So many projects can be a DIY, but one of the biggest ones is how to sand hardwood floors. By following a step-by-step process, you can save thousands of dollars.
The first project that we took on in our home was to sand hardwood floors. I had dabbled in floor sanding in one of our previous homes, but had never taken on five rooms, a hallway, and a staircase. One week was my timeframe. {Click HERE to see the before and after of that project.}
And then, when it came time to finish up our bedroom and home office reno projects, those felt “easy” considering the smaller amount of space. And it was. Except the type of wood gave me a little trouble. {Click HERE for the bedroom and HERE for the home office projects.}
Now it was time to give our master bedroom a makeover. {Click HERE for the full before and after.} The floors were a mess and I knew that it was better to tackle them now rather than wait. Over the course of one weekend, I sanded and stained our bedroom hardwood floors.
HOW TO SAND HARDWOOD FLOORS
Let’s start with a pep talk. You can do this! I’m not gonna lie and say it’s “easy” because it isn’t. But it’s also not hard. Sanding floors is a commitment physically and time-wise. A resolve to git ‘er done is all you need though.
Also keep thinking about all the money you are saving and how amazing your floors will look when this project is complete.
SUPPLIES NEEDED
Garbage bag
Screw driver (needed for some drum sanders)
Old towels
Drum sander and sandpaper
Paint tray and liner
CHOOSE YOUR SANDER
From my personal experience, I highly recommend renting a floor sander from a local rental company. The employees at the local rental company will be so knowledgeable and helpful with how to sand hardwood floors. You’ll get great service and advice. They can literally walk you through this entire process. You can also call them during the project and ask questions.
If you plan to sand your hardwood floors over a 1-3 day period, I suggest you rent on a Saturday. Since most local rental companies are closed on Sunday, you will end up paying the one day rental fee, but technically have the sander for almost 2 days.
For our master bedroom project, I picked up the sander at 11:30AM on Saturday and it was due back by 9AM on Monday.
Our floors are a red oak and we assume that they are original and therefore 105 years old. My best guess is that they were last sanded over 40 years ago. Based on this, the rental company recommended a drum sander and edger.
For this one room {apporixmately 450-500 square feet} I had 3 of each grit of sandpaper available. Spoiler alert: I used all 3 of the 40 grit, 2 of the 60 grit, and 1 of the 80 grit. {Inside info: return any unused sandpaper to receive a refund on the ones you did not use!}
PREP THE AREA
Remove absolutely everything from the room; even closets need to be emptied out. The dust is so fine and will cover anything in the room.
Place an old rolled up towel outside the room to seal underneath the door.
Vacuum the room to remove any particles that may get caught in the sander.
Check for any nails that may be exposed. Use a nail set to counter-sink any that may have worked their way up over the years.
GET THE SANDER READY
Follow the instructions of the rental company and put the lowest-grit sandpaper on your drum sander. Be sure to secure the screws very tightly.
Make sure the dust bag is tightly attached to the machine. Keep your garbage bag on hand, as you will periodically empty the cloth bag into it. For your first empty of the cloth bag, you can do that in the room you are working in. After that, store that garbage bag outside and empty it out there. Wood dust has the potential for spontaneous combustion, so keeping it outside is safest. {Also, empty out the sander’s bag if you plan to take a long break from sanding.}
Get your utility extension cord ready. Plug it into the wall, but not into the sander until you are ready to begin sanding. Always unplug the sander when it is not in use. {Also, keep the cord away from the sander to lessen the chance of running it over. Yes, I am speaking from experience.}
SAND HARDWOOD FLOORS SAFETY EQUIPMENT
Get yourself ready by putting on your eye and ear protection, along with a respirator. I also prefer to sand hardwood floors wearing long pants instead of shorts. This gives you an extra layer of protection in the event of debris flying out from the sander. {Also, ignore the spray foam insulation that is now permanently stuck to my respirator from a previous project.}
BEFORE FLOOR SANDING
BEGIN SANDING
Position yourself on one side of the room with your back against a wall and the sander in front of you. Double check that the switch is in the off position and plug the sander into the extension cord. Tip the drum sander back on it’s rear wheels and turn it on.
