The technique of stripping the old finish from a floor and creating a new smooth surface is called sanding. Sanding is capable of removing most stains, marks, scratches, and discoloration. Water stains can disappear after sanding, but stains caused by pet urine often penetrate deep into the wood and are difficult to sand out.

The process of sanding is often carried by professional sanders, but having the right equipment you can easily do it yourself. Just follow our step-by-step instructions:

First thing to do is clear away all furniture, rugs, curtains and any other stuff from the targeted area. The room, including walls, must be completely empty. If there are some heavy items left inside the room, cover them well. Sealing outlets and switches is also one of the things that has to be done. This is the way to protect your belongings from wood dust caused by sanding.

To get timber floor ready for sanding, you need a few more preparations. All raised nails or similar must be removed because they could harm the sanding machine. The floor has to be cleaned of any sticky material which might clog the sandpaper. Where necessary nail down any loose boards with finish nails and fill gaps between the boards with special substance.

You’ll need two rental machines: a belt sander to sand most of the floor and an edger to sand along baseboards. Use a sander with a very coarse 36 grit on to remove all of the old seal and to level the floor. If that doesn’t completely remove the finish in one pass, step down to 24-grit or lower. Then, you need to progress through the next grit to polish off the scratches left by the previous grit. Usually the sequence is 24-36-60-80-100.

It’s better to try a practice run of the sanding process on an area that is hidden most of the time. And always sand the floor going with the wood grain. With both machines you’ll be able to sand almost the entire area. Use a carbide scraper to remove finish from corners and spots that machines can’t reach.

After sanding is done, you can refinish the floor. Do not forget to wear mask and open the windows when applying the finish.

The post How to sand timber floors appeared first on B&G Flooring Services in Melbourne.

Firstly, you can type in Google a question like this: How to sand and polish a timber floor? You’ll probably find hundreds of blogs and forums teaching you how to do that yourself.  Try to read as many articles as possible from different sources. It is also a good idea to watch a few videos on YouTube before you undertake a job like this.

Secondly, you should do some research in order to find out where you can hire a professional and affordable sander. You should also find out what you are going to wear such as protective clothing, breathing apparatus and ear plugs. It is also very important to know what type of filler, seal, sanding paper and other supplies you should buy.

Then, it is essential to know what safety measures to take and how to prepare the room and the floor for the sanding process.

You might be able to do it yourself and this way it might cost you half the price you’ll pay a flooring company to do the job. However, you are taking a risk of damaging your floors or not achieving the desired result. Don’t forget that you lack the experience and the skills of a specialist.

The post What you should know before sanding and polishing timber floors on your own appeared first on B&G Flooring Services in Melbourne.