So you've decided to tackle floor sanding on your own. While a cynical contractor would say "Great! They will give up and call me in no time!" I have definitely seen some amateurs sand and finish their own floor, but it's certainly not easy and you will spend much more time doing this than you expect. So clear your schedule and buy some dust masks.
STEP 1: Dust Containment
I cannot stress this enough, sanding floors is a dusty process. Those who have done their own home improvemnet projects might be no strangers to dust, but this is a whole different enchilada. All of the sanding machines you will rent create dust! Sanding and dust go hand in hand.
I truly recommend that you hang plastic. Cover the faces of your cabinets, seal off rooms that you will not be working in, bookcases, sinks ect. Anything that you do not want to dust or clean, I recommend sealing off with plastic sheeting. Remember to keep the plastic tight to whatever its covering and off of the floor that you are about to sand.
Here's a video of some plastic that I hung on a hardwood refinishing project in Arvada Colorado for an example.
Items and Tools you will need to complete this part of the job; HDX Clear Painters Plastic, scotch contractor grade tape, Scissors, and a ladder.
STEP 2: Renting or Obtaining the Tools and Supplies
Hardwood sanders are incredibly expensive. If you were going to go out and buy all of the tools you need for this project you would end up spending up to or well over $15,000. During this article I will stick to what you can rent from your local Home Depot and items you can buy there or online...Okay so maybe I recommend a stain that is only available at Lowes, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank have mercy on me.
The most common mistake people make when they begin sanding their hardwood floor is using an incorrect machine. Most people will run out to Home Depot and rent a square buff. Please do not rent this machine. It is not strong enough to sand your floor. This machine is designed as a very fine sander for abrading finish coats, not for complete resurfacing or color changes. The square buffer is certainly not the machine you will make your first cut with.
The first machine that you will need to rent from Home Depot in your new DIY hardwood refinishing endeavor will be a Clarke American EZ 8 drum sander.
Now you're cookin', look at you, this is borderline professional!
By renting this drum sander you are miles ahead of a ton of other failed amateur hard wood floor sanders. You have the proper tool for the job and you are on your way to being a hardwood hero! Be sure to get multiple belts of 40 grit and 100 grit sandpaper for this machine. You're going to use a lot of sandpaper depending on the size of your floor. Predicting EXACTLY how much sandpaper you will need is a guessing game, every floor has a different level of hardness and some old floors can be quite gummy, both of which result in excessive sandpaper use.
The second machine you will need is a Clarke American Super 7R Edger. This sander will help you get most of the areas the drum sander will not. for this machine you will need 40 grit and 100 grit discs as well.
Thirdly, you will need to rent a Clarke American Sanders 16" Buffer or RS16., This will be the final machine you run over your hardwood floor before staining and finishing it. This machine will cut with a sanding screen and not sandpaper. A sanding screen is a circular cut aluminum oxide disc that looks just like the screen on your home windows to keep bugs out, though it functions much differently. This screen is designed to sand the hardwood much more gently than sandpaper, as it sits on a soft white buffer pad instead of a hard rubber drum like the EZ8 Belts or Edger discs. A screen will even leave the floor looking polished when you're done.
You will need 100 or 120 grit screens for this machine and I would recommend 2 for every 800 square ft you are refinishing.
For a truly perfect sandjob, I suggest you obtain is palm sander, this will help sand out edger marks along the edges of the floor where the edger and drum sander meet. A common tell between a true professional hardwood refinisher and an amateur is the amount of sanding marks left in the floor. Here's an example of these sanding marks.
SUPPLY LIST
On top of the machines, you will also need more tools and other items.. I suggest obtaining a hand scraper, file, nail set, trash bags, Woodwise Trowable filler, a trowel, a white edger pad, a rigid wet/dry shop vac, floor brush vacuum accessory, Minwax Wood Finish Oil-Based Semi-Transparent stain, a mixing bucket, 3 2" chip brushes, gloves, Bona Demo Waterbase Finish, Duratool mop head, sanding screens (preferably in 120 grit), a white buffer pad, broom handle, and a hammer.
Now that you have enough tools in your home to be a hardwood refinishing contractor, it's time for step 3.
STEP 3: Rough Sanding with the Clarke American EZ8
Now that you have what feels like a ridiculous amount of tools for such a "simple" task it's time to actually begin sanding the floor. The first sanding is going to be with the most course grit you have attained. Hopefully somewhere in the ballpark of 40 grit. You're going to slide on your 40 grit sanding belt, and plug in the machine. IN THAT ORDER.
