Bedroom floor - boards, my plan

Oh yeah for sure, but it's just a case of getting a fair comparison. For example hiring from HSS isn't just the sander it's the belts too, and the dust bag. I just want to make sure I'm comparing like with like.

And yeah, screwfix was just a quick search to get an idea not a hunt for the best price, but cheers for the tip on toolstation :)
 
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You'll be fine with that one, honestly! And it'll work for your other rooms too!
 
I have a feeling my Dad might enjoy playing with it too - he's made a list of the tools I've borrowed so far! It'll be nice to return the favour if he ever wants some full on sanding!
 
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No I meant the floor sander, the industrial beast. I'm assuming that the belt sander is quite easy to use if you've used an orbital, my Dad has a bench mounted belt sander thing so I'm just visualising a mash up of the two.

Quite into the idea of buying this now.

Besides time and my back, what would be the advantages a floor sander would bring? - I'm guessing only if it was a very uneven floor or something like that?

I found some 24 page guide on wooden floors by some bloke, he was saying that even pausing for a couple of seconds to say move a cable or scratch your nose would result in a dip in the floor if you forget to engage the clutch on the floor sander.
 
A floor sander would be much quicker, and save working on your knees. But you sound quite young, so your knees probably still work
 
Ha ha, I'm 32. I'd hopefully be doing shifts with my smiliarly aged and fitter girlfriend!
 
I'm pretty sure I had the floor in that picture done in a day, but I can't remember how much of the day it took. I was 50 when I did it ... ;)
 
There's a balance between age and skill though! - For example my Dad (75) can use a handsaw far more effectively than I can at the moment!

I've been reading more about using a belt sander, some pages talk about seeing marks from the belt when varnished? Is this just because the person doing it has been careless and clumsy?

If the floor is already varnished and I want to remove that, what grade would you suggest first? Would 40 be too rough? I read somewhere that the highest you should go is 120, so I wanted to make that my final pass. I was hoping I could use two passes... I guess 40 to 120 is too big a jump though.
 
You could start at 60 - try it and see. I'd start at 80 and if the belt is clogging up with varnish then switch to a coarser one. But the coarser the belt, the deeper the scratches that you will have to sand out with finer belts, so I wouldn't go coarser than you need to. No, you couldn't go from 40, or 60, to 120 - it would take forever for the 120 to remove the scratches. I find 80-100-120 works quite well but others may do it differently.

I can think of two ways you could leave marks - by not sanding out the scratches from the coarser paper, or by leaving ridges with the egde of the sander. The former is probably more likely. None of this comes close to the gouges that a full scale floor sander can leave, in inexperienced hands. I've never used one but have lived in a house where one had previously been used.
 
Would it be too much of a short cut to go from 80 to 120 do you think? What practically would I see as the difference by doing say 60 to 120 vs 60, 80, 100, 120 or something?
 
The difference would be that it would take you longer to sand out the marks from the previous grade, you'd potentially use more belts, and you'd run a greater risk of being left with marks that you hadn't sanded out because you'd lost the will to live. But try it and see; if it works for you, do it.
 
Good tip on Toolstation for the belts, I reckon I'll just get a pack of 40,60,80,120. There's 5 in each pack so I think that should suffice... I reckon I'll try an 80 first and see how I get on
 
D

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