Jacques Helin

If you've decided to do your floor sanding and renovation yourself, read the following floor sanding tips as a checklist before starting.

Firstly the two types of floors that you need to have a special awareness about are parquet and pine.

Parquet will require a specialist sander machine.

Pine floors can look deceptively flat, however without the correct equipment you will end up with a dip in the middle of each pine floor board.

Using a nail punch you will need to punch down all the nail heads to about 1/8 inch below the boards. Do not try to shortcut this as otherwise your sandpaper will be ripped to bits.

Make sure you hire the right machine for the job.

The top of the range sanders are nearly dust free which is really important, as otherwise your house will be full of dust in minutes. These machines have an integral dust collection unit as part of the design.

Belt type sanders are easier to manage than the drum roller types, when changing sandpaper.

You will need to hire two sanders; one for the main areas and the other for the edges and stairs. In a sense not unlike cutting a grass lawn!

You will also want to buy disposable facemasks for the job.

Regarding choosing the sandpaper, the more stages of variations on sandpaper the more finely tuned the job will be.

Some professionals will use 7 different types but the 4 levels that are a necessity are:

• 24 grit: very coarse sandpaper
• 40 grit: medium sandpaper
• 80 grit: medium- fine sandpaper
• 120 grit: fine sandpaper

Be really aware of the most common mistake which is leaving the machine in one place too long!

These powerful machines literally eat the floor in no time at all, even a second or two delay can damage the job.

You want to go with the grain when sanding not against it.

Before using the machine you will want to fill any gaps in floorboards that are there.

When you have fitted the 24 grit to both machines, you will want to get the feel by letting the main machine pull you along very gradually at steady rate.

This is kind of like becoming one with the machine, like a racing driver with his car! Except for this is a slow, gentle process.

When you reach the end or other side of the room just turn around calmly and come back.

Keep going until you see that you are down to the new wood, at which stage you will want to use the edge sander now for skirting boards and other parts that you couldn't reach with the main machine.

Change and repeat the process now with the 80 grit, and then again with the 120 grit. Hoover the floor completely and leave for a few hours, before repeating.