How easy is it to sand and refinish hard wood floors?
Question:My new house has horrible carpets and nice hard wood floors underneath. Will I be able to do this work myself?
Answers:
Go to any local rental place and rent a rotary floor sander.You can do this you self if you are reasonably handy with tools.Just keep the sander moving constantly so you don't "burrow" into the wood.This is a pretty messy job-make sure you close all doors to other rooms in the house or hang thin sheets of plastic to stop the migration of the dust through the house.As far as the actual staining,just go to Home Depot or Lowes and ask the sales person what to use on the hardwood-after that its as simple as "painting" the floor.I did this years ago and I got pretty good results even though I am not a handy man
If you have the right tools it's easy. Most of the tools can be rented (home depot) but it takes a lot of time. After you sand the floors down, you have to prepare the floors for sealant. The only problem if you have to do repairs ie... replace boards, stains.
The other respondants are correct. Many people are able to sand their floors with great success by renting a sander from Home Depot. Be cautious, however! I have been told by many people that the rental sanders are often not as good as what the pros use. If you don't know what you're doing, you can screw up your floors. My final word of caution is that the rental fee isn't bad on the Home Depot sanders, but you'll spend a significant amount of money on the sand paper the machines use. If I were you, I'd price it out and get a couple estimates from professional floor refinishers to see what your best deal will be. Good luck!
i'm a contractor, and yeah, those guys are pretty much correct. i would suggest hand sanding with a vibtrating or palm sander after the floor sander to even out any ruts or gouges.
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