How To Sand Your Hardwood Floors: A Step-by-Step Guide

Sanding your hardwood floors could appear to be like an scary residence renovation task. Nonetheless, with the ideal instruments, a tiny little bit of elbow grease, and the next guidebook, you’ll be able to sand your floors like a professional!

Let us break down the actions you will need to have to stick to to properly sand your hardwood flooring.

How to prepare your hardwood floor right before sanding?

The 1st action is to crystal clear out the region and get rid of any furniture or rugs. Once the place is empty, you’ll want to sweep and vacuum the floor to get rid of any filth or debris.

The area doesn’t need to be completely vacant but it will absolutely sure make the position a whole lot much easier if it is.

If any nails are sticking up, use a hammer to generate them flush with the flooring.

Upcoming, you will have to clean up your hardwood flooring. To start with, vacuum and mop with a pH-neutral cleaner. Then, go more than the ground with a tack fabric to eliminate any residual dust.

Now that the home is prepped and all set, we can go on to the upcoming step: selecting the correct instruments for the career.

What are the finest resources to sand hardwood flooring?

There are a couple of distinct options when it comes to sanding your hardwood floors. You can either use an electric sander, a hand-held sander, or sandpaper.

If you are preparing on leasing a sander, we advise employing an electrical sander. They’re significantly much easier to maneuver and will save you a whole lot of time and effort.

Hand-held sanders are best for tiny spots or limited spaces. If you have a lot of ground to cover, we do not advise applying a hand-held sander as it will get eternally and your arm will be very sore by the close!

You can examine out this guide on the very best electric ground sanders in 2022.

Sandpaper is the most tedious option but it will get the work carried out. If you are sanding by hand, make absolutely sure to use larger grit sandpaper to start off with and then move to a lessen grit as you development.

How to sand a hardwood flooring?

Now that you have your instruments, it’s time to start sanding! If you’re applying an electric sander, make positive to browse the guidance meticulously in advance of you get started.

Begin in the farthest corner of the place and get the job done your way backwards in the direction of the doorway. This will make it easy to get out when you’re concluded!

Use even, regular strokes, and really don’t implement also much pressure. You want to sand off the leading layer of the end but you never want to destruction the wooden beneath.

Function in little sections and transfer the sander slowly but surely to make sure you don’t overlook any spots.

Do-it-yourself vs Employing a professional

Now that you know how to sand hardwood flooring, you may be pondering if it’s worth it to employ a professional.

Choosing a qualified may well seem costlier than undertaking it oneself but it will conserve you a great deal of time and effort.

A specialist will also be ready to do a greater work considering that they have far more experience, as a result saving you time on any potential do-overs.

Hiring a specialist can also be less expensive in the prolonged operate as they will have access to much better excellent gear and sandpaper.

Is hiring a experienced cheaper than sanding your very own hardwood floors?

The reply to this concern depends on a handful of factors. If you are preparing on sanding a massive place, it will absolutely be less costly to seek the services of a expert.

Just after all, some common sanding mistakes can be pretty high priced, these as sanding way too deeply and harmful the wooden or working with the mistaken form of sandpaper and ruining the finish.

These mistakes could guide to you possessing to switch the entire ground, which would be substantially much more expensive than choosing a professional in the first location!

We strongly advocate you employ a expert if you are scheduling on sanding a large home or if you have never sanded flooring ahead of.

Finishing your hardwood flooring sanding task

The moment you’re completed sanding, it is time to utilize a new end. This will guard your floors and make them glance shiny and new!

There are a several unique kinds of finishes you can opt for from, these types of as oil-centered, water-based mostly, or polyurethane.

We propose using a h2o-centered complete as it is less smelly and less difficult to implement.

Once you’ve preferred your complete, comply with the guidance on the can and use it evenly across the flooring.

Make confident to do this in a well-ventilated region as the fumes can be pretty solid!

Right after the finish has dried, you need to vacuum and mop the ground to clear away any dust or debris.

You should also stay away from strolling on the ground for at the very least 12 hrs to give the end time to established.

Lengthy expression maintenance of your hardwood flooring

Now that you’ve sanded and concluded your hardwood floors, you’ll want to preserve them seeking their most effective!

To do this, you ought to vacuum and mop the floor often. You should really also stay clear of going for walks on the ground with sneakers as this can problems the finish.

Rather, you can use house slippers or set down rugs in large-targeted visitors areas.

If you acquire these measures, your hardwood flooring will continue to be hunting lovely for several years to occur!

If you have any spills, make guaranteed to cleanse them up instantly as this can damage the finish.

For much more stubborn stains, you can use a moderate cleaner and a delicate fabric. Just be confident to keep away from severe chemical compounds as these can problems the wood.

Wrapping up

Sanding your hardwood flooring can be a overwhelming undertaking but it is surely worth it in the conclusion. The important is to just take your time, pick out the suitable instruments, and use a very good top quality complete.

If you are not self-confident in your talents, we advise selecting a specialist to do the career for you.

Both way, you will be still left with attractive flooring that will very last for years to arrive!