Sanding Hardwood Floors

Properly sanding hardwood floors ensures that the finished floors are gorgeous.

Sanding hardwood floors is a big job, no matter how big or small the room, so you want to make sure you have the proper equipment. Since it is such a huge task, the first thing you want to do is rent a floor sander from your local home improvement store.

Floor sanders available for rent from your local home improvement stores are generally large drum sanders that you walk behind. The sander itself is a random orbital sander to avoid leaving marks on your floor from the sandpaper. The cost of the rental is pretty minimal, usually around $50-75 a day, but it only covers the cost of the sander itself. You also want a handheld random orbital sander in order to sand the edges and corners of the floors where the floor sander is too big to get at.

Here's what else you need to begin sanding your floors:

Here is a list of sanding sheets you need:

• Course grit sandpaper - The grit of the sandpaper you need to start with depends on the damage to the floors and how many coats of polyurethane are currently on your old floors. If the floors are heavily damaged and you need to sand out deep scratches, gouges and dings, grab a sheet or two of 60 or 80 grit.
• Medium grit sandpaper - If the floors have a few dings and the polyurethane is wearing thin in spots, you can get by with 120 grit sandpaper. This medium grit easily gets rid of surface scratches and damage.
• Fine grit sandpaper - You need to purchase 220 grit sandpaper in order to make sure your floors are smooth to the touch and any marks left by previous sanding are gone. This sandpaper wears out pretty quickly, so you will want to purchase several sheets. How well you sand the floors with fine grit sandpaper dramatically affects the end result.

• Tack cloth – Use tack cloth to pick up the sawdust left behind from sanding.
• Respiratory masks – You need to wear respiratory masks while sanding the floors and during the cleanup process. Sawdust irritates lungs and wearing masks helps to prevent this irritation.
• Window fan – In order to ensure that sawdust doesn't get all over your house, you want to put a fan in the window for ventilation. Make sure the fan is sucking air out of the room and not blowing air in by placing the fan in the window backwards.
• Masking tape – You need to mask off all your air intake vents in the room so the sawdust air isn't sucked out of the room and circulated around your home. This step is often overlooked when sanding hardwood floors.
• Shop vacuum – Before you run the tack cloth over your floors, run through them with a shop vac. Make sure the filter is on before you begin vacuuming or else the vacuum cleaner will end up blowing it right back out. If you don't have a shop vac, a broom will do.
• Extension cord – You may not have to have an extension cord if the room is relatively small, but if it isn't, you are going to need one, so have one on hand just in case. Make sure the cord is a heavy duty extension cord and is able to handle the voltage put out by the floor sander.

Once you have all the basic supplies and equipment for sanding your floors, you are ready to begin and on your way to brand new, or good as new, beautiful hardwood floors. Here's how to begin:

• Clear the room – Clean everything out of the room, even the pictures on the walls. Anything you leave in the room will be covered in sawdust by the time you're finished.
• Examine the floor – Go over the floor to make sure there aren't any errant nails or carpet staples left behind.
• Begin on one side of the room – Simply walk behind the sander, beginning on one side of the room, working your way over to the other side. Remember to sand with the grain of the wood and not against it.
• Switch sanding sheets – Work your way up through the different grits of the sanding sheets. Begin with coarse, then medium, then fine. How quickly you work your way up depends on the damage of the floors.
• Sand the edges – Use the handheld random orbital sander in order to get to the areas in which the floor sander couldn't reach.
• Vacuum – Vacuum up large piles of sawdust.
• Run a tack cloth – After vacuuming, run a tack cloth over the entire floor and baseboards. This ensures that no sawdust ends up on the floors during the finishing process.

When you take the time to properly sand your hardwood floors, in the end, your hardwood floors look brand new and professionally finished.

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