Sanding Floors - Any handy hints?

[JoolsToo]

We've never done it before - we're just doing round the edge of the floor.

Any do's or don'ts folks?

thanks

If it's only a small area and you're doing it by hand, invest in a sanding block and do it with a fine sanding paper. You can hire special sanding machines for doing around the edge, close to the skirting boards. Other than that, can't think of anything else.

Be prepared for dust that never leaves! Cover everything in dustsheets.

Get face masks and be ready to be blowing dust out of your nose for the next week!

Look out for sticking out nails - do a close up check before sanding and pull out/hammer in any nails etc.

Look out for old patches of carpet glue/wax - the farking sander will not sand them properly, smears them around instead usually

Good luck!

oh no - we're hiring a machine - it is round the edge but quite a large area!

oh and the floor is already 'done' stained and varnished it's just yucky colour so the surface should be sound.

Before I varnished our floor, it said to wipe it down with white spirit. Think it picks up residue dust and evaporates quickly... Stinky though!!

thanks for the tips

mind the radiator pipes, my neighbour had to call plumbers twice when he did the floor next door

Get someone else to do it.

make sure the sanders vacuum bag is FIRMLY ON!! We learnt a lesson the v. hard way (faulty hired sander bag). Also, save some of the wood dust. You can mix it with uPVC glue and it can be used to fill bigger gaps and the colours about right. Also, (sorry - we have sanded (quick arithmetic) 9 floors in the past few yrs) if you are going to not stain it you can tell what colour/darkness the floorbds. will be with clear varnish just by wiping thewm with a wrung out damp cloth. The key is in the prep...and my DH was a stickler. I was 36 wks pg. with our 3rd and up till 2am sanding the corners with a piece of sandpaper till my fingertips were bleeding.. (DH was too!) I would now pay soe else to do it..!!

too late to get someone else in, we're getting the kit tomorrow!

This has been really helpful, thanks and wish us luck

Make sure any nails are hammered down flat before starting.

Invest in plenty of sandpaper for the sander.

Wear a dustmask.

Be prepared to find sawdust everywhere for the forseeable future!

Hire an edging sander,ours was a round thing that had quite a kick to it! Ended up with callusy hands and a blister!(We did loads though).For larger areas you can get a bigger one.

Check to see if the hire place does sanding belts on Sale or Return -if they do, get loads of them as chances are you'll run out and the place will be shut from tomorrow lunchtime until Monday. You'll end up paying for a weekends hire of the machine and not be able to do any sanding.

Also, as others have said, make sure any nails are tapped in as they are guaranteed to rip the sanding belts if they stick out.

Blast. Guess it's too late to mention that the existing varnish will clog up your sandpaper like billyo, and when combined with the heat created by the friction of the sander will create this horrific glutaneous substance which invalidates your sandpaper within 30 seconds?

So, my tips are: get LOADS AND LOADS of sanding discs from the hire place or strip the surface first, if it is still sound, with a varnish remover

oh sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-it!

ha-ha - we've chickened out, thanks squarer, that info put the top hat on it. We hadn't paid a deposit or anything so just had to ring them.

phew - this site is very useful sometimes!