sanding old wooden floorboards - quick question

[vannah]

is there an alternative to hiring an industrial noisy sander? We've pulled up the carpet in one room and the boards are lovely in some places (thought we could just stain them) but are now finding dark patches, and some cement and other marks...

is sanding by hand with sand paper really impossible? Its a 12x14 room
thanks

Not impossible, but it will be a long and tiresome job.

Blimey, I wouldn't (have sanded floors with a sander in two houses) - they really aren't that noisy or messy, honest

Christ,no - don't attempt it. Even with an industrial sander it's not light work.

don't even think about it! We have done numerous floors. Set aside one long day to sand- seal the room off as well as you can and get everyone out of the house esp if they have asthma. If you use water based PVA varnish you can do enough coats in the second long day. It's npisy and dirty but worth it.

DH sanded all the floors in every room in our house. The result was worth it. We needed to use a belt sander for some corners. I think if you want a good result then go the industrial sander route unless they are in vurtuallt near perfect conditions. I have a friend whose husband hand sanded their entrance porch (tiny).

We initially just hand sanded & stained our living room boards. It looked fine, for ooh, a fortnight.

You really do need to sand it properly.

Although it's on my 'never again' list - fond memories of dh & I getting horrendously high, not in a good way, whilst trying to fill the gaps with that horrible resin & dust mixture. Can still feel the headache now.

Next time I'm getting someone in to do it!

Sorry he used an industrial sander and belt sander for corners.

Thanks for the advice, I think we will probably hire the sander.

may I just add.. don't try to cut corners and not fill in the gaps, even if they are only 1 or 2mm apart - we thought we could get away with it and now have an army of slugs in our lounge every night - they leave trails over toys, in shoes, everywhere

Can I just add...love your name HangingBellyofBabylon

yes its impossible

you need to do it many times, because you put down several coats of varnish

are you really REALLy broke? if not i would compare the cost of DIY ( hiring machine, papers , varnish and your time) and getting someone in to do it. you should pay by the square meter

its very very messy hard work

My dh was a builder (now full time student) and we ended up deciding it was cheaper to hire someone to do the floors for us. Or at least hire them to do the sanding and then we did the polyurethane (use the water based stuff - just as good and doesn't smell anywhere near as bad). As KristinaM said, it really doesn't work out that much more expensive to get someone else to do it. And it will be so much better.

thanks...its going to be a horrible job. There is so much assembled furniture in the room that cant be moved easily. I know the mess a sander creates...

Def agree with getting someone in to do it.
SOme sanding machines are much better now and spew out much less dust than the old types, but you need to make sure you emply someone (prob a large-ish outfit) with the newer machine/s.