No Thrills Floor Board Sand & Polish

[HomeBuyAU]

Ok the house is nearly renovated and I want to start to sand the floor boards down soon. We have a hire place I can hire a floor sander for $77 for 24 hours with sandpaper at $5 each. I have a lounge and two rooms. I gather that the previous owner has just ripped up the carpet. The boards are nothing fancy as you can see in the pics below.

I have to head overseas in just over week and I need to get a move on. I need to get this done on one day. So what I was thinking of doing is hiring the sander for 24 hours and go hard out with that. Then when I finish I would paint some stain over the top. The stain and a tint to get it nice and dark would cost about $200 all up for 4 lites of stain and two small tins of tint. The guy at the paint shop didn't sound too sure of what I need, the owner and the guy who is usually there was not there today.

Someone else recommended I use tung oil but that is clear and I want it to be dark so the knots and rough parts won't be so noticeable plus I think a darker stain will make it looks nice.

I'm not sure how I would clean the boards though after I sand them and before I stain them? Would I use something like turps and a rag etc?

Also once it's stained, would I need to hire a polisher for a few hours to bring it up shiny? the hire place has a polisher for hire for around $40.

Please help with some advice and tips and keep in mind this is for an older cheap house so I want to spend as little as possible and I need to do it quickly.

these pics make it look a bit darker than what it really is. Has lots of paint and dust as been renovating the house.

 

[Simon]

Please don't do it yourself.

Go cheap on painting or somewhere fixable.

Floorboards will look awful unless done properly - I have seen some truly awful home jobs.

Sorry if it isn't what you want to hear.

 

[willair]

Ok the house is nearly renovated and I want to start to sand the floor boards down soon. We have a hire place I can hire a floor sander for $77 for 24 hours with sandpaper at $5 each. I have a lounge and two rooms. I gather that the previous owner has just ripped up the carpet. The boards are nothing fancy as you can see in the pics below. I have to head overseas in just over week and I need to get a move on. I need to get this done on one day. So what I was thinking of doing is hiring the sander for 24 hours and go hard out with that. Then when I finish I would paint some stain over the top. The stain and a tint to get it nice and dark would cost about $200 all up for 4 lites of stain and two small tins of tint. The guy at the paint shop didn't sound too sure of what I need, the owner and the guy who is usually there was not there today. Someone else recommended I use tung oil but the is clear and I want it to be dark so the knots and rough parts won't be so noticeable plus I think a darker stain will make it looks nice.

I'm not sure how I would clean the boards though after I sand them and before I stain them? Would I use something like turps and a rag etc?

Also once it's stained, would I need to hire a polisher for a few hours to bring it up shiny? the hire place has a polisher for hire for around $40.

Please help with some advice and tips and bear in mind this is for an older cheap house so I want to spend as little as possible and I need to do it quickly.

After you finish the sanding part,try and find some Oxalic Acid,that cleans all the boards up prior to the 2 pac or what ever you intend to use,be carefull
with the acid,normal safety rules apply.."IMHO".willair.
http://www.boral.com.au/timberflooring/maintenance.asp?AUD=homeGarden_TimberFlooring&site=Boral
http://www.refinishinghardwood.com/Protecting-Hardwood-Floors-From-Damage.php

 

[Pa1nter]

I have seen some bad professional jobs

 

[HomeBuyAU]

After you finish the sanding part,try and find some Oxalic Acid,that cleans all the boards up prior to the 2 pac or what ever you intend to use,be carefull
with the acid,normal safety rules apply.."IMHO".willair.

ok thanks for the idea... is there anything beside acid that might be easier to handle and get hold of? what about turps or something like that?

Please don't do it yourself.

Go cheap on painting or somewhere fixable.

Floorboards will look awful unless done properly - I have seen some truly awful home jobs.

I have to, I have used too much money & time as it is on this house and I don't want to spend thousands on hiring pros. As I said it's an old, cheap house, cost 160k so it dosn't need to look like a mansion. It just needs to look clean and tidy to rent out. Yes it's not what I wanted to hear, I want to hear ideas on how I can do it myself on a budget in a hurry as I wrote in first post.

What does this mean "Go cheap on painting or somewhere fixable." do you mean I could just paint it instead of stain or oil? that could be an idea, what type of paint should I get etc?

 

[jaycee]

He menat go cheap on the paintng or other things aroudn the house but get this done by a professional.

I know others have done it, you could ses it wasnt a great job, when you looked closely, but very very passable.

