Which sander to use for floor

An even more powerful floor tool than a drum sander is a floor stripper for removing dried glue, mastic, mortar, understanding, linoleum, and vinyl tile. Buy the sanding paper at the tool rental yard—you likely will not find this type of paper at your local hardware store. The rental yard employees may recommend that you use at least three gradations of sandpaper: coarse, medium, and fine. It is better to overbuy sanding paper, as most rental yards will buy back unused paper, though you should confirm this ahead of time.

The drum sander is the real workhorse of hardwood floor sanding. It is a massive piece of equipment, too heavy for most people to lift—two people are required to carry it. An orbital vibrating floor sander is, like the drum sander, operated while standing up.

The difference is that the sanding head and sandpaper do not rotate; instead, they vibrate in tight circles. After using the drum sander, the next step is usually to smooth out the wood with a vibrating orbital sander. This sander works well for all types of solid hardwood flooring, parquet , engineered wood flooring , and even cork and wood composition flooring. This sander can take your wood flooring down to its smoothest finish.

Roughly the same size as the drum sander and also employing a dust bag, the vibrating sander will come as a welcome relief from the drum sander. This type of sander is lighter and easier to move than the drum sander. There is less danger of hurting the wood with an orbital vibrating floor sander. Without further ado, here they are! These are, in my opinion, the top 5 best sander for floors you can get — with no particular order. Bosch OS50VC 3. It features an ergonomic grip and a handle, giving you full control, and the dust collection is impressively effective even without a vacuum hose plus the vibration control is next to none, allowing you to use it for extended periods of time with comfort.

With great dust collection and comfortable handles to boot, this is an excellent machine that has a truly unusual amount of power, making sanding large floors an absolute breeze. Renowned worldwide Will last a lifetime of use Beastly 11 AMP power and performance Extra wide belt turns long sanding tasks into quick ones. Pads attach to the sander base. Be sure the sander is running at full speed when you lower it to the floor. It is also important not to move the sander too quickly across the boards.

Above all, remember to never turn the machine off while it is resting on the floor. For any of these different mistakes, the consequence is the same: circular scratches on the floor surface. I want to repaint a wood floor which has had two previous coats of water based paint, possibly over a varnished finish. I am trying to sand it to get a smooth surface, not necessarily to remove the previous coats of paint.

I have a band sander but the results are unsatisfactory. Any suggestions? Hey Ben! I am about to start sanding and torn between which method to use. Planning on using a water based stain followed by several coats of water based poly. Looking for recommendations on sanding regemine. Thanks for a great post!

Very glad to have discovered your excellent blog. Have you had any experience of treating a softwood floor in this way? My main question relating to this type of treatment is the type of filler I should use in conjunction with the other products. Should I be using a solvent-based filler or water-based?

Natural or white? Thanks in advance for any assistance. Or, is it better to start 60 grit or is this something that need to try and see? With that said, you have to start on 40 grit of you ever hope to finish the job. If a client wanted me and my helper to sand sf by hand on 80 grit, I would give it 2 weeks and charge him 10k minimum. I have areas underneath the kitchen counters and cabinets and other nooks and crannies that I cannot get to with even a small palm ROS, or belt sander.

I heard that there is a way to just manual hand sand the edges to get the varnish off with low grit 24 grit paper. What are the tools to do this? My husband and I just installed tongue and groove milled pine flooring. We now want to sand and finish it. We are afraid of the drum sander. You have stated that an orbital floor sander is not good for the job. What are your suggestions. Hi Ben, I live in a year old home that is listed on the National Register.

Any suggestions on how best to sand and refinish the very scratched floors? Great site with great help. I have a bedroom It is stained by the sun and I am painting the room after removing wallpaper and the carpeting.

I want to refinish the flooring but not sure which sander to use. Which grit to use. The floor is in good shape just needs a new fresh coating. Hello Penney. Sounds like a wonderful little project. Let me explain. There are two reasons for this. The first is that we have no idea what finish was used on that floor, the second is that in the meantime it may have had spills, polish and goodness knows what else. Modern finishes arent great for bonding as many chemicals have been banned.

If you are just overcoating, you can use a hand sander, maybe just a palm sander or any random orbital. Clean off the surface with a grit to remove any paint or other dirt this also will scuff the surface to help with adhesion.

From here you should use a bonding gel. There are also lacquers that are made for this purpose; to bond to anything. You could try calling floor mechanics. Area damaged and redone is about 12 ft by 3 ft. Was her correct? I purchased a s home a couple of months ago and attempted to sand and stain all of the floors before moving in.

I did not realize just how much of an undertaking that was going to be. I rented a couple of different sanders from the home-improvement store and got to work. After all of the sanding was done downstairs, I stained all of the floors.

The look I was going for was a translucent gray; instead it looks black. The floors look awful. There are areas where I was evidently a little too aggressive in sanding because the floors were old and I wanted to get markings out of it, so there are instead grooves in some spots. I want to start tackling the floors room by room and re-staining the initially desired color, so I am contemplating using a hand sander, but I am worried about those grooved areas that appear relatively deep.

Do you have any suggestions? Thank you. Very difficult to do. I suggest just sanding the floor as outlined in my eBook and Video Course. You may be able to start with a higher grit on the drum sander. To have done all this already and then to be sanding multiple rooms with a hand sander is going to be very overwhelming in deed. Make the job easy on yourself and get the proper tools.

Hi Ben, I have just a small room sf. So my question is: since the floor is in good shape, except for three small areas that have wear and stains, can I spot refinish and blend in using a hand sanding technique? I have a lot of experience refinishing wood furniture so I thought it might be worth a shot. Hi Ben — very useful stuff! Seems like I should sign up for your course! It is a pretty flat floor without too many scratches. Do you think I can try to take off the finish with 80 Grit on a drum sander at an angle, then go to 80 straight — then perhaps finish with ?

I worry about taking too much off with 50 or 60 grit. I have a small room that needs refinishing. Is it possible to just hand sand it. After the floor has been sanded, can I apply stain and a polyurethane coating?

I know this will take forever, but I have the time I just would like to get the best result possible. Also, would I need to buff the floor after the stain is applied? Is that possible to do by hand? Thank you!! Although I prefer floor sander for my floors, I also had done it with hand sanders. Those who want to sand their floor with hand sanders will find this article really helpful!

With 36 grit on the orbital: I got a lot of the finish off but still have more to go. Since it is unfinished would you start with a 4o grit, or start with a 60 grit. We are trying for a rustic look I know, wide plank would have been better, but this deal was absolutely unbelievable , so we are going to fill it with red oak filler, and will want a low sheen finish. Do you recommend oil, or water, satin or matte?

Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Pin Hi how much would it cost to get a proffesional to sand my floor roughly 9ft by 13 ft. Thanks for the post!!!! You left out using soap, water, and a smooth brick. Smooth brick starts about 80 grit, loaded up quickly to , more as you use it.

Stain, seal. It sounds stupid but it works. Also helps work the core. It does sounds like it would work. I agree with you Jazmine Patton. I think even the ranking of the hand sanders is perfect. What kind of wood did you get? Thanks for sharing all your knowledge! Ps I messaged you on your Facebook page.

Regards Simon Lundberg Sweden. Hello Ben, I totally loved this article. I always recommend real floor sanders, Sanding floors with any handheld sander is a lot of work.