sanding wooden floors
- Thread starter whitt
- Start date
We decided to do our own floors. Quite a gamble as we had never done it before.
The floors are Fraser Is Brushbox and we decided on a gloss, poleyurethane (as recommended by virtually all we asked). 9 out of 10 also recommended the Wattyl 7008 2 part and we decided to take their advice.
Instead of posting huge pics here, if anyone is interested, browse to:
Befores and Afters
Cheers,
Shaun
The floors are Fraser Is Brushbox and we decided on a gloss, poleyurethane (as recommended by virtually all we asked). 9 out of 10 also recommended the Wattyl 7008 2 part and we decided to take their advice.
Instead of posting huge pics here, if anyone is interested, browse to:
Befores and Afters
Cheers,
Shaun
Shaun,
That URL had just dead links,
I'd love to see what you did! Can you update the source- or even just post in here?
Edit:Found some pictures:
http://www.nell.id.au/FloorSandingPolishing/index_files/image001.jpg
http://www.nell.id.au/FloorSandingPolishing/index_files/image002.jpg
http://www.nell.id.au/FloorSandingPolishing/index_files/image003.jpg
http://www.nell.id.au/FloorSandingPolishing/index_files/image004.jpg
That URL had just dead links,
I'd love to see what you did! Can you update the source- or even just post in here?
Edit:Found some pictures:
http://www.nell.id.au/FloorSandingPolishing/index_files/image001.jpg
http://www.nell.id.au/FloorSandingPolishing/index_files/image002.jpg
http://www.nell.id.au/FloorSandingPolishing/index_files/image003.jpg
http://www.nell.id.au/FloorSandingPolishing/index_files/image004.jpg
Last edited:
Shaun. Great Job!
How long did it take?
What are the approximate costs -
eg Hiring sanders, industrial vacuum cleaner, sheets of sandpaper, polyurethane
How much polish did you apply. ie did you overbuy
Any tips or mistakes we can learn from?
Thanks for sharing, will be tackling the job myself soon probably.
Cheers
How long did it take?
What are the approximate costs -
eg Hiring sanders, industrial vacuum cleaner, sheets of sandpaper, polyurethane
How much polish did you apply. ie did you overbuy
Any tips or mistakes we can learn from?
Thanks for sharing, will be tackling the job myself soon probably.
Cheers
Thanks Dan.
Can't say I am a pro after 1 job, albeit a large job, but if there is one piece of advice I can give is not to buy a cheap applicator. We bought a Wattyl applicator with the 7008 and it was great. But after a few coats we decided it needed replacement and bought a generic brand from Bunnings...big mistake! This second applicator left fibres behind and absolutely spoilt the finish in our passageway. We are going to be sanding this down again to get rid of the fibres. Bought another Wattyl one and voila, a perfect finish again.
As for costs, we were quoted around the $25-30/sqm. Now our area is 180sqm so I estimated the job at $5000 for a pro to do it.
Pulling up the grips from the old carpet was a real hassle and a job I would not wish on my worst enemies. Especially as I was tryng to not damage the floor board underneath. I had to slide a plaster knife under the grip, work a screwdriver between the knife and grip, pivot the screwdriver to allow me to get my flat crowbar under the grip (but above the knife!) and then pivot the crowbar on the knife until the grip broke at a nail. Move to that nail and start the whole process again. Phew!!
Next you have to fill every hole with wood putty and this is truly a boring job. Not to mention the backache of sitting on your butt bending over to push putty into millions of nail holes. Buy a v.dark and a neutral colour and mix the 2 to get to the colours required of your wood. Remember the putty does darken when varnished so take that into account.
We hired a drum sander and edger for a combined price of $99/day and we needed 2 days to complete the sanding process.
Start with 60grit for the first run, then 80 for the second and 100 for the third. You must edge with the same grit on the same run or else you will end up with a noticeable difference between the middle and edges. This edging machine is not an easy puppy to play with. Ask the hiring company for tips on using it.
