Shamed and Schooled by a Professional | Sanding and Refinishing Our Old Floors

The floors were atrocious in our house when we moved in. The previous owners had amassed a great quantity of wide-width chestnut to install during their renovation in the 60s, but their project went over budget and they had to sell the flooring. This is, we think, why they refinished only the outside edge of the floor in the living room, covering the paint splotches with a beautiful antique rug.
We don’t have a beautiful antique rug.
But then I realized that just a little bit of sanding and some tung oil could make a huge improvement. Once I did that, I thought maybe I could tackle the floors in Charlie’s room with just a random orbital sander.
Why didn’t I do any research about how floors should actually be refinished? I’ve thought a lot about that. I was so happy that I’d found a way to improve our floors inexpensively, I didn’t want anything to slow me down. I was convinced I couldn’t afford or handle the proper equipment and so I didn’t want to read anything that told me those things were definitely necessary. It turns out lots of people in my situation suffer from the same affliction. We could call it floor sanding denial.
Two days into my hand-sanding adventure, I finally decided to research how to properly sand a floor. I found a montage video made by a professional mocking the many people who have done all of the dumb things I was doing.
• Wood Floor Refinishing...
I felt properly called out. I watched all of his videos. I bought his guide. And I finally rented a drum sander.
00:00 The part where I am a cliche and do what every other oblivious homeowner does
01:34 The drum sander enters the scene
12:34 I try again to use tools I already have
16:21 An edger is rented
32:44 Raising the grain with water
33:21 Sealing
34:37 Finishing
Music
Investigations by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Fig Leaf Rag by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...

[@stellablackson716]

Love your can-do attitude.

[@betweentwobrooks]

thank you!

[@brunodays]

You did a really good job, as far as my opinion counts. I'm just a guy, btw. Never done this, but I've been dreaming about a house I wish I could buy that would need its floors sanded and youtube recommended me this video. Super useful to see the progression I would probably have gone through as well, with trying to use 'normal' tools then realizing I should have rented the equipment.
Oh, and that house I'm looking at also has wood stairs. You reckon the edger would do that job?

[@betweentwobrooks]

Thank you! I do think the edger would be the right tool for the stairs...unless they've got layers of paint on them (we've got some like this). I'll be learning how to use an infrared paint remover when the time comes for those (lots of lead paint in there). I hope you get the house!

[@pegasus3611]

Good job after all and congratulations in using those professional equipments so well. I'm not an handyman at all, I'd rather paying professionals to do the job... if I had the money... that's why I do by myself! 😁
In my place, I wanted to get rid of all carpets (surprisingly, I found tons of sand under them... yuk), but I had not idea how to work with the hardwood floors. I also borrowed a big belt sander from Home Depot, hoping to make it quick but I gave up after few minutes (it was sanding too much...).
Eventually I did the job with a small orbital sander from Bosch; the square shape allowed me to sand the corners very well. It took obviously a while but it came decent. I then finished it by staining it and applying a double layer of oil based satin polyurethane... still tempted in today's days to go gloss or semi-gloss, but it would be harder to keep it shiny, specially if you have dogs.

[@betweentwobrooks]

Oh no! I can 100% understand giving up with the big sander. Especially if it seemed to be taking too much off. That's what I was most afraid of. I'm glad to hear it worked out well with the orbital sander. I'm still tempted to do some rooms with that only because I so disliked the huge heavy drum sander.