hardwood floors

[White Collar]

I want to refinish my hardwood floors and possibly put a different color stain on them.

I am doing this because my house flooded and before I just rip them out and have them replaced I want to get some practice sanding and refinishing just in case I ever diversify.

Will I need a drum sander or can you do it with a rotary machine.

Anyway, any help would be great. Im excited about learning this.

 

[Ron Lippold]

you can use your 175 and some sanding screens 80-100-120- grit and some good finish from ultra chem labs slam dunk is the name of the product.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

175 will work, but NO comparison to the results possible with a drum sander.

In either case, remove or countersink any nails you find (ideally shouldn't be any, but a stray will butcher your sandpaper). The key skill with the drum is to NOT slow down or stop as you make a pass. Stop cleanly as you touch the wall or stop line. That will minimize ripples and jagged edges. Of course you will have to detail with a smaller sander.

You will make a lot of "dust" so be prepared. Clean the floor well with oms and cheesecloth (or equivalent) before staining.

Stain: you can go from lighter to darker as needed. Going back to lighter is a problem. (do a closet first?)

Your flaws will not really show up until you have stained the floor. Thus you may have a judgement call to make before going on to urethane. It's easier to resand at this point if it's absolutely neccessary. More coats won't make flaws look better...

 

[sweendogg]

As Lee aluded to, if you plan on making a color shift, you will be better off doing a full sand down than trying to rotary screen the finish off only. But I guess we should ask, did the wood have a natural finish or a stained finish to start with?