Sanding wood floors

[Anonymous]

My son has just bought a house and moves in today. He wants to hire equipment to sand the two parquet type floors downstairs over the weekend ( they'll be living upstairs while all this is going on!)
Any tips on how it should be done? My first thought is that after the first pass with the belt sander will clog up the grit rapidly, and so one of those belt cleaners would be worthwhile. I've also heard of alternatives like an old tennis shoe, but am not sure what kind of material is needed -ie type of rubber.
These large industrial type belt sanders come with a dust bag. How efficient are they? Would I be better to take over by dust extractor? I don't know what size of hose connection I would need.
Also, is there an urgency to seal the floor after sanding? My son thought that he could just put the old carpet back on top to protect the floor as he's getting a plasterer in to skim the walls next!

Alan

PS long time no post, but I've been watching regularly!

 

[mahking51]

I would do the plastering first!
If not, sealing the floor is vital as you will get all sorts of rubbish on the new surface otherwise.
rgards
Martin

 

[Anonymous]

Personally I would do all other work first, and leave the sanding until last. The last thing you want is turps or something spilled on unprotected wood. (Accidents do happen, and according to Murphy's law, they will)
If you are hiring a sander, make sure it does edge to edge, otherwise you need the small edge sander as well. The belts are not too bad for clogging, but they throw up an enormous amount of fine dust. Wearing a mask and eye protection is essential. Keep the windows open too, if it is not raining.
I would avoid putting a carpet back on untreated wood too. The old carpets will be full of dust, and possibly solvents if they have been cleaned in the recent past.

Have fun

Tom

 

[Les Mahon]

I speak from bitter experience when I say DON'T sand the floor untill after the plaster is done, I tried it, and sealed the floor with one coat of diamond sela, and covered completly with heavy guage plastic, then the plasterer showed up (finnaly!) and when I took the plastic up I had to re sand the floor, the plaster duist gets under the plastic in areas and acts as a lovely abrasive in those areas!

Also, I would not worry about cleaning the belts, most hire shops do sale or return on the belts, just get lots and bring back what you don't use, the price of the sanding sheets is minimal in the overall cost.

Also, how bad is the floor? I did a parquet one for my siste in holland and it was not too bad so I got a grown up "orbital" sander which did a lovely job and was far less agresive than the huge belt sander.

Les

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies guys. Sounds like a dusty job, maybe we should reconsider doing it until later.
Does anyone know what adhesive is used to lay parquet flooring? One of my concerns is that when we lift the whole carpet, there may be some 'fingers' missing which we'd have to replace using pieces cannibalised from a floor in an adjoining room.

 

[Taffy Turner]

It depends on how old the floor is.

Old floors used to be laid using pitch. I am not sure what superseded pitch though, I am sure someone else will be along soon who does know.

Regards

Gary

 

[ProShop]

Does anyone know what adhesive is used to lay parquet flooring? One of my concerns is that when we lift the whole carpet, there may be some 'fingers' missing which we'd have to replace using pieces cannibalised from a floor in an adjoining room.

The old floors used to be layed as Gary mentions with pitch, but nowadays they are laid with a mild adhesive specially for wood block floors. it's the same colour as pitch and air dries very quickly.

If it's just a few loose fingers you can gently reheat the pitch and quickly put fingers back in place.

Having laid just about every type of wood flooring in the past, I can vouch for the other members who advocate getting all the other work done first and make the sanding the last job. If you hire a sanding machine get some really rough papers on the floor first to cut through the sealants and polish etc off first, then as soon as you get onto the wood proper, start using smoother papers. One other tip if your new to this, avoid sanding in the same direction each time to avoid tram lines forming.

Hope this helps.

 

[Aragorn]

I've done a few oak parquet floors. I've always used those big industrial circular sanders that look like floor polishing machines, as I have been worried about chewing up the floor with a regular drum sander.
The discs get clogged up really quickly in my experience, but it is a small part of the overall cost, and there's just no point battling away with a clogged up disc on oak!
I have always been quite impressed with the dust extraction on these machines, but have noticed it seems to vary from model to model.

Definitely seal the floor immediately!!! You can get 3 coats of water based floor varnish down in a day. It'll be a day well spent if the plasterer is coming in after the floor is finished!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I appreciate it. I think my son is persuaded!