Wood Floor Sanding

Having timber or wood flooring naturally elevates a home’s visual appeal. It’s elegant, luxurious and comforting to the sight. Despite its captivating looks, maintaining its shimmer and allure is a challenging task to handle. Most of the time, professionals are called to complete floor sanding, treatment or polishing. If you want to save money by learning the most effective and safest way to do floor sanding, you can learn more by reading the guide below.

But, we highly suggest that you leave the work to the professionals. If a hardwood floor is damaged in a sanding DIY, it can prove to be a much more expensive fix. So the advice we give below is with the strong warning that you know what you are getting into before you just have a go. Contact Mister Floors before you commence any DIY work on your hardwood floors.

Steps to Sanding Your Floors

Sweeping the floor and mopping it only cleans the exteriors. On the other hand, floor sanding removes the topmost surface of the wooden floor before being covered with a sealant to look pristine again. 

Here’s how you can effectively sand your floors:

Floor Preparation

At this phase of the process, you might want to assess the condition of your wooden flooring. Here are some questions that might help you: 

  1. Are your floorboards previously covered with a carpet?
  2. Do you think your floors are well-conditioned for sanding and finishing?
  3. Are there no protruding nails?
  4. Is your floor engineered or solid hardwood?

If your flooring is solid hardwood, you can easily clean, mop, vacuum, and eliminate grits stuck on the wood joints before you sand it.

If it’s engineered hardwood, you might need professional help for it.

Safety and Precaution

Once you have determined that your flooring is ready for DIY sanding, don’t proceed without proper safety, gear, and equipment.

Here’s a quick checklist of what you can wear to protect yourself:

  • Disposable plastic onesies. 
  • Protective eye goggles.
  • Ear plugs for noise protection.
  • Gloves for protection against splinters. 
  • Facemask to protect your noise against toxic inhalants.

Select and Check Floor Sanding Machines

There are three most common sanding machines that you can work with: 

  • Square vibrating sanders – The easiest sanding machine that you can work with. You can rent them out at home improvement stores and purchase papers and pads to make them work. A square vibrating sander is ideal for sanding floors in a powder room; otherwise, this machine may not be the best option. 
  • Buffer sanders – Ever seen a rotating machine utilized to clean and polish floors on commercial or industrial floors? These are called buffer sanders and can be hard to control. 
  • Drum sanders – You can choose from two types – lever sanders or tip sanders. These machines are perfect for experienced people as their learning curve can be steep. When you use this sander wrong, you risk damaging your flooring. 

Helpful Tips for Floor Sanding

Before you grab ahold of the sanders, here are tips you may want to consider:

  1. Start with low grit first before moving up a step. 
  2. Be ready with a broom and a dustpan to clean up the shavings as you go. 
  3. You can use a vacuum attachment like those with soft bristles to avoid leaving visible lines on the floor.

If you’ve recently been inspired by a Pinterest DIY guide to sanding floors or would like to try and save money instead of calling professionals, remember to read this guide to help you understand whether a DIY approach is helpful, practical, and effective or not.