prevent the dust from spreading to other areas of the house. For added protection, use masking tape or plastic sheeting to seal gaps around doors and windows. Cover air vents and ducts with plastic sheeting or disposable air filters to prevent dust from entering the HVAC system.
Sanding your hardwood floors takes three sessions with progressively lighter grit sandpaper. To begin, use a coarse 30-40 grit, then a medium 50-60 grit, and finally a fine 80-100 grit.