Pine Floor Boards Sanding - A Quick DIY Guide

Pine floor boards sanding is best left to floor sanding companies that offer professional floor sanding services. However, we can understand if you feel like doing it yourself rather than paying for expert floor sanding services. This article gives you a few tips to help you.

At the very start, let us state that pine floor boards sanding is a task that is best left to home improvement and floor sanding companies that offer professional floor restoration services. This is especially so if you are not sure about your ability to handle this delicate and complex task, and want to save both time and effort. Having said that, we can understand if you feel that you would prefer to do it yourself rather than pay for floor sanding services from experts. Here are a few tips, to help you with your pinewood floor sanding:

• You should rent floor sanding machines to reduce labor and save time. You will need two sanding machines: belt floor sanding machine  for the main parts of the floor and edging floor sander.
• Before you start sanding you should choose sand paper of different grits if you want to replicate the effect that you would have got through professional floor sanding services. You should at least work with four types of grits. You can go for 40 grit, 60 grit, 80 grit and 120 grit sand paper; this range comprises medium-coarse to very fine textures.
• Remove baseboards and trims with a trim pry bar, numbering them carefully for easy reinstallation before you start the floor sanding. After that, check the floor for nails or screws that protrude above the surface. Secure them back before you begin sanding. Fill any gaps in the floor boards with a solvent based resin, if they are small. Fill bigger ones with narrow wood strips.
• Put on safety glasses and a dust mask, even if the sanding machine has an inbuilt dust collection unit. Fit a medium grit sanding disk, which would be the 40 grit, on the pad of the upright orbital sander according to the manufacturer's directions. Start at one end of the room. Turn on the machine and move forward, holding the machine in front. You should move in the direction that the planks run. When you reach the other end, turn the machine off, move to the adjoining planks, turn around and begin sanding again. Don’t press down the machine, or linger too long in any area, or else your floors could be damaged. Use the hand sander in the same way, passing it over the floor in the direction of the boards, and not stopping in any area for too long.
• Sand the floor using the 60, 80 and 120 grit textures one after another, remembering to vacuum the floor in between each change. After vacuuming again, apply a stain of your choice, according to the manufacturer’s instructions, going in the direction of the grain. Wipe off excess stain.
• After the stain dries completely, apply a semi-gloss finish to the floor with a medium pile roller. Let it dry and sand it with the 150 grit sandpaper. Vacuum, and repeat as many times as specified by the manufacturer.