If you’re one of those homeowners who thinks sanding your floors is preferable to paying a professional company that does hardwood floor refinishing in Austin TX, then you may need to get a few pointers first.
These hardwood floor sanding tips can be considered a tutorial for those first-time DIY’ers and a reminder of sorts for those who are alerady well-versed in doing this sort of job around the house. If you’re among the former, don’t worry, this isn’t a particularly daunting or challenging task. You just need to go slow, take your time, and be very careful working with your hardwood.
Repeating Yourself
This one is also directed at the newbies out there, the hardwood sanding process is something you will need to repeat more than once. How many time is really dependent upon the condition of your flooring and how much work needs to be done to make it look good as new.
For some floors, you may need to do the work a good two or three times. For others, it could be more. Only you know how many turns you’ll need to take.
Selecting Your Grit
Grit is the degree of sandpaper you’ll need to do the work properly. But deciding on how coarse or fine your grit will depend on factors like the condition of your floor, the type of wood used, and the age of the wood. Once you have all of these things worked out, you can then decide on the grit you need for sanding the floor.
Sanding Your Floor
Now comes the big moment. You’ll choose an initial starting grit to take the first pass (your grits will become progressively finer with each subsequent pass until you’re finished). You will also want to be sure that you’ve got the proper equipment to do the work successfully.
In most cases, a drum sander is going to be the tool of choice for getting your floors refinished with best results. As you work, do it slowly, don’t rush. Be thorough and deliberate with your movements.
Edging Your Room
Drum sanders are amazing pieces of equipment but they do have some drawbacks. The main one being their shape, the circular or curved configuration of most drum sanders leave the edges of a room all but ignored. That’s why you need an edger, which is designed to reach those hard to reach areas of your flooring.
Just remember to match your grit on both the sander and the edger, so you stay even and consistent sanding your floor on every pass. In some cases, the floor may not be as well-worn in these out of the way areas, so you may need to then change your grit accordingly instead of keeping the same one.
Cleaning Your Mess
Finally, once you’ve taken a complete pass of the entire floor, you will notice a lot of dust and other particulate strewn about the floor. You must remember to sweep and clean all of this mess completely before taking the next pass. If not, you could end up scratching the wood by sanding the dust and debris in the process.