 

[gg1965]

I would also highly recommend to not do it yourself. It may appear easy but it isn't.

BUT - if you do insist on doing it yourself, make certain you check ALL the nails are firmly in place and their heads are below floor level - otherwise, you may either rip the sanding paper or ruin the sander itself.

So go around on your knees and check every nail and if so, pop them into the floor again.

Also, make certain that every carpet/underlay staple is also ripped out. Some people, in their laziness don't get all the staples out when they rip the carpet up. These have the same consequences to the sander if they are still in place.

Make certain you wear stong industrial grade mask, goggles and even gloves too. Also, you'll need to give the house a good few days to air out after you complete this task (that we recommend that you don't do yourself) and finally, as you finish, the floors will need to sit for at least 24 hours without being walked on.

Once again, don't do it yourself. Get someone in who has done it before and learn from them so that you may have a better idea for your next job.


thanks


g

 

[Pa1nter]

If I was to do it myself,I would follow these steps,
Remember I am by no means an expert.

1unch all nails below surface to prevent sandpaper damage and wear.

2:Hire the sander and edger,(Two machines)

3:Sand the floor and edges.

3:Vacuum and clean the floor .Apply one coat of polyurethane gloss designed for floors (Gloss sands back better) Leave dry 24 hours

4utty nail holes with a water based tinted putty close to the color you are going to get.

5:Sand with fine sandpaper on the sander.This sands the putty flat and sands off all the fine hairs that will stand up after first coat.

6:Vacuum and clean the floor again.

7: Apply another coat of polyurethane gloss.

8:Add another coat 24 hours later if you so desire.

You can use a water based clear that does not stink as much,however this is not not as durable as oil based.That is your choice.
I believe you will need more that the 4 litres you spoke of.
Good luck.

 

[Simon]

Vacuum between coats.

I had a professional polyurethane grass clippings that he walked in into my final coat and he wasn't impressed when I explained he needed to resand and recoat it or I'd not be paying him.

My neighbour did it himself. Saved about $1500.

He was so proud.

It was awful. Everywhere that he had used uneven pressure on the sander he had what I can only describe as small waves in his floorboards. He had missed nails and these left shiny steel smears and then rusted under his polyurethane.

My most recent job was using a water based matt sealer instead of the polyurethane. It didn't yellow and looked great.

I personally don't like gloss as, over time, you will get scratched and dents from furniture, heels etc and they stand out in the gloss shine. The matt finish is very forgiving and looks more "natural".

Plus the water based solvent one didn't have much smell and we could happily move straight back in.

 

[HomeBuyAU]

thanks everyone for those detailed instructions, I will use this thread as a reference guide when I start the job.

But I do have a problem with the 24 hour thing as I need to stay in the house unless I do it the day before I leave to go overseas and stay at friends etc. Then if something goes wrong or I don't complete it in time it could be a problem. I don't have too much time on hand, so 1 to 2 days could be a problem if I have to take that off the 2 weeks I have left to finish many other things on my house and prepare for my world trip.

What about the idea of painting the floor instead, using a dark brown, wood colour? I would still need to hire a sander but maybe not have to leave it for 24 hours, maybe just a couple of hours for the dust to settle?

As for the edger, could I just use my circular Makita Orbital Sander instead of hiring more equipment?

Edit: another idea is could I sand it down, leave it for half a day then give it a very light coat of oil just to make it look tidy for now and then when I come back from overseas and the lease expires I can kick the tenants out and do the job properly?

 

[Propertunity]

Please do NOT use oil.

If you want to speed up the process use a water-based Cabots. You can recoat in 3 hours and there are no fumes.

As mentioned - not as durable but a matt finish will do the job and still last OK.

http://www.cabots.com.au/interior/flooring_waterbased.asp

 

[depreciator]

What about the idea of painting the floor instead, using a dark brown, wood colour? I would still need to hire a sander but maybe not have to leave it for 24 hours, maybe just a couple of hours for the dust to settle?

As for the edger, could I just use my circular Makita Orbital Sander instead of hiring more equipment?

Okay, now you're scaring me. You're going to end up disappointed, and a badly done floor is a big thing to be staring you in the face.

Those boards look pretty good. It's hard to tell, but the nail holes seem to have been filled already? If it's a cheap house, I reckon go with the light sand and a couple of coats of something water based (matt finish). I wouldn't hire the drum sander - too easy to stuff it up. Go the big flat finishing sander.

This comes from someone who will never attempt to their own floor again.