I'm not going to go into extravagant detail about how to run this machine. I'm just going to give you some advanced pointers on floor sanding that the person working the counter at the Home Depot can't give you. If you'd like a very detailed operating and trouble shooting manual for the EZ 8 American Sanders Drum Sander, you can find it here.
Sanding a floor with a drum sander is a dance. It's all about the motion of the ocean! The machine only cuts floor when the drum is down, and it only cuts it well when you're slowly moving. It's very important that you only lower or raise the drum of the sander while youre moving at a slow walking pace. At no point should you stop moving with the drum down sanding the floor, this is a constant process of movement and feathering your stops. Here's a little video demonstration of what I'm talking about.
(On your intial cut its okay to go on a 45 degree angle like I do in this video, but all of your following cuts should be made with the grain, following the boards long ways!)
Notice that I lower the drum of the sander just before I start moving and lift it just before i stop. This is a crucial step in sanding your floor. Failure to be moving or walking at a slow pace while lowering the drum of the sander can result in what we call "drum marks". Which look like the picture below. This is the last thing you want. Drum marks are very difficult to repair. Most hardwood refinishing contractors will charge you extra to repair a floor with a lot of drum marks.
Slowly walk as you run the machine and lift or lower the drum only if you're in motion. A nice pro tip when running any floor sander is to let the machine do all the work! Do not press the drum into the floor as you sand. Simply let the machine work.
Working from right to left, continue to make passes with the EZ8 drum sander and be sure you're overlapping your previous passes by as much as 80%. Continue this process until the floor is free of all the old finish, stain, dents and all scratches. Here is a fast forward video of me rough sanding with my old Bona Prosand machine.
My old 8" Bona ProSand runs from left to right, opposite of the EZ8, but the technique is still the same. If you have a particular mark that isn't coming out, be sure to sand a bigger area than just the mark when trying to remove it. The hardwood floor in the video above had a lot of wear and tear by the back slding door from kids and dogs coming in and out. So, I sanded that whole area multiple times. Sanding the whole greater area repeatedly and not just repeating the same pass over and over keeps the floor flat and doesn't sand or dig holes into the wood..
Remember to change paper as needed and to dump your dust bag into some 2 or 3mil trash bags when it is 1/3 full! Also dump the bag far way from the home and any trees, preferably into a trashbag sitting on concrete or green grass. I could write a whole entire blog just on fire safety in hardwood floor refinishing, but instead I will link pages 2=3 of the safety manual for the American Sanders EZ8 that you can rent at Home Depot.
Now after enough passes with your floor sander, you should have a floor that looks an even, clean, whitish tone, like at the end of my last video! It's time to move on to step 4!
Step 4: Rough Edging with the Clarke American Sanders Super 7R Edger
The funny thing about hardwood sanding is that there's no one way to do this right. 8 seperate hardwood refinishing mechanics could sand, stain and finish a floor 8 different ways and the floor would turn out great by all 8 of them!
That being said, here's the way I run my edger; I start right at the edge of the field, just where the drum sander stopped cutting, and I cut it all clean from left to right up to the wall and then go over the area again going forward and backwards. Here's a quick video of me running an edger.
The trick is in the last step, where I straighten up. LIke the American EZ8, the edger is a machine you don't want to stop moving while using. You can truly get a good idea of how flat and smooth your work is by running your hand/palm over the area you are edging or drum sanding. Remember you want this floor to be flat, you don't want any gouges/edger marks, or drum marks.
Now that you have the whole hardwood floor all rough sanded, its time to fill.
Step 5: Filling the floor
Before filling the floor it is important to get it clean. Use your rigid shop vac to vacuum the entire floor. Now you can spot fill just the areas you would like or you can trowel the filler across the entire floor like I demonstrate in these pictures.
When trowelling wood filler on your hardwood floor, you want it to be as THIN as possible. Remember, you have to sand all of this off. After you're done filling you should let the floor dry for a few hours or overnight depending on the relative humidity in your region. Once the floor is dry, its time to repeat the process we've just gone over.
Step 6: Fine Sanding
You're going to go back over the floor again with the EZ8, only this time you're going to use your 100 grit sandpaper. Take your time and be sure to use the filler as a guide. Make sure you're taking all of the filler off as you slowly work a 2" pass at a time. Heres an epic action shot of me in the middle of fine sanding a floor with my Bona Prosand:
Notice what I mean when i say "use the filler as a guide." You can clearly tell what part of the floor i have fine sanded and what part I have not. Remember to let the drum sander do all the work. You're going to gently lower or lift the drum only when moving. The more steady and slow your pace is, the better the sandjob will look. The final cut with the drum sander should always be with in the direction with the grain of the wood. Notice I'm following the length of the boards across the floor.