We were told that this 7008 will cover 12-15sqm/litre so for 3 coats we estimated 38litres of the stuff. We went down to the Wattyl trade centre who kindly sold a 2x20 pack to us at trade price of $380. After 3 coats I still have over half left so my sums went wrong somewhere or someone told us porkies. Actually I believe that the first coat covers less per litre but the subsequent coats cover much more than the stated coverage. Remember that you also need to buy the 7008 Reducer to clean your utensils when finished, Turps will just not work. Also factor in 10% of reducer added for the first coat. This allows the varnish to soak a little into the wood.
Allow this first coat to dry for more than 8 but less than 24 hours and get sanding with a fine 240 grit. Use your mates Dysan vacuum cleaner to suck up the debris and then apply the second, third and fourth (if need be) coats at 8-24 hour intervals.
I put the total cost of the job at $800 including sanding discs, belts, skip hire to take the old carpets away, equipment hire, applicators, 7008 and 5 litres of reducer. An estimated saving of $4000, whey hey!! I have absolutely no idea how much this added to the capital of the property but it better be trillions. The reason I say this is that the work involved is not easy. I can honestly say that I would charge much more than $25/sqm if I had to do it again. On the flip side though, $4000 is a lot of money and now that the job is over, the wounds have healed and my post traumatic stress disorder is waning I feel justified in our decision to go it alone.
Happy renovating folks!
Shaun
Can't say I am a pro after 1 job, albeit a large job, but if there is one piece of advice I can give is not to buy a cheap applicator. We bought a Wattyl applicator with the 7008 and it was great. But after a few coats we decided it needed replacement and bought a generic brand from Bunnings...big mistake! This second applicator left fibres behind and absolutely spoilt the finish in our passageway. We are going to be sanding this down again to get rid of the fibres. Bought another Wattyl one and voila, a perfect finish again.
As for costs, we were quoted around the $25-30/sqm. Now our area is 180sqm so I estimated the job at $5000 for a pro to do it.
Pulling up the grips from the old carpet was a real hassle and a job I would not wish on my worst enemies. Especially as I was tryng to not damage the floor board underneath. I had to slide a plaster knife under the grip, work a screwdriver between the knife and grip, pivot the screwdriver to allow me to get my flat crowbar under the grip (but above the knife!) and then pivot the crowbar on the knife until the grip broke at a nail. Move to that nail and start the whole process again. Phew!!
Next you have to fill every hole with wood putty and this is truly a boring job. Not to mention the backache of sitting on your butt bending over to push putty into millions of nail holes. Buy a v.dark and a neutral colour and mix the 2 to get to the colours required of your wood. Remember the putty does darken when varnished so take that into account.
We hired a drum sander and edger for a combined price of $99/day and we needed 2 days to complete the sanding process.
Start with 60grit for the first run, then 80 for the second and 100 for the third. You must edge with the same grit on the same run or else you will end up with a noticeable difference between the middle and edges. This edging machine is not an easy puppy to play with. Ask the hiring company for tips on using it.
We were told that this 7008 will cover 12-15sqm/litre so for 3 coats we estimated 38litres of the stuff. We went down to the Wattyl trade centre who kindly sold a 2x20 pack to us at trade price of $380. After 3 coats I still have over half left so my sums went wrong somewhere or someone told us porkies. Actually I believe that the first coat covers less per litre but the subsequent coats cover much more than the stated coverage. Remember that you also need to buy the 7008 Reducer to clean your utensils when finished, Turps will just not work. Also factor in 10% of reducer added for the first coat. This allows the varnish to soak a little into the wood.
Allow this first coat to dry for more than 8 but less than 24 hours and get sanding with a fine 240 grit. Use your mates Dysan vacuum cleaner to suck up the debris and then apply the second, third and fourth (if need be) coats at 8-24 hour intervals.