If this is your first time and loud noises make you jump, it may take a little getting used to the sound. But that is normal. You’ve got this!
Slowly begin to lower the rotating drum onto the floor. As soon as it begins to come into contact with your hardwood floor, begin moving forward. You will walk forward, going with the grain of the wood.
The sander will want to pull you and so, this moving forward is more like holding the machine back from taking off. After a few passes, you’ll get used to it and fall into a rhythm.
Some people only walk forward and then tip the sander back and roll it backwards for the next pass. Others pull the drum sander backwards, still going with the grain. I do a combination of both. If the floor only needs a forward motion, I only give it that. But some spots are more stubborn and may need a harsher sanding that can be accomplished by pulling the sander rather than pushing.
After making the first pass forward, the next one will overlap the newly sanded and the unsanded flooring.
Keep at this process, moving from from one end of the room to the next. As you become more comfortable, you’ll see what works best.
When you notice that the sander is not removing the layers as well as it did in the beginning, that is an indication that the sandpaper needs to be changed. {Always unplug the drum sander when you change the sandpaper.}
CLEAN THE MESS
Once all the previous poly and stain has been removed with the 40-grit paper, you’ll look around and see a huge mess of wood dust. The cloth bag catches a lot of airborne dust, but the leftover on the floor is completely normal.
The best way to clean this is with a utility vacuum. And yes, you should store it outside in between cleaning sessions for the same spontaneous combustion possibility.
EDGER TIME
When you rent your drum sander, they will offer you an edger. Take it! The drum sander will only get within a few inches of your walls. The stain and poly around the edge of your room needs to be sanded too. This small, but mighty, machine will remove those last few inches.
Using the 40-grit edger sandpaper, remove all of the stain and poly.
{This photo is from our homeschool nook because I didn’t get a photo in our master bedroom.}
SWITCH YOUR SANDPAPER
Change out your 40-grit for a 60-grit and follow the same exact process. This time around though, you’ll have to keep track of where you have sanded and where you have not, purely from memory. The difference will not be as visual as it was previously.
The point of changing grits is that the first removes all of the old stain and seal, along with markings. The next two are smoothing out the roughness of the 40-grit. I highly suggest running your hand over the floorboards in between grits to feel the change in the floors.
SAND, VACUUM, AND REPEAT
The entire floor has been sanded with 40-grit. Now it will be sanded with 60-grit, using the drum sander and edger. Vacuum after the 60-grit with your utility vacuum.
Now it’s time for 80-grit using the same exact process.
GET THE CORNERS
Once the main section and the edging is complete, you’ll notice that there is a small patch in every corner that neither machine could reach. The simple solution for this is to use a palm sander with a 60-grit sandpaper to remove it.
ONE FINAL CLEANING
When all of the sanding is complete and the final utility vacuum is finished, remove everything from the room. Use a rag and wipe down all of the walls, windows, baseboards, etc. Use your household vacuum to clean up all of this fine dust.
From this cleaning forward, only wear socks on your newly sanded floors. They are very sensitive to any markings or scratches until the poly has fully cured.
If possible, leave the room to sit for a day. This will give all of the dust time to fall. Again, check the windowsills and baseboards for dust and give the room one last vacuum. Another great option is to follow it up with wiping the floor with a tack cloth. This will attract and remove any last dust particles.
The reason for this thorough cleaning is that any dust left on the floor will be sealed in with the polyurethane.
READY FOR POLYURETHANE
I opted not to put any type of stain on our floors. Protecting it with polyurethane gives it the natural look I prefer. {Click HERE to find out how I came to this decision.}
Get your lambs wool applicator ready and have all your supplies on hand. Station yourself to begin working on the side furthest from the door. You’ll want to work your way out of the room as you cannot walk on the floor for at least 12 hours.
Wear your respirator for this process, open windows (check your weather first to be sure you can keep them open) and seal off the room from the rest of the house with an old towel. Oil-based polyurethane can have a sickeningly strong odor. I also close doors to other bedrooms when I do this to keep the smell out of other rooms.
Poor some of the polyurethane in the tray.
