YOU’RE GUIDE TO DIY SANDING AND POLISHING YOUR FLOORS
Step 1
First, be sure to clear away all furniture and fragile items from the room, including curtains and soft furnishings. Also tape up doors and cupboards if they cannot be moved to prevent the wood dust getting in. Ensure you are wearing the correct breathing apparatus and protective clothing required for the task.
Step 2
Ensure the flooring is completely clear and any loose nails or potential hazards are removed. You can knock protruding nails well beneath the woods surface to prevent the floor sanding paper from tearing.
Step 3
Fix up any damaged floor boards before starting to sand, by making any necessary repairs to the boards and giving the floor a good sweep and vacuuming.
Step 4
Load the floor sander with either a 24 grit sanding belt or sheet (old floor) 40# grit sanding belt or sheet (new floor) ensuring that it remains tight against the drum to prevent slipping.
Step 5
Position the floor sander against one wall, with over half of the remaining floor in front of you. Keep the sanding drum elevated, and as you start to move forward with the machine gradually lower the sanding drum onto the wood flooring to start sanding. Be sure to sand with the grain.
Step 6
Keep moving forward at a gradual pace, until you reach the end of the room. At this stage, lift the drum off the floor and start walking backwards while gradually lowering drum , repeat the same procedure over the same area of flooring.
Step 7
When you have completed one pass, reposition the sander around 7cm across from the first area and repeat the process. Gradually you will reach the opposite side of the room, go over each pass evenly and carefully.
Step 8
Turn off the belt sander and work on neatening up the corners and small areas not reached by the drum sander. Do this by using an edge sander with 40 grit or 60 Grit disc depending on condition of floor, you can blend the two sanded areas together by a using semi-circular motion with the edge sander as you work towards the corners of the room.
Step 9
Repeat steps 5-8 with 80 grit or 100 grit belts and discs till floor is smooth once edging is finished you can hand scrap and hand sand corners to smooth to match flooring.
Step 10
For a higher quality finish you can now go over floor with 120-150grit on a orbital sander to smooth out any minor scratches and imperfections, this sander also helps blend the sanding between the edge sanding and the drum sanding.
Step 11
Vacuum up all dust of flooring now you’re ready to coat your floor mix up your coating and apply the first coat paying close attention to the manufactures instructions on tin all coating are different and not reading instructions carefully often leads to problems.
Please ask one of our friendly staff for advice on which coating will suit your needs.
Step 12
After the first coat has dried using the same orbital sander as prior with 150 grit sand paper cut back the flooring till smooth vacuum clean and apply 2nd coat of coating then repeat this step for the top coat paying particular attention to the vacuuming.
Step 13
Now you’re done leave you’re flooring for 24hrs before walking on it and 7 days before any shoe or heady foot traffic exposure, it is a good idea for the longevity of your flooring to have good mats at all external doors and floor felt applied to all furniture.
All floor protection and maintenance products are available from Westcoast Floors.