Exposing flooring - tips on removing carpet and sanding/varnishing floor

[teamB2011]

we are contemplating removing our carpet and sanding the floors and varnishing. Has anybody got experience of doing this? We are wondering how expensive the whole job generally is, how hard it is for us to do it ourselves as complete novices and whether two standard size reception rooms can be done in a weekend. Any thoughts/experiences welcome.
Thanks

we have done the same as you recently. i was petrified.

so carpets went, we hired a sander, dh sanded it and varnished it with somethng bnought from B&Q

looks grand.

all in all about £400 for two rooms

we haven;t done anything fancy like seal the cracks o anything, we just went for it after months of what the fuck do we do argghhh type thinkin

That is useful. We are a little scared but going to take the plunge. Did you do it all in one weekend?

ps did you notice many cracks?

yes dh did it all in one weekend, i went out:) lots of little cracks and things, but we live in a cottage type place, so its all character!

I've done some interesting variations on this theme in my house. Most of the floors have been sanded while I've been here, but because I prefer a darker wood with a more matt finish I have applied a stain and then coated with wax.

Applying woodstain is a bit of an art and when I stained the last floor I was 36 weeks pregnant and managed to tip the bloody bottle of dye over! (I should also point out that I was wearing a heavy duty industrial mask as the stains are full of chemicals and fumes).

Interestingly, this floor was also stripped with hand tools (paid someone to do it) and it was cheaper than getting it done with an industrial sander (and less messy!)

Hope this helps

Definitely possible. But draughty - what is the wooden floor laid on? Ours is a suspended floor over a cavity through which e.g. pipes run, and all the air bricks are under floor level, so there are HOWLING draughts through the gaps between the floorboards (1930s house - the hall is parquet and is fine but the other rooms were designed for rugs / carpet and there the gaps are quite wide).

Definitely look at how tightly the floorboards fit together, what they rest on, and where the air bricks are before taking the plunge!