Bbest way to clean old floorboards?

[Rollmops]

We have lovely old hardwood floorboards under the carpet in the living and dining rooms, wondering how to go about ripping out the above mentioned carpet and making them old boards all shiny and new again?
Should we hire someone to do that (who?) or would this be a doable DIY project?
Many thanks in advance.

We did this ourselves. A few of the boards needed replacing and it was hard to find ones that matched, and it meant we had to stain them to match, which was a hassle.

If you lift the carpet you should get an idea as to how straightforward the job will be.

We hired a sander and the job ended up taking us three days rather than one. With paper and varnish, the total cost was about £200 (not including cost of replacing damaged boards).

It was hard, heavy work. Very messy and noisy. I wouldn't do it again myself to be honest.

Meant to say, our floor does look very good now though.

I followed the instructions [http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/sanding_a_timber_floor.htm here].

The hire shop geve us good advice too.

Thank you for your advice. Will get a professional to do it most likely.