This a weekend long Project in which you will not need to be a professional dyer to sand a floor, but you will definitely need to put a lot of effort to make look great, if you follow these guidelines step by step, you will see an amazing result.

Change broken boards and prepare the space.

First, you will need to remove as much furniture as possible so that you can work freely and easily. You don’t want to get in trouble with your neighbors, so make sure you work only during the day to be respectful of your neighbors’ resting time. It is also recommendable to open the windows and doors to keep your space ventilated, and to avoid dust going to the rest of the rooms in the house, and something else you can do is sealing internal doors with masking tape. Then, you are ready to look for damaged boards and replace them with new ones. You will probably need only a wide-bladed cold chisel to remove them. When you place the new boards, make sure that there are no gaps since they can cause draughts and make the look of the floor seem poorly made. Also, don’t forget to screw the new and loose boards down to keep them in place. If while doing all these, you run into raised nails, use a nail punch to nail them down (be very careful with this and make sure you have done this across the whole floor of the room).

Now you are ready to start sanding.

The best way to do this is by working diagonally, moving the floor sander across the boards. In the case that the boards are in good condition, we can recommend starting with medium grade sanding sheets, if that is not the case, it would be better to start with the coarse grade sheets. After you have removed the worst of the staining, you can change to the medium grade sheets and sand in the direction of the boards. To finish, use a fine abrasive sheet to polish it.

The last touches.

To finish off the edges of the room, use the round edging sander. Start with the coarse discs and work through the grades of abrasive in the same way. Work as close to the skirting boards as possible. Use an old chisel for scraping dirt out of the corners. Vacuum the floor. To remove the finer dust, wipe over the new surface with a cloth dampened with white spirit. This will also remove any grease and dirt left on the surface. Make sure you wear soft-soled shoes at this stage to protect the unsealed floor. It's essential the boards are sealed with either a clear wood finish or paint. Make sure the varnish you choose is flooring grade. Brush or roller on at least two coats (three for hard-wearing areas such as hallways) in the direction of the grain. Leave to dry overnight.