Sanding a floor

[ArcticBells]

I’m having problems sanding a 1970s orange stained wood floor. I’ve got this far with a hand sander and it’s all orange blotch. Do I need to get professionals in? I was so hoping to do it myself and save money.

Will add pictures separately as I don’t seem to be able to do so here

Here are the floors so far

I don’t know a lot about it other than diy-ing my own floors but from my limited knowledge I’d say you need to go deeper. Have you hired a floor sander?

I’ve bought a hand sander. It’s so difficult to get an even finish

I don’t think the boards are very good quality. It’s really hard to get to the edges

Yeah you need the proper kit. A hand sander’s going to leave you with a bumpy mess. Hire a proper sander and keep the handheld for fiddly bits/edges. Watch a few YouTube videos on direction too as from memory I think you’re supposed to go diagonally.

It is possible to DIY it but do the research.

Thank you @HelloGreen. It’s turning into one of those jobs I wish I’d never started!

You need a proper floor sander, not a hand sander. If the boards aren't that good quality, you're still not going to get a brilliant result. Personally, I'd ply it and put a decent laminate or engineered wood down.

I’ve sanded floors in the past with a hired floor sander. you’ve done well getting as far as you have with a hand sander!

The floor sander worked for me - down side it was really messy and heavy as the machine is powerful and you need to watch your back. Also make sure there are no protruding nails or similar as these can rip the sanding belts (with quite a noise I might add!). And the belts weren’t cheap. I think I did the whole of 1 room in a day. You’ll also need to use a finer sander for edges and corners.

Or - as you say - hire in a professional!

I never thought of putting a flooring on top

As long as your current floor is fixed and not floating, you can lay over it.

Your wood flooring looks fine - what do you think is wrong with it quality wise? There aren’t many repair cuts to it and once sealed it will look really nice.

I’m amazed at your determination. Using a hand sander is nuts 😆 Such hard work and impossible to get a good finish!

You can rent a floor sander from somewhere like jewsons. It will take you 10 minutes to get to grips with the right pressure and then you’ll breeze round the room.

Following op as planning to do the same. When people say seal do they mean osmo oil or similar or a varnish? I have a sander hired for later this week, floorsander.

Sealing can be either oil or lacquer depending on what finish you are after. Oil tends to need more maintenance and be less resilient.

Aa pp have said @ArcticBells , using a hand sander is incredibly hard work , you have incredibly well so far.
Me and my db did ours many many years ago . We hired a floor sander and the belts .
It took us 2 days to do our floor ( not full days ) .
It's incredibly dusty you need decent masks . Save the clean saw dust to mix with wood glue to plug any gaps / holes.
Once you have finished sanding and plugged holes you need to repeatedly clean the floor
Leave it for a day , clean again and repeat until you are very sure it's absolutely dust free.

We used yacht varnish , it's expensive , takes ages to dry and has a high voc . But it's incredibly hard wearing the room was the only route to the kitchen and it still looked great 3 years later when we moved out.

Thanks everyone. I think I’ll try and hire a sander next Saturday but will I need a different one to get to the edges - sure I’ve seen that somewhere?
The pine boards are not good quality although seem sound so I’m going to have to stain them and then , I’d thought, wax them. I’m trying to achieve a light oak type finish

@DeanStockwelll there are a couple of holes so that’s a brilliant idea to save some sawdust- thank you for that!

OP yes you need a different sander for the edges as the floor one doesn’t get right up to them. It was a long time since I hired the floor sander but I think I got the edge sander at the same time. Or your hand sander might do it.

As another poster said, important to clean the floor thoroughly of dust after sanding. I just varnished my floor, and before the final coat went over it by hand (hard work especially on the knees!) with a very very fine sandpaper, then a good wipe, then the final varnish coat which ended up really smooth.

Good luck 🍀

Just buy a tinted oil or lacquer. Staining and waxing is more time consuming and less durable. There are loads of all in one products available.

Hire places offer a floor set - edge sander and main sander - they will talk you through it and advise on quantity of sanding belts. Loads of diyers do this now. It’s very straightforward.

If seen a lot of bad floorboards and yours are in good condition!

If you wanted a quick solution you could probably just paint the boards as they are with a solid colour but you would obviously lose the grain effect.

Your boards look in great condition. You just need a proper floor sander.

Use a proper sander. Then use a good quality stain over the wood.
I was told by a builder, once you have sanded, fill the cracks or bits of missing fragmented wood then close the door to allow the dust to settle onto the cracks giving more of an even finish.