Follow up the drum sander with the edger. Same exact process as the video i showed before except this time you will be using 100 grit sandpaper.
Here is an industry secret and pro tip for your fine edging. If you can get your hands on a white edger sanding pad, this will GREATLY reduce the amount of palm sanding/scraping you will have to do later in order to get out your edger marks or gouges. It also helps the edger sand much more gently and flatter. The goal is the same here, evenly flatten the area where the drum sander and edger meet, and remove all the filler.
Step 7: Palm Sanding
Everywhere that you ran the edger, you are now going to run your palm sander. This will be kind of a grueling process as i recommend getting a flashlight and shining it as you go to make sure you are truly getting out all of the edger marks or drum sander marks if they are there as well.
After you've palm sanded a good section of floor where you have edged, take your flashlight and shine it close and perpendicular to the floor. Not from the top down. This will help reveal sanding marks. When you can no longer find any edger marks, drum sander marks, or gouges, move onto a new section. Do this everywhere you ran the edger.
This isn't a palm sander I'm running in the photo above ,but you can see where I'm using my iPhone as a light and shining it across the floor. This will reveal the sanding marks for you to palm sand out.
Most hardwood mechanics may not do this, but I sure do!
Step 8: Toe Kicks and Cabinets
For the average person who doesn't binge HGTV, a toe kick refers to the space under the cabinet where your feet go. Toe kick space allows you to be able to stand close to your counter or sinks. Here's a video of me sanding a hardwood toekcik a Makita DRE13 machine.
Sanding hardwood under toe kicks and under bathroom vanities is a much easier with this machine, but unfortunately I don't believe this is one tool you can rent at home depot. And with an $800 price tag for a one time use, this might be one tool you'll have to live without. You're going to have to handle your toe kicks the same way you're going to have to handle your corners and nosings.
Step 9: Scraping
Have you ever heard of the Abraham Lincoln quote "“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe.”? Well it definitely applies here! You're going to take your file, or the edger, and sharpen the blade on your scraper until you can pull some wood shavings off of the floor. Everybody's angle is a little different because we all hold the scraper a little different so it will take some time for you to get your scraper nice and sharp, but here's a video online of a guy getting his scraper sharp for an example. When you've sharpened your scraper,, here's how you scrape a corner in your hardwood floor.
You can see that after I scrape the corner, I hand sand it a little as well. This is also very important. Take this method and scrape all the remaining old finish on your floor, your toekicks, all corners, nosings, door jambs ect.
Using your rigid shop vac and bristle brush head, vacuum the entire floor free of all shavings and dust because its time to screen.
Step 10: Screening/Buffing
This is it, your final sanding process on the bare wood. You've come so far! Take your first sanding screen and place it flat on the floor in an open area. Then set the white pad on it and finally bufferplate on top of that. Check that the American Sanders RS16DC is off after you have plugged it in, then set it over the plate. While the machine is still off, spin the buffer around on the buffer plate until it locks in and lower the handle as low as you can. Lock the handle in place and when you're all ready to go you should look something like this.
Except maybe not that ruggedly handsome. The lower you have the buffer handle adjusted (close to your waist), the more control you are going to have over this machine while operating it. Do not underestimate the strength of a floor buffer, I have nearly broken my arm when this machine turned on unexpectedly and I tried to grab it. See this comical gif where this poor guy couldve broken his neck running this machine.
When the handle is locked in and lowered, start the machine. While the buffer is running move the handle down to move the machine left and lift up on the handle to move it right. Take your time in an open area to get a feel for running this machine, do not go into tight rooms, hallways or bathrooms until you are comfortable.
Now, bear with me here, I know these are amatuer drawings, but if you want a floor that turns out this well...
Here is the step by step technique I use to screen a hardwood floor before staining. Room by room follow these steps.
A. At a very slow pace, I go around the edges as close to the wall or baseboard as I can, two times.
B. I run the buffer back and forth, up and down the "butt walls" (walls that the boards run into and not along) 3 times. This will help blend in the edges with the field of the floor.
C. I cross the floor off at a 45 degree angle, wall to wall 2 times. Be sure to overlap each pass by about 8".
D. I straighten up on the floor 2 times, by running the buffer down and back in the direction of the boards, overlapping by about 8' on each pass with the machine.
If you are doing a multiple room project save this frist screen after you have finished step D, and remember which side was down. This screen will now be your finishing screen for any additonal rooms. For additional rooms you may put down a new 120 grit screen for steps A through C and then put on your "finishing screen" for step D. Using the same finishing screen in each room will help all of the rooms stain the same color. Hardwood flooring is a fickle beast and using a new finishing screen for step D in different rooms can result in those rooms being a different color upon staining.
