Belt sanding floorboards - equipment hire - how much ??

Krasnoludek

Hi there

We are hoping to belt sand our front room floor shortly. We did our dining room floor in Nov and it looks nice.

We hadnt done it before and are fairly crap and naive when it comes to DIY.
The varnish we bought was way too dark even though it looked fairly pale on the tub and set us back £50.00

We were charged about £160 for the hire of the belt sander and the sanding sheets, some of which we got back when it was returned. We hired a package that included a small sander for the corners which wasnt that great and also hired it for the weekend even though we had finished it in one day. Our house is a Victorian detached in the style of a terrace, built 1895.

Anyone offer any advice to a pair of amateurs!

K xx

rdpro

http://www.brandontoolhire.co.uk/directory/prodView.asp?idproduct=437

73 quid for a week.

Use a standard sander for corners (or one of those 'mouse' sanders with the triangle area - got a cheapo one from BnQ for about 12 quid), save some of the wood dust to mix with pva to use as a gap filler if you want sealed boards. I chose a clear varnish for the boards I did in a previous home.

Krasnoludek

Hi

Thanks for that. Where does it say about the sheets you use though on the website

Thanks

K x

jcorbygas

When I sanded the old floorboards in our loft in France we bought our own Metabo sander which came with a lot of sanding discs and had an attachment which fitted into our Henry vacuum so that not much dust was made. It was hard work (20foot by 15foot) but it got right to the edges as it was a circular sander. You can buy them from Screwfix or possibly cheaper elsewhere for around the same price that you paid to hire your belt sander, and at least if you want to do another room you dont pay anything else apart from maybe some more sanding discs. You could also charge your friends to hire it!!
After sanding I then went over the floor with white spirit and when that had dried used a purpose made floor wax and it looks great.