Let me begin by dedicating this post to my dad and my papa for working so hard on this project. Although Emma and I are hard workers, neither of us could reach the handle of the floor sander!
Sanding the floors ourselves was a scary task, but the savings well outweighed the risk. For a professional to do it, we were quoted $2 . 50 per square foot. With about 1,000 sq ft of hardwoods that would have killed the budget!
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| Drum sander before we started. |
First I used a flat head screw driver and pliers to remove all loose nails and staples from the carpet and carpet pad that was down. This is key because if the sander hits a staple, it will rip the sanding pad. You will run through a lot more sanding pads if you do not do the prep work. Also sparks will fly! I used a thick sock on my hand and went along the floor looking for staples showing. The staples will stick to the sock and you can use pliers to pull them out. We also used a broom and shop vac to clean the floors once all the staples were removed. The shop vac is critical because the drum sander dust bag does not catch all the dust.
I called a local tool rental place and rented a drum sander and purchased more than enough sanding pads. We got four 24-grit and four 60-grit. We need the 24-grit in order to get the 20+ years of grime off the floors. The floors were in bad shape in most spots. We also needed it for the hallway to get up the glue from the linoleum. I thought we would be able to use a hand sander for the edges and the corners…wrong! I could not find a low enough grit and you cannot put enough weight on the hand sander. So, we made a trip back to the rental place to get the edge sander.
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| Sanding pads. |
We tested the machine while it was turned off to make sure we could operate it properly. Once we were comfortable we move to a back closet to test the 60 grit first and also to get the hang of using the machine. I found that the 60 grit was not rough enough to remove the top layer. I also found that pulling the machine in reverse made it a lot easier to control. Make sure you go with the grain of the wood!
We used the drum sander in each room making one solid pass, overlapping about 3 to 4 inches with each pass (as if you were mowing the lawn). Once we completed the room, we used the the edger to finish the sides of the room. The edger left perfect triangle spots in each corner. This is where we really had to work with the hand sander to get the corners.
We started with 60 grit in a closet to test it out.
During
After! With 24 grit.
After we used the 24 grit in each room, we switched to the 60 grit to get a nice smooth surface.
We had to really work in the hall with the 26 grit to get the glue off from the linoleum. It took a few passes in order to remove the glue completely.
Before.
During.
Drum sander left a strip around the edge. We used the edge sander to get this strip. First with 24 grit then with 60 grit
Before.
After.
The small strip left by the edger will be covered by quarter round.
This project was not easy at all, but if you want to save a couple thousand dollars I think it is worth a shot. It took us 3 days at about 8 + hours per day with approximately 3 people helping at a time. They were very long and rough days.
Items needed:
- Drum sander
- Edge sander
- Sand paper (24 grit and 60 grit)
- Dust mask
- Ear plugs
- Shop Vac***
- Broom
- Tape/plastic
- Flat head screw driver
- Pliers
- 1 thick sock
Tips: We did not remove the base boards which was a mistake. We could not get the drum sander close enough to the walls, which meant more work using the edge sander. The edge sander is not fun at all. I would recommend removing the base boards to reduce the amount of time spent using the edge sander.
Before and After Pics!
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| Living Room Before |
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During Living Room After! |
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| Glue from the laminate in the hallway. |
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Hallway after first pass. |
-Rupert