The life of your finishing screen is unlimited, but for steps A through C you can usually get around 800 square ft per side.
Now may be the time to put down a tiny sample of your chosen stain color to make sure you like it. Shake your can of Minwax Oil Based Semi Transparent Stain up, take off the lid and dip a rag in just enough to get the rag a little wet. Take the stain rag and wipe it on a small area on the floor and then wipe it off with a clean part of the rag.. Have a heartfelt moment alone and decide whether you like your chosen color. If not, try a new color and repeat the process. When you're happy with the color, palm sand the samples off, dispose of that dust promply as it is a fire hazard and screen over the area with your finish screen 7 times.
Remember to stick your rags in wet bucket when you're done with them, oily stain rags are an incredible fire hazard! Here is a link to a video about fire safety and oily rags.
Congratulations your floor is now completely sanded. Take your Rigid Shop Vac and the Floor Brush attachment, clean the floor thoroughly, getting absolutely all dust and debris vacuumed up. The cleaner it is, the better. So be sure to take your time.
Step 11: Staining
I recommend using only Minwax Wood Finish Oil-Based Semi-Transparent Interior Stain. offered by Lowes exclusively. Minwax stains are very user friendly and easy to work with. They are also the parent company to Duraseal, a good, long standing professional stain and finish company that has been around for over 100 years. You will have a huge variety of color options with Minwax. Find one that you like and buy 1 quart for every 250 square feet of hardwood floor you have to stain.
Put on your gloves, then shake each quart of stain up well and dump them into your mixing bucket. Using your chip brush, mix all of the quarts together in the bucket. The stain is ready to go!
Take one rag and designate it your "wipe on rag". This will be the rag you dip into the bucket and rub the stain into the floor with. Work in small strips running across the floor in the direction the boards run. After you wipe on a strip you will need to immediately wipe off all excess with clean rags. This is is the most important part of the process because it is incredibly important to remove all that excess off of the floor.
These rags, both wipe on and wipe off rags, are incedible fire hazards! Dispose of them properly and in accordance with your local fire station's recommendation. Again I will link this fire safety video.
Congratulations, your floor is now stained! I trust the youth would refer to it as "Bussin'!" It's time to let the floor dry overnight. Yes, I know some cans say less time, but I strongly encourage letting a freshly stained hardwood floor dry overnight. Tomorrow it will be time to put on your finish coats!
Step 12: Finishing
I truly recommend Bona Domo Waterbase Finish for a DIY Hardwood Refinishing project. This is an incredibly user friendly product and it will leave you with a great looking floor.
You're going to start off by, you guessed it, vacuuming the floor. It is very important that you vacuum up all of those little rag shreds left on the floor from the staining process. The cleaner the floor, the better your finish job will look, so feel free to vacuum it 2-3 times if you want. it's very important that the floor is clean before finish is applied.
Applying waterbase finish onto a hardwood floor is easily done using a process called "snowplowing". Working towards an exit point, with medium pressure and an angle, you are going to use your Duratool applicator pad (attached to a broom handle) to drag this puddle line across the room. It sounds really complicated, but don't worry, I have a video of myself and my grandfather coating a floor using this technique.
When you reach the end of what you're able to drag, or if you have smaller areas, just spread the finish as even as you can. You can even use a cheap paintbrush. Just make sure that all of your final strokes are with the grain of the wood. A pro tip with this finish: *DO NOT WORRY ABOUT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE WET OR DRYING* give this finish 4-6 hours before you judge it's appearance and do not attempt to touch up anything until the floor is fully dry. Waterbase hardwood floor finish is very ugly during the drying process and after only one coat it's not going to look pretty. But after that second coat dries it is going to look great! Lastly, and very importantly, be sure to wash your mops and brushes out with dish soap, and rinse them thoroughly after each use or they will harden up and become unusable.
You're going to repeat this process 3 times to completely finish your floor with 3 coats of Bona Domo.
Here is a photo of a red oak hardwood floor, stained Golden Brown, that I finished with 3 coats of Bona Domo Stain Matte finish.
. Sanding and finishing a hardwood floor is a much more drawn out and complex process than most people expect. It takes a lot of tools, know how and finesse to complete the job, but it can be done by an amateur with enough extra time and sweat..
Although you may have just read or scrolled through all of this guide and thought "No way I'm doing all that", so for you there's definitely a contractor or company near by that can get the job done for anywhere between $3 and $10 per square foot.
Happy Sanding!
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