Sanding Hardwood Floors- Take
Your Time and Do It Right
Patience is not only a virtue,
but practically a necessity when it comes to
sanding hardwood floors. If you rush it, you will
likely mess up and create a bigger problem than
you started with. If you’ve never sanded before,
it’s nothing to stress about.
You can hire a professional
company to help you out, or you can learn to do it
yourself if you’ve got the time and the ambition
to learn. Make sure that you do whatever it takes
to get it done right above all else, and the
pleasant outcome in the end will make it all
worthwhile.
Whether you've recently
discovered wood floors under your carpet and
decided to refinish them and make them beautiful
once again, or you have had wood floors for any
period of time and they are looking a little less
than lustrous, you can sand them down and refinish
them to make them look like brand-new in no time
at all.
It's all a matter of learning
what the process is like, and the steps that you
need to take to achieve the best results. For
starters, you'll need to rent a
sander.
Unless you just happen to keep
a drum sander on hand, you can find one for rent
at your local hardware store or tool rental shop
to allow you an easier time at sanding your
floors. Use a drum sander because it goes with the
grain of the wood in a back-and-forth motion,
whereas disc sanders tend to go in a circular
motion, which can risk leaving circular patterns
on the floor if you aren’t careful.
As long as you take the time
to find a sander and learn to use it, you will be
fine. Before you begin sanding, you will need to
remove any tacks, nails or anything else that is
sticking up out of the wood floor. Also, you
should have a power sander or hand sanding block
on hand for edging and getting around obstacles in
the floor.
You should generally be able to achieve the desired results in about 2 or 3 passes, but that all depends on the floor when you started and how much finish has to come off of it. Just make sure that you wind up with a smooth, clean surface that you can refinish however you’d like.
As you read above, if you
still don’t feel confident in your abilities, you
should feel free to ask for help from professional
services for all of your needs in sanding hardwood
floors. |