I put the total cost of the job at $800 including sanding discs, belts, skip hire to take the old carpets away, equipment hire, applicators, 7008 and 5 litres of reducer. An estimated saving of $4000, whey hey!! I have absolutely no idea how much this added to the capital of the property but it better be trillions. The reason I say this is that the work involved is not easy. I can honestly say that I would charge much more than $25/sqm if I had to do it again. On the flip side though, $4000 is a lot of money and now that the job is over, the wounds have healed and my post traumatic stress disorder is waning I feel justified in our decision to go it alone.
Happy renovating folks!
Shaun
Hi all,
Thought I would add my 2 cents worth. I have had 3 houses done, 1 by pros and the other 2 myself.
I decide to start doing it myself as it would save alot of money and once I knew how, I could do it for all the houses I would buy in the future.
My first attempt used a drum sander from Kennards, the second from All Hire, both just under $100 including edge sander and all paper. The difference in sander is amazing.
The one from Kennards and most hire places has handle bars that you push down to lift the drum off the floor. The hard part is at the end of a run when you have to lift or hit the wall resulting in the sander biting into the floor and a big groove. It's even harder when you try to lower the sander in a tight spot and pull backwards all at the same time as the sander really wants to bite.
The drum sander from All Hire was recommended to me from a friend, it has a lever on the handle bars just like bike brakes, when you pull it the drum lifts up horizontally and is so much easier. There are no problems manouvering the machine like this and I can't stress the difference. I tried calling a few hire places but this was the only one I could find that had one. By itself I think it was $68-70 for the day so same as the other type.
I had done the nail punching and puttying myself, which takes forever but has to be done for the look, I have seen people that didn't and it shows.
I then used a sealer for $180 to do the floor, this was lounge, dinning, kitchen and hall but not the bedrooms as good carpet in these.
Now I'm not saying that floor sanding is easy, its a hard job, heaps of preparation, very time consuming and dusty but the results are great and money saved will make you smile.
I have heard from the people in a house I did over 2 years ago and they love it, so must have done something right
I have 2 tips:
1. Use masking tape to seal all doors and cupboards to stop dust, it is very fine and gets into everything if you don't.
2. Get the whole project ready for a early start, then arrange to pickup the sander etc the day before. Yes you can get the equipment at hire places the day before around 4:30, then you are straight into it on the day, I have even asked and been allowed to return equipment the following day and always been charged just 1 days hire. It will obviously depend if someone has booked it though. I've done this from alot of different hire places and all sorts of equipment. Saves alot of time and when you are charged by 1/2 day or day it makes good sense to ask, just be nice and they are back.
Hope this helps,
Chris
Thought I would add my 2 cents worth. I have had 3 houses done, 1 by pros and the other 2 myself.
I decide to start doing it myself as it would save alot of money and once I knew how, I could do it for all the houses I would buy in the future.
My first attempt used a drum sander from Kennards, the second from All Hire, both just under $100 including edge sander and all paper. The difference in sander is amazing.
The one from Kennards and most hire places has handle bars that you push down to lift the drum off the floor. The hard part is at the end of a run when you have to lift or hit the wall resulting in the sander biting into the floor and a big groove. It's even harder when you try to lower the sander in a tight spot and pull backwards all at the same time as the sander really wants to bite.
The drum sander from All Hire was recommended to me from a friend, it has a lever on the handle bars just like bike brakes, when you pull it the drum lifts up horizontally and is so much easier. There are no problems manouvering the machine like this and I can't stress the difference. I tried calling a few hire places but this was the only one I could find that had one. By itself I think it was $68-70 for the day so same as the other type.
I had done the nail punching and puttying myself, which takes forever but has to be done for the look, I have seen people that didn't and it shows.
I then used a sealer for $180 to do the floor, this was lounge, dinning, kitchen and hall but not the bedrooms as good carpet in these.
