Sanding existing oak floor sander ideas?

[ttibbegrant@gmail.com]

I have a house full of old oak flooring that I need to sand down. In the past I have rented one of the floor sanders you see at the big box stores never real impressed with the job it did. I know it would be a lot of work on the knees but wondered if anyone has used a festool to sand down a floor. In looking through the list of sanders don't really see any that jump out as being built for it. I have the Planex, Rotex 125, and the Rotex 90. I know all of these won't work other that the 125 for going around the edges.

 

[PA floor guy]

No. Do not do this, where are you located, I have a network of flooring guys throughout the country that I could give you a number to call.  Here's your best bet, hire a guy to just sand the floor. Then you can apply the finish yourself.  Get yourself a good water base poly that can be rolled.  Rolling water base is simple and easy for homeowners.  Look into poloplaz and basic coatings.  Do not get finish from a big box store.  Emulsion from basic coatings is a very user friendly finish to start with. Apply 3 coats of that and 1 topcoat of easy street or streetshoe.

 

[mike_aa]

Not sure what you rented, but I used one of these U-Sand machines to finish my oak floors.  It's like a Rotex on steroids.  The first time I tried sanded a floor I used it to do a hallway that looked like someone previously sanded with an angle grinder.  It was filled with some serious dips and valleys and I was able to take it to a "glass smooth" very flat surface.  After that, I used it to finish a 500 square foot great room in our house and that, too came out great.  The bonus is that the U-sand gets right up to the edges if you remove the shoe molding so, except for the corners, there is very little touch up.  They are hard to find to rent so I ended up buying a used one on ebay since I still have a number of floors to refinish. 

This was my best option for someone who doesn't do this as a living.  I tried the drum sanding route, but that's something to leave to the professionals since it takes a long learning curve to be able to come up with satisfactory results. 

If I didn't have U-Sand, I would definitely hire a pro. 

Good luck!

Mike A.   

 

[PA floor guy]

Mike,
  I do have that machine your talking about.  Word or caution, that machine is more outfitted for finish sanding. While it will remove existing finish, you have to use 24-36 grit discs that will leave swirl marks throughout, espeacially if you choose to stain the floor.

 

[mike_aa]

Mike,
  I do have that machine your talking about.  Word or caution, that machine is more outfitted for finish sanding. While it will remove existing finish, you have to use 24-36 grit discs that will leave swirl marks throughout, espeacially if you choose to stain the floor.

That's a good point.  The one floor I used it on had several coats of varnish and was sanded very unevenly before.  It was 10+ years ago when I did it so I don't remember what grit I started out with, but it could have been 24 or 36 to just get the high spots down.  There didn't seem to be any swirl marks that I could see when I finished, but I did not stain any of the floors I worked on.  Being a homeowner, I guess I have the luxury of taking the extra time going through a progression pf grits and sanding enough to get the swirl marks out.  I just remember being totally amazed at how a novice like me could get the floor so smooth and flat after what I started with.

I totally agree with you about hiring a pro to sand, but if a homeowner still wants to DIY the sanding part on their own, then I think they should look at a machine like the U-Sand and not try to do it with their Festools.

Mike A.