The Tutorials
You’ve made it to the tutorial! Floor sanding is a funny thing, people believe they can hire the machines from the local hire place and away they go. It’s simple isn’t it? We all sanded a block of wood or two in wood shop class, easy right? Wrong…
People that think like this may or may not finish the job. If they do it will be mediocre at best and an outright mess at worse. But there is one thing they do have in their favour and that is that they try. They have no idea how to do it, how long it will take or that they WILL probably do a bad job. They think its easy and they just do it.
There is so much to say about sanding and refinishing hardwood floors, after 10 years I’m still learning. Every species of wood sands differently, some woods react to different lacquers in different ways. Even within species there are huge differences. Some pines are very sappy and clog up on the sand paper. Others like Douglas Fir sand very easy. Some old oaks are petrified like stone and getting the previous finish off the floor is the easiest part of the job!
All I want to achieve is for you to start your floor sanding and refinishing project with the right expectations and the knowledge to complete your floor in good time with a professional looking finish.
First of all, before you move onto your floor specific guide you must learn the basics. Read through these to learn the basics applicable to all floor sanding:
Floor Sanding Basics – Part 1
Floor Sanding Basics – Part 2
Once you know these basics, you can then apply them with more in-depth methods for the floor you are trying to sand. But before you do so, you should get familiar with the tools.
How To Use a Floor Sander
How To Use an Edge Floor Sander
Almost every floor can be sanded differently. Depending on the shape, condition and type of flooring. Once you have learned the basics and how to use the machines, you can learn a little more detail with regards to sanding your particular floor.
Sanding and Refinishing Parquet Floors
Sanding and Refinishing Hardwood and Engineered Floors
Before you do the final sanding on the floor you may want to fill the floor which you can learn right here.
When the floor is sanded and hoovered you may want to stain the floor before finishing.