Sand floorboards before or after decorating

[Cous]

I'm wanting to sand the wooden flooboards in my lounge (about 6 x 4 metres). I've never done it before but hear it creates a massive amount of dust! Would anybody out there who has done this have any opinion as to whether I should do the floors before or after the main decoration of the room.

I've noticed that there is about a 5mm gap between the bottom of the skirting and the floorboards - and together with the fact that I might need to replace a couple of floorboards I was thinking of removing the skirting board and replacing (without the 5mm gap) after finishing. Is this worth the effort? Is the gap supposed to be there?

Thanks

 

[breezer]

do it before

 

[cobweb]

Definitely before the decoration. Afterward you should cover your hard work with dustsheets, preferably the heavy polythene type.

As for the boards you need to replace…you can stain them to match using ground coffee made very, very strong. A few coats on a test board should tell you how strong and how many coats. After a couple of hours you can varnish or wax over these. I did this and you wouldn’t be able to tell which boards are new and which are old. I also added a few false nail holes and scorched a few streaks here and there with a blowtorch and then lightly sanded over the scorches.

As for the gap…if your current skirting is in good condition, and in keeping with the room then I wouldn’t bother changing it. Why don’t you just buy enough pine quadrant of a suitable size – say, half inch – stain it using the coffee and fit it to cover the gap. This way you allow the hidden gap to work as an expansion gap without being seen.

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

Sand before, open all the windows in the room you are sanding and "seal" the door to the room with masking tape to keep dust from escaping all through your house.
Oh, wear a dust mask and goggles and have a good vacuum to clear up after (and a refreshing bottle of cider doesnt go amiss ).