Now I'm not saying that floor sanding is easy, its a hard job, heaps of preparation, very time consuming and dusty but the results are great and money saved will make you smile.
I have heard from the people in a house I did over 2 years ago and they love it, so must have done something right
I have 2 tips:
1. Use masking tape to seal all doors and cupboards to stop dust, it is very fine and gets into everything if you don't.
2. Get the whole project ready for a early start, then arrange to pickup the sander etc the day before. Yes you can get the equipment at hire places the day before around 4:30, then you are straight into it on the day, I have even asked and been allowed to return equipment the following day and always been charged just 1 days hire. It will obviously depend if someone has booked it though. I've done this from alot of different hire places and all sorts of equipment. Saves alot of time and when you are charged by 1/2 day or day it makes good sense to ask, just be nice and they are back.
Hope this helps,
Chris
My 2 cents worth.
Can do a kitchen, dining, lounge, hall and bathroom/toilet in one day after all the prep work has been done. That's a professional though, probably take 2 days maybe for someone just doing it themselves. Then add coating after that. We also put a sealer on the floor before the poly otherwise it makes the floor go quite a bit darker.
Can do a kitchen, dining, lounge, hall and bathroom/toilet in one day after all the prep work has been done. That's a professional though, probably take 2 days maybe for someone just doing it themselves. Then add coating after that. We also put a sealer on the floor before the poly otherwise it makes the floor go quite a bit darker.
Hi GeoffW,
Sorry for the delay, had to load W98 again as the kids have been at the computer.
The first house was done in Jan 94 and was a small 3 bedroom with the sanding area about 35sqm. It had a bitumen type glue under the vinyl tiles which was a drama to get off. Nail punching, puttying, sanding and sealing took about 4 days. Small but very tight areas made it a hassle to move the sander.
The second house was done in Aug 2002, it was pretty straight forward except the kitchen. I should have sanded before I put a new one in, not after, live and learn by that one. It was about 65sqm and with 3 coats was about 5 days.
I hired the sanders for a day on each job and leave each coat for a day. Its kind of hard to judge the time as it was done a few hours each night but I would think around this much time.
When you look at the post above for 180sqm mine look pretty small but they sure didn't feel like it at the time. Still I have time but I don't have $$, so this labourer will have to keep working.
I have some photos on this link:
http://home.orangemail.com.au/~faxdata/reno.htm
it's really before/after kitchen reno but in the last 2 shots you see the floor after sealing. You can't tell the difference much from the pics but in reality the floor is more shiny and darker like QB said.
Chris
Sorry for the delay, had to load W98 again as the kids have been at the computer.
The first house was done in Jan 94 and was a small 3 bedroom with the sanding area about 35sqm. It had a bitumen type glue under the vinyl tiles which was a drama to get off. Nail punching, puttying, sanding and sealing took about 4 days. Small but very tight areas made it a hassle to move the sander.
The second house was done in Aug 2002, it was pretty straight forward except the kitchen. I should have sanded before I put a new one in, not after, live and learn by that one. It was about 65sqm and with 3 coats was about 5 days.
I hired the sanders for a day on each job and leave each coat for a day. Its kind of hard to judge the time as it was done a few hours each night but I would think around this much time.
When you look at the post above for 180sqm mine look pretty small but they sure didn't feel like it at the time. Still I have time but I don't have $$, so this labourer will have to keep working.
I have some photos on this link:
http://home.orangemail.com.au/~faxdata/reno.htm
it's really before/after kitchen reno but in the last 2 shots you see the floor after sealing. You can't tell the difference much from the pics but in reality the floor is more shiny and darker like QB said.
Chris
kitchen reno
Hi QB,
The kitchen was alright but did have a few problems, the first pic shows the taps coming out the wall over the sink, which were leaking behind. The cupboard doors were think and outdated and their hinges were going. So could have done a quick fix but it was a nice house with alot of potential so I wanted a good job.
