Any tips on Sanding / Staining & varnishing fl

Travelqueen

I'm intending to sand, stain and varnish the old pine boards in my house.

I've spent the weekend ripping up carpet and laminate (not a fan personally), hammering down nails and finding boards with woodworm (agghhh!) which I'm going to replace.

I'm hiring a sander etc from this company http://www.floorsanderhire.com/index.htm who claim their sanders are better than the rest (we'll see), but, having not done it before I wondered if anyone had any tips?

I'm particularly concerned about getting the staining / varnishing right.. and where I'm going to sleep whilst waiting for things to dry!

Any tips greatly appreciated

TQ

divadee

Always go with the grain of the wood to get a nice finish. Thats what my grandad drummed into me

Also when sanding have all the windown open, and the door closed the dust will get absolutely everywhere.

5150

Some old pine floors are coated with a tar like substance, so sometimes you need to get that off with a paint removing chemical before sanding, otherwise it'll just clog up the sandpaper, which for hired push along sanders is pretty expensive

I find it hard to dedicate an entire day to sanding So I've sanded a couple of floors in stages using a Belt sander I bought from a diy store. It cost about £30, you can get the belts here https://www.toolstation.com about £10 for 14 of them. With the really coarse ones (40 grade) you can get the job done quicker. Then go over with 120 grade.


When its all sanded, hoover it up then mop the floor with clear water to get all the dust off before varnishing.

Also, if you're planning on using a darker stain on a pine floor (mahogany for example) you don't have to sand the wood quite as clean as you do for a clear varnish.

Once the first coat of varnish is dry, run your hand over it and you should find it feels a little rough, a quick rub with some 120 grade paper will smooth it off, this is just as quickly (and a lot less noisily) done by hand.

Oh, wear earplugs when you're using a sander, not only will they protect your hearing, you'll find the job less worrying if you can't hear the awful racket you're making ;-)

misty

Don't do it - it's a nightmare!!!!!

Make sure the nails are well knocked down - even when they seem to be down - do it a bit more or the paper rips. Make sure you have everything you need in the room so you don't have to risk the dust getting out. Take into account it may take twice as long as you anticipate but will look FAB in the end.