Refurbishing Wooden Flooring
Posted by Admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 20-03-2010
Tags: Wooden Flooring
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Wooden floors are a popular choice of flooring for your home, providing warmth and comfort but also being resilient and fairly durable too. If your wooden floor does happen to be showing its age a little, floor sanders will have them looking as good as new, and are one of the cheapest ways of giving a room a new look.
Set aside a weekend for the task and prepare to get yourself a little dusty, but the dramatic results will be worth it!
Preparatory Tip: Sanding is noisy task and more suited to daytime to avoid disturbing any neighbours.
Step 1: Pull up any old floor coverings and remove as much furniture as possible, including pictures and curtains. It’s a good idea to make sure you have everything you need in the room and seal around doors with masking tape to stop dust escaping over the rest of the house. Open windows and exterior doors to allow the dust to escape.
Use dust sheets to cover any remaining items left in the room. To avoid injury or ripping the sanding sheets, hammer down any protruding nails in the floorboards with a hammer and nail punch.
Step 2: Work diagonally across the boards with the floor sander. Should your boards be in good condition and stain free, start with medium grade sanding sheets. Should the boards have stains, opt for coarse grade sheets. It is important to move slowly across the room, overlapping each strip and keeping the sander moving to prevent ruts from forming. Crisscrossing the room is a good tactic to remove stubborn stains.
Step 3: Once the flooring is stain free, swap to medium grade sheets and sand in the direction of the boards. Use a fine abrasive to finish off, working up and down the boards. Remember to empty the dust collection bag regularly, as the bag is liable to burst with the weight of the dust.
Step 4: Now use the round edging sander to finish off the edges of the room. Begin with coarse discs and work through the sanding grades in the same way. Aim to work as close to the skirting boards as possible. Use a small orbital sander to reach into the tight corners of the room. Alternatively, use a wooden block wrapped in abrasive paper. An chisel is a useful tool for scraping dirt out of the corners.
Step 5: Finally, take all the materials and tools out of the room and give the floor a thorough vacuum. Use a cloth dampened with white spirit to eliminate finer dust by wiping over the new surface. It is essential the boards are sealed with a clear wood finish or paint. If you would like to keep the natural grain of the timber visible, go for a quick drying acrylic floor varnish.
Use a brush to apply at least two coats, adding an additional third coat for hard wearing areas such as hallways.
Following these easy steps will have your floor looking shiny and new in no time!