APPLY THE POLYURETHANE
Using a square foam applicator or an old paint brush, feather in the edges. Only do a few feet at a time so that you can blend it in well.
After lighting dipping in and removing any excess of the polyurethane from the lambs wool, lightly and evenly apply it. Gently place the lambs wool on the floor and lightly pull it towards you. Step back, and pull towards you again.
Move with the grain of wood and do a few floor boards at a time.
Apply more poly to the lambs wool as needed and continue across the entire room. Once you have completed the area that was initially feathered in {with the brush} now with the lambs wool, feather in a few more feet. And repeat the process with the lambs wool applicator.
Once the entire floor has a layer of polyurethane, put any remaining in the paint tray liner back into the container. Wrap plastic wrap around your brush/foam applicator and lambs wool to keep them from hardening. Store all of your supplies outside, in a garage, etc (depending upon the weather).
Keep the door closed to your flooring project and allow the windows you left open to give proper ventilation.
Follow the directions on your polyurethane for recoating times. Mine recommended 12 hours before applying the second coat. Yes, you will need another layer. Typically, 2 is plenty. But adding that second coat is so important in order to fully protect your hardwood floors.
SAND AND CLEAN
In between the two coats of polyurethane, the floors will need a light sanding. This will be accomplished with a screen sandpaper. The purpose of this is to remove any roughness, bubbles, or dust.
In a semi-gentle manner, move with the grain of the wood and sand the entire floor. One way to determine if the pressure you are applying to the screen is appropriate, is to run your hand over a few square feet of the floor. Sand that area and run your hand over it again. You should feel a noticeable difference.
Once the screen sanding is complete, use your household vacuum to clean the entire floor. Be careful with your floors at this point as they are not fully protected and cured.
Use a clean tack cloth on the floors to remove any residue that was not picked up by your vacuum.
Now it’s time for the final coat of polyurethane. Repeat the steps from above, using a new paint tray liner and re-using the brush/foam applicator and lambs wool.
No sanding with the screen is needed after this second coat of poly.
CLEAN UP AND WAIT
You are finished! Clean up all your supplies and discard the lambs wool, paint tray liner, and brush/foam applicator. Seal the lid on the remaining poly tightly and close the room off.
Now you just wait and follow the manufacturers instructions on curing time. The poly I used suggested 2-3 days until light use. I highly recommend following that. Keep in mind that this was a big project and rushing back in and messing up any of the floor isn’t worth it in the long run.
Congratulations! You are an amazing DIYer who just saved yourself thousands of dollars. And now you have earned bragging rights on how amazing your sanded hardwood floors look now!
SHOP THIS POST
PIN IT FOR LATER
Wow Leigh lot of work you did, and yet a beeeautiful job done – stand up and take a bow Friend for you deserve it!!
Thank you, Julie! You are very sweet.
My husband is a certified hardwood flooring installer through the NWFA (National Wood Floors Association). We had carpet in our house throughout and he finally had an opportunity last summer to replace all our carpet with hardwoods. We went with White Oak flooring. I had never watched this stuff be installed before. Oh my goodness….the amount of work put into installation sure explains why it costs so much to have it installed. But I will never look back! I love my flooring and I’m lucky that my hubby had the equipment and the knowledge to do it. It can by DIY’d but people need to make sure not to cut corners or skip steps. That’s the only way, like you, to get the end result you are proud to show off! Great job and great care to follow the correct steps – especially with very flammable wood dust!
Yay! Your floor is probably amazing since you had him do it. 😉 It’s a ton of work and I applaud him for that tough job.
Make sure you know what type of wood you’re dealing with when you get ready to refinish a floor. It’s relatively easy to refinish a true hardwood such as oak or maple. If the floor is pine, it’s a little more difficult to deal with, but with care, you can create a beautiful floor. Engineered wood floors, however, typically aren’t good candidates for refinishing, as the veneer on the top comes right off as soon as you start sanding.
Absolutely and exactly why I mentioned hardwood and oak for our floors.
I really found this article informative! All the information provided by you is really helpful for all. By using a tack cloth we can easily remove small dust particles from the surface and make our project dust-free. Thank you for sharing! Keep posting! Keep sharing!