Anyone know about floor sanding...

[drjim]

I've become the Chair of our local Scout group, and there's a load of refurb work to be done. The hut is basically the same as when I was a Scout there 40 years ago.

One big problem is the wood floor which is a bit splintery, previous chair used to varnish it every year or so to keep them stuck down, but there's a toddlers football group uses it and the splinters are becoming a problem. They are a source of external income so need to keep them engaged.

Looks like all the nails have been banged in a long way so we should be able to sand over without having to spend a week hammering first. I know I could hire someone to do it, but then I see a floor sander is not that much to hire. It'll be horrible messy hard hot work, but worth doing I hope.

Does anyone have experience of doing this? How much area can you cover in a day?

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Hire a floor sander, with extraction, work diagonly accross the floor. Use a medium grit.

Fill any holes with a wood filler.

Go to a fine grit, in line with the grain.

Courners and edges are best tackled with a DA sander and a detail sander.

Seal with a good sealer, apply 4 to 5 coats of a floor varnish.



4 of use dodd 800m2 in a day. Day 2 was varnishing.

 

[AVI_8]

I did mine, it’s a dusty job, do it cross grain in an X then finish going with the grain. I finished the edges with a belt sander.
I did ours before we moved in with a machine hired from HSS so the dust wasn’t a problem as the house was empty, but jeez, what a mess it makes.

 

[Parm]

Fairy easy to do, I did the floor at my house in London. Even when the sanding machine has good dust extraction budget for a lot of time with the vacuum cleaner

 

[Barking Mat]

Nothing to add to the above, but, when hiring a floor sander, hire an industrial vacuum, difference between a domestic and industrial is day and night. £5 a day from our hire place.

 

[More Amps]

When doing your first pass, keep an eye out for little shiny nail heads appearing and whack them down as soon as you see them - otherwise you'll quickly find those nails that havent been punched deep enough and you'll be chewing through expensive sanding sheets at a rate of knots.

 

[Aerohead]

Don't stop for nothing on the first round of medium sanding, or on the edging, unless you like depressions with a 'deep' varnish finish. Other than that, as above a huge amount of dust and noise.

 

[gaz1]

use a hand belt sander for the edges first do 3 sandings all the way around the edges

the hand belt sander gets right into the edges

industrial sander is better to be used on the inner part and as suggested above

 

[drjim]

Thanks guys, as always there's someone with first hand experience on here!