Scott

 

[wylie]

Why not get a professional sander to give it a "finishing" coat.

Explain that you just want a light sand to get the paint off and one or two coats, instead of whole job that would take five days anyway. They could just do one sand, and not the two or three that is normally done. It will not look as good, but you don't care right now.

This way, you should save a fair bit of money, won't ruin your floor, and you don't have to learn as you go.

You might have to sign something saying that this is all you want and you won't call him back in a few months and complain that it doesn't look like a "proper" job.

I am one of those who would NEVER do this job, even though we do most other things.

We once had a house that needed the floors to look better to enable us to rent it. We couldn't afford a professional job, so we mixed some type of estapol floor product with some dark stain and painted the floors. They looked much better, but when our sander finally did the job a few years (and another coat) later, it cost us more because the coating we had applied was clogging up the sandpaper sheets. He was going through them like loo paper .

We knew this when we did the estapol, but we had no choice, so we paid for extra sandpaper when we did the proper job.

Maybe you could do the light sand yourself and slap something on, but you will pay more if you ever want to get it done professionally because they have to remove your work.

 

[depreciator]

Can I tell my favourite floor sander story - again?

My dopey Matthew had to sand the floor of a holiday house his family owned. It was on the Central Coast - typical timber framed fibro 50s cottage. So the carpets were up and he had the sander ready to go. Now, the sanders these days might be a bit easier to control, but this was a big, heavy drum sander. He turned it on, lowered it to the floor, the paper grabbed, and the thing shot out of his hands across the room. It went through the fibro wall of the house and landed on his car which was parked beside the house.

 

[wylie]

Great mental picture there . I have a favourite sanding story as well. One set of neighbours had a floor sander in to do the floors and the big old sander fell straight through the termite ravaged floor onto the concrete below. Luckily nobody was under there. Luckily the chap holding the sander didn't fall through too. I suspect the machine was totalled.

The first time we had some floors done, the boys seemed to be wearing a few layers (huge, huge MEN). They did one sand and went outside and took off a layer of clothes. They came back in, vacuumed and did another sand, went outside and took off another layer of clothes.

I went into a bedroom and called hubby to tell him I was worried they would end up sanding in the nude if they kept on vacuuming and stripping .

 

[Fixerupper]

cheap floor sand

Hi Monsoon
My wife and I did a cheap floor tidy up of our PPOR sunroom late last year,it only cost $250 all up using our (my dear wife's labour) for "Wattyl decking oil" in natural colour 2 coats,floor sander hire,nail punching and filler.The floor came up really well,dried quickly and is easy to maintain.
Cheers
Damian.

 

[willair]

Can I tell my favourite floor sander story - again?

. He turned it on, lowered it to the floor, the paper grabbed, and the thing shot out of his hands across the room. It went through the fibro wall of the house and landed on his car which was parked beside the house.

Same thing happened to me ,bought a s/hand industrial sander for 180 bucks plus gst,from the auctions,took it back to my fibro-office,fired the machine up everything was going great guns,in the back room that i built next thing in front of the large 10mm A/P glass 3600 by 1800 high window the top control handle comes off and the machine takes off and does a whell stand and goes straight into the middle of the glass panel,then goes flying out and 8 mts down the side of the building and smashed into the chook pen,all happened so fast still makes me laugh..willair..

 

[willair]

ok thanks for the idea... is there anything beside acid that might be easier to handle and get hold of? what about turps or something like that?

It's the only gear that i know of that cleans the surface up 100%,all the people that restore antiques use it,that's how i found out about it ,a small 750 ml jar only cost 12 bucks,and that mixed with water will do a very large area,just paste it on leave it overnight,then open the windows and get a garden blower and blow everything out the back door..IMHO..willair..

 

[boods99]

I'm not sure how I would clean the boards though after I sand them and before I stain them? Would I use something like turps and a rag etc?

I would'nt bother, as once you have sanded them, there are the cleanest they are ever going to be. Just make sure you give them a thorough vaccuming

Boods

 

[geoffw]

There's been a few threads on the subject- do a search on "floor polishing" and you'll find a number of threads.

I've sanded and polished a number of times- but on small areas- about 20sqm each time. They were 1BR units, at the bottom end of the market, so I didn't need a flash job.

Here's a picture of the job in progress:

It is tough work. And especially tough to get it right- I haven't done so yet.

Like people have said- vacuum- and then go over everything with a soft cloth or three. Every speck of dust- and there is a lot of it- will show in the polish.