Posted: 6/6/2016 9:47:35 PM EDT
I'm about to take on this project:
I'm thinking an orbital floor sander might not cut it, so I may as well rent a drum sander. And even at that, it might not come clean. Any suggestions? I've never refinished a wood floor before. |
The hardwood floors are original to 1969, and I believe they've never been redone before. Not sure if they're oak or something else.
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1969 = high chance it is 3/4" oak. Staisn look worse than what they are and that can be fixed! However, you will need to sand the entire room and refinish the entire room.
DO NOT sand just that are or focus on it when you sand. Do the entire room with a even sweep! It will keep you entire floor level. Evaluate where you are after pass #1 for the whole room. It looks worse than it really is and in my experience that looks like it will need 2 passes at 30 or 40 grit, 1 pass at a 60 grit, 1 pass at 80 grit and 1 pass at 120 grit. A random orbital is better but you may find a hard time finding one (don't do this with a hand one). It really needs a drum sander but I caution you- the rental machines are all garbage. The drums are beat and have flat spots from a lack of care/maintenance. They also tens to favors one side of the drum and if you don't know how to figure it out and which side of the rooms you need to start/end on to feather that in an avoid marks- your floor will look like crap. Also, if you have never run a drum sander, there is a learning curve! Finishing is easy- if you clean-up the sanding properly! Around here- in the mega expensive communist state of NJ, you will pay about $5 to $5.50 a square foot to have a dustless company come in, sand, clean-up and refinish a floor. Calculate your rental cost for the machine, cost of sandpaper, cost of an "edge sander" which you will need to do between the wall edge and where the orbital/drum sanders ends; colored putty for the gouges; a case of tack cloth and cost of the finish and supplies to lay the finish. Then figure out how much your time is worth. You will have to clean the floor, let it dry, use the orbital/drum sander in multiple full room passes; you will then need to fill/sand any gouges and then clean the floor with a high power wet dry vac. Then you will need to carefully tack cloth the entire floor. Then you stain the floor with the first coat, maybe a second. Finally you put on your top coat to seal and protect the floor. Depending on the size of the room, it might be cheaper/quicker to have somebody come in an do it for you. |
| Thanks for the great info, joey. I'm leaning to drum sander, because they're quicker. Not that anything will be quick - I'm talking about stripping out the entire first floor - around 1300SF. I've read a bunch of sites about refinishing floors, but never done it. I can get the orbital sander for around $40/day, plus materials. I didn't price or look at drum sanders, but I'll check again before I tackle this job. I'm hoping I can do all the sanding in four solid days. |
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You will easily get the rooms sanded in 3 days alone working down in grit if you put in full days with a drum or orbital. However you then to do all the edging. Your most time consuming part will be hand sanding the edge between where the belt sander starts/ends and the wall by hand. Its a lot slower process. Another two to three full full days at least working through the grits.
Also- again, I STRESS there is a HUGE learning curve with a drum sander. When I say HUGE- I mean in three seconds you can do something that will ruin the floor. Start in the one room you may want or could live with carpet- its likely that room will be your training grounds and end up a uneven mess. Then you easily have a few full days of cleaning- the absolute most important step and must be done meticulously. Vacuum, mop and hand tack cloth once, come back and tack cloth a second time in each room. You can stain 1300 feet in one day. A second coat the next. I would give it 2 days to dry and then three more days for you top/protection, one coat each day- as you have to light sand between with steel wool and clean-up. You are looking at $500-$700 when you consider sandpaper and the rental fee. Plus several full days of your time You call and re-finishers and see how much it would be just to sand it for you? A professional crew could be in and out in two days or less. Then you can clean it up and stain it, which is a full week or so of fulls days work. I have been where you are- I just know all the mistakes I made and how long it actually took me to do my basement. It turned out great, but took me way too long, almost 8 full days. I hired out my main living floor and even got a discount to "help," which was really "I want to learn" and they were in and out for 3x the space in just four days. |
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Quoted:
Around here- in the mega expensive communist state of NJ, you will pay about $5 to $5.50 a square foot to have a dustless company come in, sand, clean-up and refinish a floor. Gotta love the midwest... my brother had his house redone (4,000+ feet of solid hardwood) before he moved in. He had quotes anywhere from $4,000-28,000 to sand and refinish his floors. The $4,000 was from an Amish, they did a fantastic job. |
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Quoted:
Tack cloth - I thought I read one site that said use rags with mineral oil for the tack cloth. To do the entire floor, that's gonna be a lot of tack cloth... Would that really work? High power vacuum with a HEPA grade filter and then wipe it down with paint thinner loaded rags on a push broom. |
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1) Wet/Dry Vac with a Heap filter and bag.
2) Tack cloth the entire floor to pick up anything left behind. This is a quick wipe- very little pressure- done in clean clothes working towards the door. If you vacuumed good, you will only need 2-3 per room (they are a buck each). 3) Then with new clean clothes start at the far side and wipe with mineral spirits on clean no-lint rags. I HIGHLY recommend you don't use a push broom that carries dirt, will push through the rag fibers and drop dirt and dust on your clean floor. You screw up the prep- you will notice it forever in the finish. Its 30 minutes to do both in a 15X15 room |
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Just make sure you don't do what I did, when my dad had me refinish the hardwood floors one summer when I was in high school. Was doing the last one, a bedroom, had stained it, and he wanted a coat of polyurethane put on. Whatever, it's his floor. Anyway, made sure I brushed on the poly, being careful to avoid streaking or brush marks, working across the room.
Was finishing up, and stood up to step out into the hallway and finish the last little spot ... and looked diagonally across the room to the doorway. SunnuvaBITCH!!! I actually painted myself into a corner. 
Had an idea ... yelled for my sister, and told her to go out in the garage and get my baseball shoes. This was the mid-80's, where the shoes had 3 metal cleats in the toe area, and 3 in the heel area. Had her toss them to me, put them on, stepped back and finished the little spot, then carefully walked out. It worked, you couldn't see the marks on the floor unless you looked really hard for them. 
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