The kitchen is a kit that gets delivered in flat pack form, you then make the cupboards, slot them in, put the bench on, etc. The cost was $6,000 for all cupboards including sink and flickmaster tap, this includes the cupboard on the far wall, second last pic and another that you can't see thats above the fridge (sorry no photo). The far wall cupboard is a huge pantry as well as another pantry on the right of the wall oven.
The appliances are Smeg gas cooktop, Smeg electric fan-forced oven and Omega pull out exhaust fan. It was a combo set from The Good Guys for $2,000 cash. I can thoroughly recommend Smeg as they work great and RE agents were very happy that it wasn't the cheap brands they always see.
I ran the power and had an electrician mate hook it up for about $50 with dbl powerpoints. Tiling was from a guy in the paper $230 and tiles we bought, I think around $300 but can't be sure.
So total about $8600.
If the kit suppliers were to fit it they would charge $550 plus electrician and plumber but said they would do it in a day, I took a week.
The house wasn't an IP though, we were living in it at the time, we bought it for $187k, reno for 15mths then sold for $256k, we spent $8600 on kitchen, polished the floors ourselves, painted inside, house was brick veneer outside and did the landscaping. My brother did some plumbing to get the water pressure up, no charge. Redecked the veranda (just used pine) and created a 4th bedroom by walling in a large room.
Spent about $15-16k all up.
To answer your question, they kitchen and floor really added the value, when people saw the 2 they loved it. The kitchen really stole the show for cupboard space and appliances. I think when people see good work they think the rest of the house is probably done the same, if they see cheap, short cuts or splashed on paint they must wonder how the electrics and plumbing are. I found this true in all the labouring jobs I have ever seen in the last 20 years. Some guys are always rough and some are alway perfectionists, I think I fall in the "like a good job" side.
Regards Chris
Hi QB,
The kitchen was alright but did have a few problems, the first pic shows the taps coming out the wall over the sink, which were leaking behind. The cupboard doors were think and outdated and their hinges were going. So could have done a quick fix but it was a nice house with alot of potential so I wanted a good job.
The kitchen is a kit that gets delivered in flat pack form, you then make the cupboards, slot them in, put the bench on, etc. The cost was $6,000 for all cupboards including sink and flickmaster tap, this includes the cupboard on the far wall, second last pic and another that you can't see thats above the fridge (sorry no photo). The far wall cupboard is a huge pantry as well as another pantry on the right of the wall oven.
The appliances are Smeg gas cooktop, Smeg electric fan-forced oven and Omega pull out exhaust fan. It was a combo set from The Good Guys for $2,000 cash. I can thoroughly recommend Smeg as they work great and RE agents were very happy that it wasn't the cheap brands they always see.
I ran the power and had an electrician mate hook it up for about $50 with dbl powerpoints. Tiling was from a guy in the paper $230 and tiles we bought, I think around $300 but can't be sure.
So total about $8600.
If the kit suppliers were to fit it they would charge $550 plus electrician and plumber but said they would do it in a day, I took a week.
The house wasn't an IP though, we were living in it at the time, we bought it for $187k, reno for 15mths then sold for $256k, we spent $8600 on kitchen, polished the floors ourselves, painted inside, house was brick veneer outside and did the landscaping. My brother did some plumbing to get the water pressure up, no charge. Redecked the veranda (just used pine) and created a 4th bedroom by walling in a large room.
Spent about $15-16k all up.
To answer your question, they kitchen and floor really added the value, when people saw the 2 they loved it. The kitchen really stole the show for cupboard space and appliances. I think when people see good work they think the rest of the house is probably done the same, if they see cheap, short cuts or splashed on paint they must wonder how the electrics and plumbing are. I found this true in all the labouring jobs I have ever seen in the last 20 years. Some guys are always rough and some are alway perfectionists, I think I fall in the "like a good job" side.
Regards Chris
