Timber Floor Sanding

onetwothreefour on 07/06/2016 - 11:54

Hi all,

I am going to be sanding some timber flooring for the first time at the weekend and wanted some advice from anyone with experience.

I've been watching some YouTube videos so starting to get an idea of what I need to do.

Is it better to hire a sander from bunnings for $55 a day or should I buy a sander for about the same price? The main difference between the two is the one you can hire is one that you stand up and push around and the ones you can buy are hand held it seems.

Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

Home & Garden

Comments

  • jellykingdom on 07/06/2016 - 12:21
    +1

    I haven't done a timber floor but I did have to hire a concrete floor grinder to level and remove leftover tile grout/cement

    The additional cost of the upright unit was hard to swallow at first (it wasn't heaps more) but at the end of the day when I realised I wasn't sore and exhausted, it was worth the money. It also had a decent dust collector as well, which the handhelds tend not to

    It obviously depends on how much flooring you have to fix up - i was doing about 100m2, which would have been death with a hand-held.

    So yeah

    • less back pain
    • (probably) more speed
    • less dust
    • onetwothreefour on 07/06/2016 - 12:40

      Yeah I have about 80m2 to do so probably too much for a hand held sander.

      I wasn't considering a hand held sander but on the bunnings website it recommended one even though the how to video had a stand up sander.

  • Elppa8 on 07/06/2016 - 12:52

    Our new hardwood floor was done with a drum sander but a hand held was used where the drum sander couldn't reach to finish off the corners and edges.

    • onetwothreefour on 07/06/2016 - 13:03

      That seems to be common, that you use a big machine to do the majority of the sanding and then use a hand held to finish off.

  • macrocephalic on 07/06/2016 - 13:34

    I did my deck with a big drum sander and it was a huge PITA - and it was pretty much impossible to lower it onto the floor without leaving a ripple where the drum initially touhed. I'd have been pretty annoyed if it were my inside floor boards. When I do it again, I'll find a big orbital sander rather than a drum sander.

  • Euphemistic on 07/06/2016 - 14:26
    +1

    Also get some drop sheets and tape them up around the worksite to slow the dust down. It gets everywhere. Also use a fan blowing out the nearest window to take some of the dust outside, but take the flyscreen off.

    I did our floor by hiring a drum sander for the first pass and bought a belt sander (hand) to finish the edges. I made the mistake of thinking I could to the finishing with the belt sander and save some hire fees. It was a mistake. I burnt out the first sander and my knees hated me for a while.

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