How should I restore my floorboards?

Robokid40

Guys, I have just taken my carpets of and there are floardboards underneath. They are really dirty and have gaps in them. I need to remove the gaps as I am an allergy sufferer and cannot tolerate dust. Anyway I have been doing some reading and just want to jump right in and do a quick job but am worried I am missing somethings. Anyway please read what I am planinng and please address the concerns I have. I am planning on the following steps in this order:

Step 1. Hire any good sanding machine and sand all wood until it becomes clean and looks even.
a) How can I ensure here that all my boards will be even?
b) Do I need to remove any nailing and put them back in or can i just sand over it?
c) i'm not sure what type of wood i have and don't know how to find out. Will I be safe just getting any decent sanding machine from a hire job or must I get a specific one?

Step 2. Use a quality vaccum cleaner and hoover gaps and newly sanded floor.

Step 3.Put rubber gap filler inbetween gaps
a) Does the rubber gap lace filler even work? i don't care about the looks, i just want to prevent dust and odours rising due to my allergies
b) should placing the rubber filler be step 1 so that no new dust goes into the ground when sanding?

Step 4: coat floor with any decent varnish.
a) Do I need a machine for this or do I just paint over?

The whole thing doesn't have to be perfect, I just want a clean floor and protection against allergies. Please answer all the question i need to move on this fast my dust allergy is killing me. Cheers.

Jaynne

Nails and screws need to flat to the floor to not damage the sander - you can get a nail punch to help flatten them which are only a few pounds.

How big are your gaps? If they're less than 5mm you may be able to get away with using a sawdust + resin mixture to fill them which will at least be similar to your floorboard colour. Otherwise you can look at using reclaimed slivers that you can hammer between the boards. I've seen others suggest twisted twine and glue to fill.

Varnish is painted on with a roller - you will want at least three coats but this is the easy part and takes no time compared to the rest.

SailorSam

I agree with Jaynne about using sawdust, you'll get bags of it at pet shops, or if there are any workshops in your area that do any woodwork/carpentry they may have loads of the stuff you could have for free.