Install a 40- or 60-grit sanding belt on an upright drum sander. While wearing protective gear (eye, hearing, breathing), sand the entire floor, moving parallel to the direction of the boards—not across the wood grain. Sand in a series of long passes, overlapping each pass by 2 to 4 inches.
Work the drum sander back and forth over 3- to 4-foot lengths. Use overlapping strokes by at least 1/3 the belt width to remove scratches. Start with coarse sandpaper of 36 to 40 grit, progress to a medium 60-grit paper and finish with a finer 100 grit.
So how long does it take to sand a floor? 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.
Despite the fact that the handheld belt sander does not work as quickly as a heavy-duty sanding machine, it still gets the job done at a reasonable speed and ensures great results and a very smooth floor.
DON'T: sand against the grain, UNLESS you feel skilled enough to sand diagonally or across the grain. DO: start with 20 grit paper and work your way up to 120 grit paper. DON'T: Go too high in grit or it can cause you to over sand your floors leaving them unable to absorb stain or poly adequately.
If your hardwood floors are in need of refinishing, you have two main choices: Do it yourself, or hire and pay someone else to do it for you. By sanding your floors yourself, you could potentially save hundreds or even thousands of dollars—so long as you do it right. Here's what you need to know before you get started.
Older floors tend to have very deep stains, and it's going to be incredibly difficult to get deep stains and scratches out with a simple orbital sander. A drum sander is better suited for when you begin your refinishing job, especially if your floors are old.
Is sanding your floors a DIY job or would I be better off getting a professional to do it? It's totally DIY-able, but be warned, it's really, really hard work. The sanders are really heavy and I just wouldn't have been able to lift the machine out of the car and into the house on my own.
Pull up all the heating grates and any old carpet tacks before you sand. 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.
After you are done refinishing your hardwood floors, you must wait before walking or putting furniture onto the flooring. You should wait at least 24 hours before walking on the floors with no shoes on. If you have a dog, try to keep them off the floors for at least 24 hours, too.
A standard estimate is that a DIYer will need about 48 hours to sand down a room, while a professional will need one.
In addition to the power tools, you'll need the following hand tools and miscellaneous equipment: a vacuum, a hammer, a nail set, a hand scraper, a pry bar, a putty knife and wood filler, and a hand sanding block and sandpaper. You may also need 8d finishing nails to secure loose boards.
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.
How Many Sandpaper Sheets Will I Need for Sanding Floorboards? The amount of sanding paper you'll require will depend on the size of your room. However, as a guide, for the 3m x 4m room I sanded, I used around 6-7 sheets at the roughest grit and 2 or 3 of the finest, and the same again for the edging sander.
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.
Each sanding removes around 1/32 of an inch of your floor's surface. Most solid hardwood planks are thick enough to be refinished up to ten times.
Generally, hardwood floors can be sanded and refinished 2-3 times. This decision comes down to the flooring's wear layer, the uppermost layer that absorbs damage. Its size determines the number of times you can sand your floor before it becomes too worn to save.
After multiple cycles of cleaning along with normal foot traffic, the floor color will start to fade. One of the common ways to refurbish wood flooring is to sand it, but many people make the mistake of over-sanding which leads to some damage and compromises the beauty of their wood floors.
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.
At the end of the pass while still moving forward tilt the floor sander back so that the sanding drum comes clear of the floor. Now moving backwards lower the floor sander again and pull it backwards over the area just sanded moving at a steadily even pace.