Kitchen floor to be sanded

[Charles Wilson]

I have a 12 ft by 13 ft kitchen floor that needs to be refinished per SWMBO.  The floor was done around 15 years ago.  It was sanded down, (left au naturál) and coated with satin polyurethane.  Floor is currently not dinged up too bad but has lost most of its protective covering.  The million dollar question is: What grits/types of sand paper would you recommend that I use with my Rotex sander?

Regards,
Chuck

 

[Bikeboy80]

I am fairly certain that if the surface is in reasonable shape you can us something like 120 Brillant to "scuff" the surface for the new poly to adhere to. You don't have to take all of the old finish off.

Maybe someone that does floor refinishing on a daily basis could chime in and confirm this.

 

[Walk On Wood]

If the floor was done 15 years ago and is now missing most of the finish you're going to want to sand down to raw wood for sure.  The rule of thumb, as with any sanding, is to use the highest grit you can that efficiently removes the finish.  I find that Rubin works just fine for me on floor sanding. I would try 60 grit and see if it does it, if not, drop to 36.  The RO150 will be slow compared to a drum sander, but the room isn't very big so it should work.  60-80-100-120 would work just fine... Good luck, let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[Frank Pellow]

I sanded my slightly larger kitchen floor using a Rotex 150 sander a few years ago.  I describe the steps and the abrasives used along with photos in reply #2 in the thread: http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-tools-accessories/sanding-a-floor-26sqm-is-a-rotex-150-up-to-it/

 

[Rob-GB]

I have sanded a much larger floor area with just a 3" belt sander and a 1/4 sheet palm sander in the past, flippin' hard and tedious work it was too! [eek] No vac hook up either [doh]
The final grit will depend on floor material, hard and or oily woods will need finer sanding while pine will pass muster after 120grit paper...come to think of it my Mum's Beech worktops look great after just 120g rotexing and Osmo oil finish, I reckon the finish and wood will dictate how fine you need to go.

 

[Locky]

I just made a video on the weekend about this, my old kitchen is now my office and I had to strip the poly finish on the whole floor because where the cabinets were the was no finish. i did the whole project just using festool, ie Ro150, RO 90 and surefix oil.
I wanted to see how the heavy duty indoor oil will last on a floor, so I will edit the video this wek and post it up and then do a follow up 3 months later to see how it holds up

 

[Charles Wilson]

Thanks for the information fellas.

Floor is oak. 

 

[zekerdale]

Sir I have been in the business of hardwood flooring  for quite some time and have come to notice that any grit below 80 is too rough on your floors.to achieve best results it must be done in this order which works for just about any exotic/ domestic flooring. Start off with a 100 grit to see if you can proceed with this grit (depending on how rough of shape the actual wood is in). If this done get you going drop back down to 80 and work your way up by increments of 20. Depending on the hardness/ density of the wood you should stop at 180 for softer woods ie: pine. And up to 300 for harder woods such as maple. The reason for this is the porosity of the wood. You want your finish/topcoat(s) to adhere well for softer woods you shouldn't get to smooth it will seal your woods pours almost shut. But the same grit for harder woods does just the trick.  What kind of flooring is it?

 

[Charles Wilson]

Zekerdale

The floor is oak.  Not in bad shape at all minus some marks where the chairs had been moved in to and from the table.  It appears that the polyurethane has just warn off.  SWMBO says that the wood was not stained, just polyurethaned.

Funny you should say that about grits.  I have a staircase that I partially stripped and refinished.  When I went to really low grits (60), I found it to leave swirl marks on the maple treads (rotex or oscillating mode).  Higher grits were better.

Questions that I have are:

"Why is it necessary to go all the way to 300 in 20 grit increase intervals?"

"What Festool paper?" (Sapphire, Rubin, etc.)

Regards,
Chuck

 

[Charles Wilson]

Locky,

Got that video?

LOL

Chuck

 

[Locky]

Still editing it, I will post it up on fog when down though. After a week of constant rolling my office chair on the surfix oil it is still holding up well

 

[Handyman Mike]

I've used Saphir to remove what's left of the old varnish, followed by Granat. This was a pine kitchen floor and some of the boards were noticeably cupped, so I was pretty aggressive, starting with Saphir 50. This flattened the boards well, but left impressive swirls. I switched to Grant 80 in RO mode and worked my way up. The swirls came out pretty quickly, this being pine, and I used a pretty light hand after that. I would have been less aggressive with oak, I think, but Saphir 80 would be reasonable if you have a fair amount of varnish to remove or flattening to do.

 

[zekerdale]

Sorry it took so long for my response, the reason I believe it is important to move up in 20 sis have you ever used 80 then went to one twenty and had a hard time removing swirls or deeper pitting from the grits roughness? I have. Anyways, to achieve best results I always go in increments of twenty so their is never any scarring and so every inch is consistent every time. The more intricate you are with your sanding the better it will look once finished unless you're just going to poly it over again I suppose it would not have to be so refined. You will notice that the deep pitting and moving up by 40 or 60 at a time just don't cut it for softer hardwoods or soft wood for that matter.  Especially if you plan on staining it. Let us know how it turns out, and tell us how you did it for sure. And I know exactly what you mean that happened with the deep swirls and grain annihilation. Good luck buddy!